Fans of Geof Manthorne - you lovelorn legions who thrill at the sight of the slim, slightly bedraggled hipster/cake decorator who's risen to unlikely cable fame on Ace of Cakes - you swooning masses must know something crucial.
You swooning masses include the woman who jumped on Manthorne outside the Baltimore bakery where the show is set, snuggling up to him cougarishly for a photo.
Also the three middle-aged women spotted giggling outside the bakery, bumping into each other as they tried to peek inside the mail slot.
And most definitely the college girl who's posted an online letter to Manthorne. "Dear Geof," she types. "I've been watching Ace of Cakes and I must say you are my favorite. I think that you are amazingly attractive. ... I just wanted to let you know that I have a totally innocent crush on you and it sometimes makes me wish I didn't live in Dallas."
Girlfriends, sit down, one and all: Geof Manthorne is taken. Very.
As if that weren't devastating enough, the woman in question not only works with him at Charm City Cakes, but her job involves sorting the office correspondence. So all those lovey-dovey cards and coy e-mails?
She's read 'em. And laughed.
"When the word 'crush' appears in an e-mail," says Jessica Curry, Manthorne's redheaded significant other of the last few years, "it's a pretty good indication it has nothing to do with a cake order."
Food Network's Ace of Cakes has transformed the 34-year-old Manthorne into the unlikeliest of heartthrobs. When his smitten fans aren't e-mailing the bakery, they're anchored on the Remington sidewalk holding up "I (heart) Geof" signs. When they aren't shrieking for him at food festivals, they're approaching him with marriage proposals. When librarians order a cake, they want a special Manthorne delivery.
It's enough to give a guy a complex. But not Manthorne. With his sheepish smiles, dry asides and easy, hippie vibe, he's cool with it.
"I'm flattered that people are, I dunno, interested," says Manthorne, a man of few words who often goes entire half-hour episodes without uttering more than a handful of syllables - a lot of them being "Yeah."
Manthorne is the first person Duff Goldman turned to six years ago when his business making wildly creative custom cakes became too much to handle on his own. At the time, Manthorne was building models for Baltimore architects.
