YouTube series 'The Palm Springs Baker' blends baking and comedy with celebrity guests

When Chuck Swenson got on a recent Zoom call from his summer home in Minnesota, he appeared in character wearing his signature pink baker's hat.

Swenson, aka The Palm Springs Baker, is the face of a locally produced web series and baking show of the same name that premiered on his website and YouTube channel in 2022. And his production isn't your mother's baking show or any conventional production on the Food Network — Swenson is dandyish, entertaining and funny.

Even though many people tell Swenson he's humorous, he doesn't always agree. His friend and TV producer, Mario Yates, had to assure him and encourage him to make use of his comedic talents.

“I remember when I was about 6 or 7 with my immediate family at a dinner table in Minneapolis, I don’t remember what I said, but I had the whole family in hysterics. It was the first time I really made people laugh. My Norwegian family was not the type to break out into laughter, they were straight-forward people. Kind, wonderful people, but they weren’t knee-slappers," Swenson said.

The initial three episodes were of Swenson baking by himself, but on his New Year’s Day episode, he presented brunch ideas and featured his first guest, local drag queen Bella da Ball, which revealed Swenson’s wittiness, sense of fun and knack for interviewing.

"We had no idea if anybody was going to be interested in this or not, but they were, and I found out that I was better when I had a sidekick," Swenson said. "I started getting requests from people who saw the show and started calling me. That's what happened with the Palm Springs Gay Men's Chorus. I was just taken aback that they were now calling me and it's happening more often."

Since then, he’s also made desserts such as buttermilk chocolate cake with local drag queen Tommi Rose, lemon meringue pie with Thalia Hayden, Easter Bunny carrot cake with Debra and Richard Hovel and more.

But one of the highlights of the show so far is an interview with Palm Springs Police Chief Andrew Mills and his wife, Cathy, which premiered in August. Mills discussed being on the job for over a year, what makes Palm Springs a special place, and why PSPD didn't make a single arrest while 100,000 attendees celebrated Palm Springs Pride — all before making a strawberry chocolate cream pie.

"I enjoyed it. Here's a guy who is being positive, showcasing what a wonderful community we have and being creative," Mills said. "I think that's the kind of (program) where we want to show (the police department) is working with the community to put Palm Springs in the most positive light that we can."

Mills also shared his feedback on the pie.

"Dude, it was incredible!" Mills exclaimed.

Each episode only costs $500 to produce

The Palm Springs Baker is an independent production, but the quality of each episode is high, which is surprising considering Swenson said the production cost for each installment is $500 with production by Yates (whose resume includes the reality shows “House Hunters, “The Doctors” and “Trading Spaces"), and videography and editing by Fabian Solis. Each six to eight-minute episode takes four hours to film and 10-15 hours to edit.

His YouTube channel only has 200 subscribers, which doesn’t meet the criteria of 1,000 to be monetized, but Swenson estimates he has 5,000 on Facebook and other platforms.

“I think we’ve done well,” Swenson said. “I would love to start pitching sponsors, and maybe we’ll start doing that this fall to cover production costs."

While planning each episode, there's a standard he follows when selecting what to bake: the item needs to be charming, delicious and a "showstopper." Swenson also shares recipes on his website for items such as classic lemon bars, peanut butter and jelly cupcakes, strawberry upside down cake and more.

"I believe as a baker, why go to all the work of baking something unless it's absolutely fabulous?" Swenson said. "It has to taste good. If it doesn't taste right, add a little of this or that. I'm a big believer in not following a recipe verbatim. Taste as you go and use your best judgement so you're sure everyone is going to bite into it and go, 'Oh my god. this is fabulous!'

'Live your passions'

Before he became The Palm Springs Baker, Swenson worked as a TV advertising producer for the Target Corporation in Minneapolis for 30 years. He left Target to start an events marketing company but moved to Burlington, Vermont in 2004 after his husband received a job offer at the University of Vermont. The rural lifestyle became monotonous and left him with plenty of time.

“You can only go to the Vermont Teddy Bear Company or Ben & Jerry’s so many times, so I started baking and everybody kept telling me, ‘This is really good.’”

Swenson continued baking while the couple moved to Seattle in 2007, Pasadena in 2012 and purchased a home in Palm Springs around 2016 and have been part-time residents. Many people have enjoyed his baked goods through the years and told him he needed a baking show. While working at Target, he worked with The Food Network and remembers thinking 'I don't want to work that hard!'

"The whole story of 'The Palm Springs Baker' is one of living your dreams and following your gut about what you want to do with your life," Swenson said. "Baking came as a hobby and I eventually let that passion become what I spent a lot of my time doing. It's not a moneymaker for me, and I don't consider it a job. At this point in my life, I'm retired and have flexibility to live out my passions and not worry about income, but you still need something that turns you on every morning when you get out of bed or you're a lost soul, so live your passions."

In the future, Swenson said he would like to have more local celebrities such as Barry Manilow *and Lucie Arnaz join him on the show, but would also like to include more nonprofits such as DAP Health. He's also developing a program that offers disadvantaged children a cake and a party on their birthday.

"We'd love to do more episodes that tie-in with the community and help them get their name out there," Swenson said.

*Correction: The print version of this story included mention of Suzanne Somers as a potential future guest of the show, but she passed away Oct. 16. This story was written prior to Somers' death and wasn't printed until after the fact. The Desert Sun recognizes the error and has corrected it in this online version of the story.

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 'The Palm Springs Baker' YouTube series combines comedy and baking