Our fair city has recently had its share of celebrity visitors. In the last few weeks, I’ve heard whisperings of Clive Owen, David Schwimmer, and Ann Heche visiting some of our local establishments. But, an unlikely celebrity received perhaps the most enthusiastic reception of all when he made an appearance at Borders on Monday night. I am, of course, referring to Duff Goldman, the cake artist made famous by his wildly successful reality show, “Ace of Cakes.”

For those of you who have never heard of Duff (shame on you!), he is known for his innovative and creative approach to cake decorating. From a young age, he had an atypical interest in art, preferring graffiti and welding to traditional styles of creation. He bounced around lower-level cooking jobs, graduating from the University of Maryland before attending Corcoran College of Art and the Culinary Institute of America. He opened Charm City Cakes in Baltimore 2000. Thanks to his rebellious attitude towards cake decorating, he got invited to participate in Food Network Challenges, finally landing his own program, Ace of Cakes, in 2006. With the success of the show, Duff and his brother, Willie, decided to write a book that would offer an unprecedented peek inside Charm City Cakes and the production of “Ace of Cakes.” This book, Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes, brought Duff and his brother to Ann Arbor.

Now, I’m a big fan of Duff and his show, so I thought I would be a super geeky fan and get to the event early, but when I got there at 4:45 p.m. (about 2 hours early), all of the seats were already taken and people were gathered around the perimeter of the room. When everything finally got underway, there were a couple hundred people crammed into the second floor of Borders, eagerly awaiting what Duff had to say. The guy had more super geeky fans than I expected.

Prior to his book presentation, Duff was on hand to judge a cake decorating contest put on by the students of the Art Institute of Michigan. The quality of work was very high. Some of the cakes focused on local culture, while others were more whimsical. The cakes featured everything from tiny glow sticks to a rotating pedestal. In the end, he picked a cake sculpted into the shape of a dragon wrapped around a castle. Though Duff has only been nationally recognized for a short while, his influence on the next generation of cake decorators was obvious; these students were pushing the boundaries of typical cake creation.

After a break, Duff returned to thunderous applause and instantly won the approval of the crowd through his trademark rebellious attitude and quick wit. He began by briefly introducing his book and then took questions from the audience. There were so many waving hands that he never could have gotten to everyone, but perhaps his best moment came when an audience member asked him about his journey from pastry school to the success of his show. He launched into a thorough history of the events that led him to “Ace of Cakes”, and though his story was long, he held the audience’s attention for every word. Through his story, he displayed a quality that has drawn so many viewers to him. He didn’t follow the typical pastry-chef route, but instead worked his way up from the bottom, coming from making cakes in his kitchen to becoming the center of a vastly successful program. All the while, he has maintained his humility and sense of humor while breaking boundaries in a way that people can admire.

The Q&A too quickly came to an end, and people were split into groups by the color of their wristband for the book signing. People were waiting all throughout the second floor and downstairs to see Duff. When I finally got to the front, I gave him a card that my friend designed and we both signed, which featured a rubber duck in a funny hat perched atop a fanciful cake. Both Duff and his brother admired it and thanked me. As I walked away from the table, my book sporting a “Hi Emma! <3 Duff” inscription, I wished that I could have spoken to him for longer, but I felt satisfied with just being able to meet him.

The event was a rousing success for both Duff and Borders. If you have any interest in the book, I urge you to go pick up a copy. It’s a bit pricey, but the inspiring stories and pictures make it worth the investment. And if you haven’t been keeping up with “Ace of Cakes”, tune in on Thursday nights at 10:00. Something tells me you’ll like Duff’s approach to life—and the cakes are pretty sweet, too.