Buddy Valastro Bakes Hunter Fieri and Tara Bernstein’s Wedding Cake (Exclusive)

Hunter Fieri and Tara Bernstein enlisted none other than Cake Boss Buddy Valastro to create their massive wedding cake.

It was a no-brainer for Bernstein, a professional pickleball player, and Hunter, who is a chef and the son of Food Network star Guy Fieri, to ask Valastro, a longtime friend of the Fieri family, to make their “country chic” cake for their Aug. 30 wedding at the Fieri family ranch, HuntRyde Ranch, in Northern California.

“Buddy’s the man. He’s such a great, great guy and he’s super stoked to be doing a cake for us. His team has been amazing to work with,” Hunter told PEOPLE ahead of his wedding. “I mean, honestly, his cakes are delicious. You can’t go wrong with a wedding cake from Buddy, so we’re very excited about that. It’s going to be phenomenal.”

The “grand” six-tiered wedding cake turned out “absolutely gorgeous.” Towering at around “four feet tall, five feet tall,” the “nature-esque” cake was large enough to feed the couple’s 350 guests. It sat on a tree stump, featured chalkboard illustrations and had multiple flavors — including black and white cake with fudge, chocolate cake with fudge, and confetti cake with buttercream — plus a layer of gluten-free and dairy-free chocolate truffle cake to accommodate the bride’s food intolerances.

“We made a separate little cake for her so that she could have wedding cake on her wedding day, which was important for us to make sure that we did something special for her,” Valastro told PEOPLE a few weeks before the wedding as he was finalizing the design.

Bernstein, 28, gushed that the cake — which had been planned “for about a year” — was “super, super yummy.” She and Hunter, 29, were sent different slices to taste in April. At the time, they happily clinked their forks together after agreeing on their favorite flavors.

“Tara’s a big dessert person. She loves dessert,” Hunter told PEOPLE, with Bernstein agreeing, “I feel like after every meal I deserve something sweet, so I literally work out so I can eat dessert. I’m a big dessert girl. We are so happy.”

Valastro, 48, admitted that transporting the large cake from his bakery in New Jersey to the wedding in California would be “a little more challenging” than when he delivered the couple’s engagement cake to their engagement party in New York City in June 2024. 

The engagement party was pickleball-themed as a nod to Bernstein’s career as a professional pickleball player. Adorning the three-tiered white cake was an oversized diamond ring topper, edible pearls, and an edible image showcasing a pickleball paddle crossed with a chef knife above a pickleball and chef hat to represent each of the couple’s interests. The bottom tier read in gold piping: “Congratulations to the Future Fieris.”

“As soon as I heard they were engaged, I’m like, ‘Oh, I got to make your cake.’ And it started at the engagement party, which they did in New York, which was easy. So we just had to bring it right across the river,” the Cake Boss star explained. “Now the wedding cake’s a little more challenging because we got to deliver it to California, but we’re going to make it happen for friends and good people.”

The Carlo’s Bakery team does “whatever we have to do” to deliver their cakes all in one piece, but Valastro was also willing to jump in if anything went wrong as the cake made its way across the country.

“Fingers crossed, but Boss will be there just in case something happens,” Valastro said. “If I have to jump in and fix a cake, it wouldn’t be the first or the last time.”

The baker was also responsible for the cookies served at the rehearsal dinner.

Valastro was “psyched” to attend the wedding, not only to “party” and “have a good time” with his wife, Lisa, but also to celebrate Hunter and Bernstein, both of whom he “loves.”

“Honestly, it’s just such an honor to be part of it and just for two great people. And it’s just been an awesome experience,” Valastro shared. “I can’t say enough great things about those guys. They’re just awesome.”

He continued: “Guy, Hunter, Tara, the whole family, the whole Fieri family, just wonderful people and good friends, and just really, I can’t say enough good things about them. There’s so much that people don’t see, you know like the giving back … that’s why [I’m] just, ‘No problem, whatever you need, I’m always there.’ ”

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Valastro “hit it off from day one” with Hunter, and credits Guy’s parenting for his great personality. Guy, 57, also shares son Ryder, 19, with his wife of 30 years, Lori Fieri. The couple additionally have raised their nephew, Jules, since the death of Guy’s sister Morgan in 2011.

“I’ve known Hunter for a while now. Me and Guy have been doing television for a while, and once when we first met, we just automatically hit it off. We had a great chemistry. We filmed a couple times together, and I can’t say enough great things about Guy. But the one comment that I’m going to say that probably says the most about him is Hunter’s personality,” Valastro said. “He’s just humble, down to earth, such a good person. And that’s truly a testament to Guy.”

Valastro has four children: Sofia, 22; Buddy Jr., 20; Marco, 18; and Carlo, 14. In his opinion, most parents in the spotlight “strive for” their kids to turn out humble.

“Being a parent, being on TV and stuff like that, our kids definitely grew up privileged, we’ll call it. But always remaining humble and being who they are, that was one of the things that was most important to me,” he said.