Deising’s Bakery, a family-owned business in the Hudson Valley, has recently received new kitchen equipment worth thousands of dollars thanks to a lighthearted feud with John Oliver. The comedian recreated his own version of Red Lobster to make the chain’s famous cheddar biscuits and ended up outbidding another bidder for the equipment.
Eric Deising, owner of the 59-year-old bakery in Kingston, had expressed interest in acquiring a flat-top oven and a convection oven through a sign he placed on the closed Red Lobster’s premises. However, Oliver beat Deising to the equipment, leaving him feeling defeated. During his show, Oliver revealed that the donated Red Lobster equipment did not include the items Deising had originally requested.
Oliver then proposed a challenge to Deising – if his bakery could create and sell bear-shaped cakes with his face on them, he would gift Deising new ovens. Responding respectfully to Oliver’s initial comments about the bear-shaped cake bears made by Deising earlier, they started selling cakes with Oliver’s face printed on edible paper. The cakes quickly became popular with approximately 100 being sold every hour at $8 each.
In response to this challenge, Deising’s Bakery decided to donate all proceeds from the cake bears to a local food pantry called People’s Place. Despite requests for global shipping of these cakes, they are only available in-store until Sunday. The new kitchen equipment is estimated to be worth thousands of dollars and is set to be delivered to Deising’s Bakery on Thursday. While enjoying success with the popular cake bears and continuing its charitable efforts,
