If anybody should run a business with the word “charm” in the title, it’s Duff Goldman.

I will admit that I’d never so much as paused on the Food Network’s program “Ace of Cakes” while scrolling through the cable options when I volunteered to write about Goldman’s upcoming visit to promote his book of the same name. But did so anyway because I’ve learned many an interesting thing from book assignments and besides — who doesn’t like cake? So you can imagine my surprise when it only took 300 pages, two TV show episodes and a 20-minute interview to give me…a leeeeettle crush on “the bad boy of baking.”

If you’re new to this pastry phenomenon, too, let me catch you up: Goldman’s business, Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Md., is known for its outrageous confections — we’re talking cakes that shoot fireworks and an exact replica of the Taj Mahal, the sort of things that require an arsenal of power tools to make.

He’s the kind of guy who discovered his love of art through graffiti and his love of cooking by making a “resplendent” steak grinder at his high-school pizza-shop gig while absently pondering his future. He's also the kind of guy who crossed the country to attend the Culinary Institute of America and wandered in the back door of arguably the fanciest restaurant in the country, The French Laundry, to ask if they needed any free help. Oh, and who recuperates from the culinary industry’s punishing schedules by synchronized swimming and playing bass in a rock band with the possibility-suggesting name of “…soihadto…”

(Speaking of evocative names, “Ace of Cakes” was not the title of the show’s pilot episode. That is delicately referred to throughout the book as “F--- You Let’s Bake,” a title that hearkened back to a live cooking-show-spoof variety performance he acted in at the suggestion of a friend. “It wasn’t exactly a family show,” he writes. “Let’s just say we didn’t advertise it, for fear of being raided.” The co-creators of “Ace of Cakes” say they knew the name wouldn’t stick around, but it was a good way to get the networks’ attention. And also fun to put in the subject line of official emails.)

When the business outgrew Goldman’s ability to keep up with it, he made a few new hires — mostly through serendipity, and none with any background at all in cakemaking. But it was working with an architectural model builder, an art student and a sculptor that gave Goldman a truly brilliant insight: “I didn’t need cake decorators — I needed artists! I could show the artists how to work with my materials, but I couldn’t make an artist out of a cake decorator.” The result? The 14 quirky, dedicated and yep, charming colleagues who help him crank out 30-50 cakes a week.

Actually, they look so close-knit and well-matched that it made me wonder if he’d ever made a bad hire, but Goldman says he’s batting pretty close to a thousand on that. Close. “I’ve had a couple of interns — everybody who works for me interns first, and the ones you don’t see on the show didn’t work out. Sometimes people see it as a free ride — I’m a pretty chill boss, I’m pretty relaxed and I think that some people kind of came in there maybe hearing stories about me being easy-going with the staff, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t expect 1000 percent all the time. But my staff gives me that, so I never have to be uptight.”

Each of the employees has a place in the book to tell his or her own Charm City Cakes story, and many of them mention the “Ace of Cakes” television crew (whom we also get to meet). To a person, they talk about what a relief it is to work on a show that is neither conflict-driven nor edited with the intention of bringing out their worst moments — it’s really all just them and their wild creations and all the fun that goes into making them.

A popular show that leaves all the drama to deadlines and “caketastrophes” rather puts the lie to the “ratings respond best to barbarism” mantra that seems to be the general wisdom of most reality shows — is there any chance that this is a sign of a larger trend in television? Goldman doesn’t think so.

“I think that if anything it’s getting worse… I don’t think anybody’s taking any cues.” In the end, he puts out the kind of show he’d like to watch. “It really is devoid of that nonsense — there’s no yelling and screaming. I don’t think I’ve ever been angry on the show. It is a workplace, and there are times when I have to have one of those work conversations with someone on the staff, but we do that off the cameras and in the basement. I’m like those kids’ older brother; I’m their coach; I’m just trying to keep the team on a winning streak. So I’m not going to create this culture of fear.

“I’ve been working in kitchens since I was 14, and I’ve seen some pretty crazy stuff. (And I would always think), when I have my own place, I want people to be able to think for themselves, I want a chef that will encourage people to be creative and not force their will on people. The best workplaces are where people are happy. When you’re dealing with incredibly creative, highly intelligent people, you can’t keep them down. And when they shine, I shine. You’ve just got to lose the ego and let people around you do what they do.”

But when “what you do” includes delivering a glorious, themed dessert that may or may not sport motors, intricate supporting structure and/or firecrackers, it seems reasonable that the first thing to fly out a customer’s mouth might be “Oh! It’s too pretty to eat!” Does he get that line all the time? Goldman laughs. “Yes, and we say you’ll say that until you cut the first slice. Cakes are really good. They’re really tasty. I was a pastry chef, and to me it would be 100 percent pointless to put the effort into the cake and then not have it taste good. It’s a really important part of the cake! It can look amazing, but so can Styrofoam and so can two by fours and so can rubble… but it’s a cake! We’re a cake shop! Some things have a lot of structure, but when you use mixed media in a cake, you can make the most moist, delicious cake and have it do what you want.”

Duff Goldman signs and discusses “Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes” at the downtown Borders on Monday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. His TV show, “Ace of Cakes,” airs on Thursdays at 10 and 10:30 p.m. EST on Food Network.

Leah DuMouchel is a freelance writer who covers books for AnnArbor.com.