October is National Bake and Decorate Month . October is a terrifically apt choice for this unofficial observance of everything that is baking delicacies and sweets. The whole month builds toward Halloween when a party is the perfect opportunity to put everything you have learned about baking and decorating into action. One relatively labor-free way to observe National Bake and Decorate Month for 31 days of October is to kick back and enjoy the legacy of fictional bakers throughout TV history.
Pushing Daisies
His name is Ned, but he may be better known by the moniker “The Pie Maker.” National Bake and Decorate Month almost seems custom-built for “Pushing Daisies.” The Pie Hole, Ned’s bakery, is a primary setting for the show. Ned’s day job as a maker of delicious pies is also central to much of the narrative. The show is really about a guy blessed/cursed with the ability to touch a dead person and bring it back to life. Much more to it than that. “Pushing Daisies” is one of the greatest shows to ever fly over the radar of the American TV viewer. Take advantage of National Bake and Decorate Month to watch every single episode of this show that only ran for two shortened seasons.
Seinfeld
If I say “Seinfeld” and National Bake and Decorate Month, what should you immediately think of? If you don’t immediately say “chocolate babka” then you clearly are not a big fan of “Seinfeld.” A lot has been written about the “Seinfeld” episode that takes place inside a Chinese restaurant, but nearly as much screen time takes place inside Schnitzer’s Bakery as it becomes an urban battlefield in the larger social war over dinner party etiquette.
The Simpsons
In the episode “Bart Gets a Z” Bart Simpson gets his teacher Mrs. Krabappel fired for drinking on the job after he spikes her coffee. The episode is partly a satirical jab at the idiocy of the popular book titled “The Secret” but it is also partly a very funny episode to watch during National Bake and Decorate Month. The latter is due to the fact that as a result of the spoof of “The Secret” Mrs. Krabappel opens a bakery that specializes in muffins. You could even opt for a double feature to enjoy one day out of the 31 days of October that make up National Bake and Decorate Month by pairing “Bart Gets a Z” with another episode from “Seinfeld.” You know the one, I’m talking about. The one where Elaine convinces her former boss Mr. Lippmann to open a bakery that sells only muffin tops? This “Seinfeld” episode is actually titled “The Muffin Tops.”
Gilligan’s Island
How exactly did Mary Ann bake all those coconut cream pies on a deserted island? Best not to think too hard about that mystery and just sit back and enjoy all the multiple episodes that you can fit into National Bake and Decorate Month. Mary Ann’s coconut cream pies showed up in a number of “Gilligan’s Island” episodes and they all wound up perfectly decorated as well as perfectly edible. Of course, most of the time they were never actually eaten as Gilligan would find some way to make them land up in the face of somebody else, usually the Skipper. The episode where Gilligan’s double shows up on the island as a Russian spy puts the baked coconut pie front and center as part of the plot.
King of the Hill
Bobby Hill is turning 13 years old. He is very bummed out because his slightly younger best friend Joseph shot up over summer and now physically towers over him. Peggy is excited because she’s always made Bobby’s birthday cake through the years and the decorating has always been of a very artistic nature. Bobby, feeling the pressure of puberty, thinks he is too old now for the type of cake decorating that has appealed in the past. The episode is officially titled “I Don’t Want To Wait For Our Lives To Be Over, I Want To Know Right Now, Will It Be… Sorry. Do Do Doo Do Do, Do Do Doo Do Do, Do Do Doo Do Do, Doo…” and it ends with a rare moment of success for Peggy Hill that fits in quite nicely with National Bake and Decorate Month. Despite the fact that Bobby’s 13th birthday cake does not appear to be one of Peggy’s cake decorating successes.
