'Cake Boss: Next Great Baker' exclusive: Brian Stevens brings the artistry

Leading up the premiere of “Cake Boss: Next Great Baker” on December 6 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on TLC, we’re going to be taking a look at each of the contestants vying to win the grand prize of $50,000 alongside the chance to work with one of the biggest names in cake-decorating -- Buddy Valastro.

To view more exclusive interviews with the cast, click here. This time, the focus is on Brian Stevens, a 37-year old resident of Austin, Texas.

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Matt: As I geek, I have to kick this interview off by asking about your job. You design video games?

Brian: Yeah, I’ve designed racing games, and right now I work for Sony and work on ‘DC Universe Online.’

Sweet, I have a PS3.

You’ll be able to play it from either a PS3 or a PC … my role in all that was figuring out how we were going to build all of Metropolis and all of Gotham and all the map and technical stuff. I started off the project as the Lead Environment Artist and about a year ago I stepped out of that position to just be a senior [artist] because that’s when I started creating cakes.

How do you make the transition from designing games to baking?

You might find this out on the show -- I’m not the biggest baker in the world. I have people who bake for me, so I love the art aspect of decorating. My cakes are very unique.

Actually, after 13 years of game developing it just wasn’t as exciting to me … honestly I wanted to get out of games so I could have ownership again. When I started developing video games I did it because I wanted to see my art in digital form because I was a digital illustrator and gaming gave me that. It was really fun -- but I stopped doing art for myself.

It was really strange because a really good friend of mine when I was back at EA [Games] -- he came to Texas with me when I left Orlando, and his wife was a big baker and she works for me now. She had made my son’s second birthday cake, and then I though ‘wow, I could do that.’ So I made his third birthday cake and then every year it got bigger and bigger. I started watching ‘Ace of Cakes’ and ‘Cake Boss,’ all that stuff.

I was trying to push cakes -- I’m not the traditional baker.

So this is really giving you the opportunity now to flesh out your creativity in a way that you haven’t in years.

Right. When I was a kid, I always modeled a bunch of stuff, I sculpted -- I’ve been an artist for a long time, and to put it in a crude sense, I’d [insert word here] out myself to the game industry for so long that it was really nice to get back in this.

The thing about gaming is that you can work really hard -- and I put a lot of time and effort in my work -- and half the people love it and half the people don’t. And we had a really diverse team of over 200 people on this project and that’s really difficult. If I put the same amount of effort into a cake and you present, people’s jaws are on the ground and it makes you feel really good.

Money aside and all that, the reward of being respected and having someone love your work was one big reason for the switch.

So did watching the shows actually help you in baking?

I actually starting piping before I started watching any of the shows, but then a lot of my co-workers were like ‘have you see Ace of Cakes?’ That was before ‘Cake Boss’ came on … when [it] came on I started watching it and I liked it because Buddy would reveal little tricks here and there and that was kind of nice. It was something that Duff was not doing. That was more reason to watch the show.

As I got busy, I wasn’t able to watch many -- I watched the first two seasons really well … that was the best thing about the show was that he’d reveal what he was doing and why he was doing it.

I totally agree because I actually learn watching ‘Cake Boss’ and I’m entertained at the same time. So were you intimidated at all by Buddy going in, and was he what you expected?

I really wasn’t nervous or intimidated -- I felt very confident in what I was able to do. I was more nervous about timeframes of the competitions because I put a lot more time into my cakes than what we’re allowed to do on the show.

With Buddy, he’s very successful with his business, but he and I have very different visions of what a cake should be. I respect what he does, but I wasn’t intimidated by his work … I was more concerned with piping and some of the old-school techniques that I don’t do [often]. I was nervous about that. As far as artistry and making a great design, I wasn’t worried about that at all.

This is something I’ve asked everyone -- how do you plan on dealing with the television side of this, like all of the drama?

I have to deal with stress a lot as a game designer, and there’s also a fear that there is no tomorrow. (Laughs.) So that really helps you deal with some of this stuff. Plus I’ve been an athlete and competitor my entire life.

I was not afraid of the things that came my way -- I was a little nervous about my overall baking chops, and some of my recipes I haven’t tested out a lot. I was nervous in regards to timing.

As for the drama, I realize it’s a TV show first. If you go into it knowing that it’s their job to make good ratings and it’s your job knowing that you’re going to take what they throw at you, you are going to do better than most people will.

When you first arrived and you started to see the other contestants, did you try to start sizing them up in your mind?

(Laughs.) That’s really interesting because it came off really cocky … I knew [from research] what some people were capable of, and I was really happy to be with this group. We were all really great personalities and there were some great cake-decorators there.

… I had to keep reminding myself that it doesn’t matter if you can the work well, you have to do it well within this competition.

So would you say this was a great experience overall?

In my life, I will never shy away from trying anything once -- I would certainly try something like that again. It was a lot harder than what I thought it would be. I’m proud of what I did on the show, and I’m happy with how I think I should be portrayed and hopefully will be portrayed.

Hopefully it will be something a little bit different so it’s not déjà vu, but I’d love to do something like that again -- it was a lot of fun.

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