Duff Goldman Wants to Make Sure Happy Fun Bake Time Isn't a Show Parents Just "Tolerate"

You and your kids might know Duff Goldman from his time on Food Network's Ace of Cakes or as a judge on Kids Baking Championship. The fan-favorite pastry chef now has a new show called Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time streaming exclusively on Discovery+ starting April 29. The six-episode series follows Duff as he navigates the kitchen with new puppet friends to see how the science of baking works.

"Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time takes place in a magical fantasy bakery where all of the appliances talk," Duff told POPSUGAR. "It's definitely a kids' show. It's silly puppets, there's a unicorn that shows up, aliens show up and I get abducted. But I wanted to make sure that it wasn't one of those shows that parents would have to tolerate. I wanted them to enjoy it. If you're gonna sit down and you're gonna watch with the kids you'll really be able to enjoy it."

During each episode Duff and his merry band of puppets will take a deep dive into the science and engineering of food and how it works to make scrumptious treats. Some of the dishes created on the show include giant chocolate cakes, one of which is made as bait. "We're trying to lure in the chocolate unicorn to the bakery so I can get a picture of her," Duff said of the massive cakes. Other treats include sweet and salty popcorn balls, ice cream, and fusilli with pesto. After each episode viewers can go to the Food Network website to get all of the recipes to try their hand at making the dishes at home.

Kids will love all of the adorably goofy puppets that help Duff make his treats. Each puppet was created by the legendary team at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. "I knew I was gonna have a mixer, but I wanted to make sure it was going to be one of the characters because the mixers are cool looking, right?" Duff said. "I was looking at the mixer just trying to picture, what if it was a robot? What would it sound like? So as I was looking at it, it has a little kind of skinny thing that sticks out and I was like it looks like an elephant. So we made it as a robot elephant, her name is Dizzy, and she mixes everything with her trunk." A few of the other characters viewers will encounter are Dragon Oven, who doesn't talk but bakes everything in his mouth; Edgar, a Chesapeake Bay blue crab; and a half-dozen eggs that live in the fridge that all act like a different kind of grandmother.

Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time also has some super-catchy tunes that you and your family will be singing for days after watching each episode. Fans of Ace of Cakes might even recognize the sing-along pal as Duff's friend Geof, who works at Charm City Cakes. "On the show Geof is my produce guy. So whenever I run out of flour, apples, butter, or anything, Geof brings it. He's my purveyor. And since he's such a good singer and songwriter he brings his guitar, and every time he drops something off he'll sing a song about whatever we're doing. The songs are really funny, they're really catchy and weird," Duff said. One song he can't wait for viewers to hear is about spaghetti. After filming the segment for the show the entire cast and crew went around singing the song to themselves.

Through the show Duff wants to encourage kids to get into the kitchen to explore, learn, and, more importantly, have fun. "Don't be too concerned with making a perfect cookie like the photo on the package. To be able to get flour and butter and sugar together and mix it up, put it in the oven, it's gonna come out and it's going to be delicious. It may not be perfect, but it can be delicious. And, you know, you made it yourself. And that's that sense of accomplishment I can give kids," Duff said. "If they think, 'I can feel this good making a chocolate-chip cookie, what else can I do? What else can I accomplish? What else can I achieve?' And I think that giving kids that sense of empowerment that they can do these things is really big."