Try dazzling desserts from Czech 'Bake Off' judge in Prague

When the Czech version of "The Great British Bake Off" debuted in 2021 it broke viewership records in the Czech Republic. The series, called "Peče celá země" ("The Whole Country Bakes" in Czech) is now back for a third season. It features judges Michaela Landová, Mirka van Gils Slavíková, and Josef Maršálek, a Czech baker and confectioner whose dessert creations have been sampled by members of Britain's royal family.

Maršálek is leading a confectionery renaissance in the Czech lands that have seen a rising interest in not only the consumption of dazzling desserts but in learning to create them with the Association of Chefs and Confectioners confirming more admissions to confectionery school than ever before.

If you want to learn how to bake from the cookbook author, TV personality, and bake-show judge his class roster at the Gourmet Academy currently offers Modern Czech Confectionery courses (in Czech) though good luck getting a spot in his "Sexy Cakes" class.

For those who want easier access to blissful bites from Maršálek and other leading Czech culinary figures, you can do so without putting an apron on.

A unique charity dessert event at Prague's Červený Jelen restaurant, part of the regular charity "Good-Bakes" initiative started by chef Marek Fichtner invites well-known personalities from the world of confectionery and entertainment, to bake with the restaurant's in-house pastry chef Klárka Řezníčková for a good cause.

The latest addition to the Červený Jelen menu is cake guru Maršálek's Manhattan tartlet, a cheesecake wrapped in ruby chocolate and sprinkled with glittery peanuts, popcorn, and blue flowers. The proceeds from orders of the dessert go to charity; 15 CZK from each tartlet will be sent from the restaurant directly to Cakes against Cancer, founded in 2021 to help pediatric oncology patients.

The tartlets will be on sale until the end of the year. A previous summer dessert by Veronika Dinišová a.k.a."Besky," a brilliant blue orb with white-chocolate feather concealing a mango mousse and a passion fruit center, raised CZK 25,000 for the ADRA foundation.

Olympic winner Eva Samková, artist Eliška Podzimková, and singer Ben Cristovao have also participated in the restaurant's charity efforts which include, good cooking, good beer tapping, and good grilling initiatives, to raise close to CZK 150,000.

"In our company, we believe that good deeds beget more good deeds. And that's why we came up with this project," Jiří Panuška, co-founder and CMO of the Red Castle Hospitality Group, owner Červený Jelen, said.

Follow Červený Jelen on Instagram for updates.