John Oliver Cake Bears Flying Off Trays At Hudson Valley Bakery

KINGSTON, NY — Caught up in an international frenzy because the star of "Last Week Tonight" has a thing about Red Lobster, Deising's Bakery is making John Oliver cake bears around the clock and the folks at the People's Place food pantry and community cafe are waiting in happy shock.

Oliver announced June 2 that he had the contents of the Red Lobster restaurant that closed in Kingston and had recreated it in his studio. An alert News 12 reporter dropped by the closed eatery and noticed a note on the door. It was from Eric Deising saying the bakery was interested in buying the flat grill and convection oven from whoever would be selling off the equipment.

The reporter did a feature and the staff at the HBO show found out. Next thing you know, Oliver's issuing a challenge. Sunday night he extolled a bear cake he saw on the bakery's website and offered to buy them the equipment if they would make a cake bear with his face on it.

"It was insane," Eric's nephew Peter Deising told Patch. "We had no clue we were going to be featured on the show until I woke up early Monday. I looked at my phone and I had 3,000 notifications. I said 'guess we're making a bear cake.'"

They made Oliver a large one and started on a smaller version — and sold 80 of those in less than an hour on Monday morning at $8 a pop. Since then they've been working around the clock.

"Right now we're selling about 100 an hour," he said Tuesday. "I've gotten social media messages from people who said they're driving four hours to get a cake with John Oliver's face on it. We're getting shout-outs from New Zealand and the UK. It's just absurd."

Deising's decided to donate all the proceeds to People's Place, an organization in Kingston that runs a food pantry, community cafe, wellness empowerment center, thrift store and farm stand.

"We are beyond thrilled," said People's Place Executive Director Christine Hein. Last year, their community cafe served 1.5 million meals, and so far this year the need is 25-30 percent higher, she said. "Quite honestly, we're here for everybody. There are people working 40 hours plus a part-time job and still struggling to pay for housing, health, and food because it is so expensive to live in the Hudson Valley.

"So we are very appreciative of Eric and Peter Deising. They've been supportive of People's Place for years."

The bakery will sell the bear cakes through Father's Day. Both she and Peter Deising hope they can get John Oliver to visit when whatever amount is raised is handed over.

Hein said she dropped by the bakery at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday, where the first 20 John Oliver bear cakes had been put out and immediately snapped up.

Given that the Catskills are a weekend destination for many Manhattanites, "I wonder what it's going to be like this weekend?" she said.