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John Oliver Bear Cake craze rakes in bonanza for People’s Place in Kingston

Deising’s Bakery, comedian’s show set to donate over $25,000 to food pantry; show donates equipment to town of Ulster deli

Peter Deising of Deising’s Bakery holds a tray with John Oliver Bear Cakes at the Uptown Kingston bakery on Monday, June 17, 2024. (Patricia R. Doxsey/Daily Freeman)
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KINGSTON, N.Y. — All Deising’s Bakery wanted was to purchase a few pieces of equipment from the shuttered Red Lobster in the town of Ulster.

What they ended up with was a challenge from comedian John Oliver that garnered worldwide publicity, a demand for a particular baked good the bakery could bear-ly keep up with and the two pieces of equipment they were hoping for.

And the icing on the cake, or cupcake, was the ability to make a donation of roughly $16,000 to People’s Place, a food pantry, thrift store and community cafe located in Midtown.

“We’re speechless here with how all this took off,” said Peter Deising, a third-generation owner of the bakery, said Monday.

The saga began on June 2 when on his show “Last Week Tonight,” the comedian bought kitchen equipment and furniture that once graced the now-closed Miron Lane Red Lobster restaurant at auction. The following week, Oliver playfully mocked Deising’s Bakery for taping a sign to the door of the closed Red Lobster asking to purchase a 36-inch flat-top grill and convection oven. Little did Deising’s know that the items they sought were not among the contents of the eatery — or that Oliver had already purchased the entire inventory at an auction and had donated it.

A display at Deising’s Bakery in Kingston of John Oliver Bear Cakes can be seen on Monday, June 17, 2024. (Patricia R. Doxsey/Daily Freeman)

But in looking at the bakery’s website, Oliver stumbled across, and apparently fell in love with, one of Deising’s creations — a bear cupcake, with, as Oliver put it, an unusually large posterior.

Declaring “I don’t like cake bears, I f—ing love cake bears,” Oliver challenged Deising’s to make a cake with his face, promising that if they did, Oliver would deliver the equipment the bakery sought.

The bakery immediately took on the challenge and the very next morning began churning out John Oliver bear cupcakes. Much to his surprise, Deising said, the cupcakes started flying off the bakery’s shelves faster than Yogi could snatch picnic baskets.

“The first batch was 80 and we sold out in the first hour,” he said. “The demand for these things is just unbelievable. The first couple of days we were selling over 100 an hour. We couldn’t make them fast enough.”

“We burned through a printer just printing the faces on the edible paper,” he laughed.

The promised equipment was delivered to the North Front Street bakery on Thursday, and Deising said the bakery on Monday made its last batch of 800 cupcakes. He said when all is said and done they will have sold about 2,700 of the treats, which some on social media have dubbed “John Olibear” cakes.

Deising said the proceeds from the sale of the cupcakes, which he estimates has already brought in between $15,000 and $16,000, will go to People’s Place. On his show Sunday, Oliver announced that he would also make a $10,000 donation to the organization.

It’s fabulous,” said Christine Hein, executive director of People’s Place, of the donation. “It’s absolutely wonderful. I am just so thrilled that Eric and Peter picked People’s Place as their not-for-profit to support through the production of those little cake bears.”

Hein said she also hoped that the publicity garnered through the mention of the organization on Oliver’s show would help shine a light on the issue of food insecurity across the country.

“Throughout the country, food insecurity is a big issue, it’s not just here in Ulster County,” she said.

Still, even the boost to Deising’ Bakery and the People’s Place wasn’t the extent of Oliver’s largess to Ulster County.

That equipment Oliver won at the Red Lobster auction? It was donated to the Home Plate Deli and Catering, on Morton Blvd, in the town of Ulster.

Abraham Lazala, who has owned the deli for the past two years, said he bid unsuccessfully on the equipment at auction and went to the Red Lobster with the hope of buying some of the tables and chairs from the bid winner. What he ended up with was far more than that.

Lazala said Oliver’s people also gave him the kitchen equipment, which Lazala said he will use to upgrade and expand his business.

“I thought it was important for people to know that it stayed in the community,” said Lazala. “I just thought people should know what else he did.”

In addition to the cupcakes, Deising’s made another large cake in Oliver’s likeness that was revealed at the end of Oliver’s show Sunday.

“It is the single funniest possible rendering of me as a bear,” Oliver said.

“I’m humbled, shocked and slightly terrified,” he said

And, like any self-respecting comedian confronted with a cake of himself  — especially one with a “sumptuous a–,” — Oliver buried his face in that bear butt and emerged, covered with chocolate buttercream, to declare: “We did it!”

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