Duff Clears the Air on the End of ACE

Despite its local pedigree I've never been what I would call a devoted – or even casual – Ace of Cakes viewer. Nothing against Duff Goldman and Co. but I'm not much of a "cake guy". I don't bake 'em and unless it's my wife's amazing chocolate cake or carrot cake I can pretty much walk by without so much as a sniff. So a show devoted to making monstrously clever cakes wasn't really in my wheelhouse.

But I have to admit that I felt bad for Goldman last week when news of Ace's "cancellation" by The Food Network trickled out via sites like TMZ. (I bet Duff never expected he'd be making news on the infamous gossip site when the show started back in 2006.)

My impression had always been that the show was among the network's more popular offerings and it seemed they never spared any expense to promote the show or opportunity to showcase Goldman and his infectious personality on other network properties (Next Food Network Star, The Best Thing I Ever Ate).

To me, the news seemed more like a new beginning for Goldman than the end of anything and an article in today's Baltimore Sun confirmed my suspicions.

In an interview with Sun tv writer David Zurawik, Goldman confirms that he has three shows in development with Food Network, including one about the opening of a West Coast version of Charm City Cakes in 2011. Hopefully, at least one of the other two concepts has Goldman sharing more of his obvious enthusiasm and passion for food, not just cake.

No fan of shows like TLC's knock-off Cake Boss, Duff says that he's happy that Ace – whose final season will start airing in January – gets to go out while people still view them as the best of a "catty" field.

"I think it's really cool that we're going out on a high note while we still have some respectability in a genre that is saturated with stupid people yelling at each other."