I am not sure how many of you know that Wilton sponsors a decorating show, Bake Decorate Celebrate! Knowing how to make foods look lovely is so gratifying and I want to share that with people. The show hit the airwaves on PBS in February 2006 and I am in the process of planning our 8th season. During this 13 weeks of programming, we will air our 100th show…a big deal in the TV world. The show is geared to a casual or novice decorator so we try to focus on easier, quicker projects involving cake decorating, cupcakes, candy and cookie making plus the basics of baking and decorating.
I serve as host and co-executive producer of Bake Decorate Celebrate! while Gretchen Homan, Test Kitchen Manager, runs the green room, determines product needed prior and during taping, handles the web projects, listens to and edits my sometimes “crazy” ideas for projects/recipes, standardizes a recipe when I say something like “I want a non-chocolate veggie cake please,” and a whole lot more. Diana Rodriguez, PR Manager, organizes all of us with season notebooks which include our projects, recipes, photos; processes all the paper work, orders, bills; takes care of our project and show images, plus, plus, plus. There are others who also contribute, but the heavy responsibilities rest on our shoulders. I will also mention that we do this in addition to our “real” jobs. It’s very interesting and rewarding, but a whole lot of work!
Before I started doing the show, I was used to doing five TV segments at a time, but the first season I think we did about 120 projects in seven days….my memory has faded. We tape from 8-13 segments per day in the studio, so we may be doing a cake and then switch to candy. We tape three days at the end of one week, handle a few details over the weekend and try to REST. We then tape 2-3 days of the next week. We hit the studio around 7 a.m. and are usually gone by 7 p.m. We tape all 13 shows at one time.
Some statistics on the show: In 2009 we had about 12,000 shows on 355 stations in 44 states for 88% of US coverage and a potential audience of 257 million. Since the initial show airing (2/6/06 through 12/31/09) we’ve had 48,500 shows on 571 stations in 46 states for 89% US coverage and a potential audience of 260 million people. Also in Latin America between April 1 and June 30, 2009 we had over 13.5 million shows air.
Bake Decorate Celebrate! may or may not be in your “hood” (neighborhood) since programming is up to individual station and program managers. It’s not like a major network where they deem a show to be on every Monday at 8 p.m. Check with your local Public Television station to see when it airs in your area. If it’s not currently available, you can ask your local Public Television station to air it. The feed is provided by NETA and is in the lifestyle, cooking and crafting categories.
We also have a companion website for Bake Decorate Celebrate! that has all of the recipes, projects, and techniques featured in the show. We just added the 7th season projects and recipes since that is hitting the airwaves right now. In case you missed past shows, seasons 1, 2, and 3 are available on DVD plus the Cake Decorating Basics DVD which came from the show.
I could go on and on about Bake Decorate Celebrate! but thought I would open this to any questions you might have.
Nancy Siler, vice president of consumer affairs, is a registered and licensed dietitian plus a certified home economist. She has been baking and decorating desserts longer than she wants to admit…..much before she started working at Wilton 11 years ago. Nancy also shares her expertise in the Wilton sponsored Public Television Show Bake Decorate Celebrate!