VERO BEACH — Standing in front of the flatscreen TV mounted behind the display case inside Casereccio Cakes, baker Paul Conti’s poker face begins to crumble just as the host is about to announce the winner of Sunday night’s Cupcake Wars on Food Network. “I swear, I don’t know the outcome,” Conti tells the hushed crowd – his smile betrays him.
The room erupts into cheers and applause. Shouts of “Congratulations!” ring out.
Paul and Cassandra Conti outlasted three other baking teams and won the war of cupcakes – taking a 1,000-cupcake display to the L.A. Opera for a VIP party for the cast of La Boheme.
To share in the show, the bakers opened their shop late and held a viewing party. As the clock wound down to 8 p.m., the only real nerves to be seen were those of the viewers – who the Conties had left in the dark about the outcome.
Paul Conti said the only thing he was anxious about was seeing how the show’s crew edited down the hours upon hours of footage into a one-hour show. After watching the program unfold, he wiped his brow in relief – they didn’t turn him into a monster.
“It was absolutely unreal,” he said of watching himself and his wife compete on TV while standing in his own store. The best part, he added, was being able to watch his friends’ and family’s expressions and hear their reactions to what was happening on the show.
The program ended with a close-up of a teary-eyed Paul reacting to the win.
“Words can’t describe it,” he said on the show. “My whole life changes now… Nobody can ever take this away from me. I’ve been asking for that shot forever. I finally got that shot.”
Conti had been a finalist for TLC’s Next Great Baker but didn’t make the final cut. The day he found out about that show, Cassandra got the call from Food Network.
“We know Vero’s a small town,” Cassandra said, “but we hope we can take the win and run with it.”
Other winners of Cupcake Wars have gone on to open multiple shops. The Conties – for now – just want to focus on their newly-opened store on US 1 at 47th Street.
“It’s going to help,” she said of the $10,000 prize money they won on the show.
Despite what their supporters said after the winner was announced, the Conties were not shoe-ins for the win. They battled hard in each round, overcoming disaster at several turns.
The first round was the only one that didn’t appear to be challenge for pair. Using various items from a secret table laden with Italian foods, the bakers had to come up with a cupcake that would transport the taster to Italy, opera’s homeland.
That table was covered with Italian sausage, salami, prosciutto, gnocchi, Chianti, tomatoes, basil and other items not normally included in cupcakes.
“I saw these ingredients, Paul says on camera. “I’m Italian – born and raised in New York. “This is like, this is not fair to anybody else.”
In 45 minutes, he and Cassandra whip up a batch of their Italian Chocolate Cupcakes – a staple in their shop – mixing in a touch of Chianti and topping it with a mascarpone-tiramisu frosting sprinkled with candied prosciutto.
The other competitors mix ingredients like salami and parmesan with artichoke frosting, a tomato cupcake with basil cream inside and pancetta-mascarpone frosting, and vanilla cake soaked in Chianti topped with pistachio and prosciutto chocolate frosting.
“I think this cupcake would make your Italian mama proud,” Judge Candace Nelson tells Paul at the judging stage of Round 1.
Upon hearing the judges’ positive feedback, the store erupted in cheers and applause – it was clear the Vero Beach bakers would make it to the next round.
But that’s where there was some nail biting on the part of the store’s audience.
Round 2 consisted of making three different cupcakes in 75 minutes to be judged equally on both taste and presentation.
Conti decides to make Champagne cupcake with Italian vanilla buttercream with a from-scratch marshmallow fondant rose for decoration, an Almond cupcake with dark chocolate Italian buttercream with a chocolate broken heart topper, and a gutsy Red Velvet cupcake with a marshmallow music note topper.
“I know Florian (Bellanger, a judge) hates it,” Conti says on camera of Red Velvet, “but I’m going to make it anyway because I know he will love this.”
In the store, Conti admitted it was a big risk to serve Red Velvet to a judge known for his dislike of such a cupcake. Conti said that he did his homework and discovered it’s the commercial Red Velvet – the Red Velvet that looks red because of food dyes – that the judge doesn’t like.
“It panned out,” he said.
A decision to make the Red Velvet before the Almond cupcakes almost cost the team the competition, however. Being more dense, the Almond cupcakes took longer to cook and should have been put in the oven first.
Paul crosses himself as he pulls them out of the oven, checking to see if they were finally done.
“Oh you love me!” he says to the oven as the cupcakes are finally done. They are pulled out with mere minutes left for decorating and no time to cool.
The frosting placed on the still too-warm cupcake melts, sliding off the cupcake to the groans and gasps of those watching in the shop.
“There is no way in hell I’m making it to the next round,” Paul says on camera.
Despite the glob of frosting beside the cupcake, guest judge Soprano singer for the Opera Ailyn Perez says she loved the Almond cupcake.
“It got my soul singing,” she says.
The other judges ding the Conties for the frosting misstep but love most the other presented cupcakes.
“I’m impressed,” says Judge Bellanger of the Red Velvet cupcake, noting it is the first time on the show that he’s been given a Red Velvet cupcake that was not red.
While the Conties seemed to be on the chopping block, the judges’ comments about the other competitors’ cupcakes left some wiggle room.
One competitor’s cupcake decoration – a white chocolate-dipped date – was “very inelegant” – and another’s candied lemon peel looked like it came from the trash.
When Paul and Cassandra found out they made it to the final round, Paul says on camera, “I can’t believe this is happening. I thought we were gone.”
While working on the last round – a 1,000-cupcake display – Paul and Cassandra decide to change up the frosting recipe on their Champagne cupcake, going with raspberry instead of vanilla.
A quick taste-test of the frosting reveals what could be their downfall – Paul grabbed the wrong butter, using salted instead of unsalted.
Going into a commercial break, Paul tells the camera, “There is no coming back from that.”
The crowd in the store groaned. Those near him tried to get him to reveal what happens next. They had to wait for the show to come back on.
One person in the shop razzed Paul for using the wrong butter.
“That was the last thing I was thinking of!” he shouted across the store to the heckler.
In a quick brainstorm, Paul throws in whipped topping, sugared raspberry sauce and confectioner’s sugar to counteract the salt from the butter. It works.
“I was just an emotional basket case,” Paul says while waiting in the stew room for the judges’ decision.
Between the flavors of their cupcakes and their innovative design for the display, the judges crown the Conties the winners of the competition.
“I think he did a great job,” Bellanger said.
After the show aired, friends and family milled around, offering their congratulations to the couple.
“I was on pins and needles,” said Shelly Pickerill, who, with her husband, Mike, helped the Conties prepare for the show. “We’re so happy for them.”
“We wish the best for them,” Mike Pickerill said.
Haley Meade, 12, came out to the watch party to show her support and eat a cupcake. She tried one of the competition cupcakes – the infamous Almond cupcake with chocolate frosting.
“Delicious,” she said of the cupcake. “It’s the number one word I can say.”
Raymond Macht IV, a friend of a Casereccio Cakes employee, tried the Champagne cupcake with vanilla frosting.
“It took my taste buds on an adventure,” he said, adding that his mouth had its own private party the cupcake was so good.
“It was a good fight,” he said of the Conties’ appearance on the show. He said he was happy to see them come out on top.
The Conties have recently relocated their shop to 4682 US 1, between 45th and 47th Streets on the east side. The store can be reached by calling (772) 205-2197 or emailing [email protected].
