The Cake Boss Tells It like It Is In Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia

On TLC's Cake Boss, baker Buddy Valastro serves up outrageous confectionery creations with the help of his fiery family.

In his first book, Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia , Valastro goes beyond the eye-popping cakes to tell the true story of Carlo's Bake Shop, a Hoboken, NJ, institution. The bakery's history actually begins in Sicily, where his father, Bartolo Buddy Valastro Sr., was born to an impoverished Italian family. Abandoned by his father, who left to work as a baker in New Jersey with the empty promise of sending money, Buddy Sr. worked as a delivery boy for his grandfather's bakery.

After moving to Hoboken with his mother and sisters, Buddy Sr. honed his skills making Italian pastries, cookies and cakes at Carlo's bakery. Buddy Sr. purchased the bakery in 1964, enlisting his soon-to-be wife, Mary, into its current Carlo's Bake Shop incarnation. The rest is history.

The bakery is truly a family affair, with Valastro vouching for his father's matchmaking skills that turned Carlo's Bake Shop into a business run by a tight network of parents, children, siblings and in-laws.

But the story is just as salty as it is sweet. Buddy recounts the hardships he faced at 17, when his father died of cancer. Valastro is brutally honest about his hard-partying ways after dropping out of high school to become the bakery's new boss, a dark time in his life marked by excessive spending, clubbing and family fights. Continuing on from the dark days after his father's death, Valastro dishes on the juicy details of how he went from disgruntled teenager to reality show baker extraordinaire.

Valastro saves the best for last, letting the reader in on his family's best kept secrets - their recipes. From the legendary lobster tails -Valastro says it requires a PhD in pastry to make them - to more novice-friendly recipes for cakes, pies, pastries and cupcakes. Valastro also includes tips on tools, decorating and technique.

A true made-in-America story packed with hardships and drama, Valastro's storytelling and coveted family recipes makes for one sweet sugar rush. WOMAN.ca thinks it's well worth the read!