Dan Langan, a 26-year-old native of Havertown, will appear on the Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship beginning April 10, writes Nick Vadala of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A self-taught “sugar artist,” Dan currently owns and operates Baked By Dan.

Langan will compete against several other bakers, pastry chefs, and sugar artists on the program, which awards one winner the top prize of $50,000, as well as the title of Spring Baking Champion. Food Network personalities Nancy Fuller, Lorraine Pascale, and Duff Goldman will serve as judges throughout challenges that will focus on specific baked goods, like cakes, brownies, and cookies.

Langan says that type of “trial by fire” challenge was part of what attracted him to the show.

“As a self-taught baker, I have always felt that it was important to put myself up there against pastry chefs who did go to school,” he said. “Food Network is an outlet to show that I am just as good as someone who went to pastry school.”

So, too, is Langan’s Baked By Dan, which specializes in large, creative celebration cakes. Like, for example, a gumball machine cake that looks like the real thing, or a fondant-realistic recreation of a six-pack of Corona, or a wine-and-cheese plate made entirely out of cake.

“I tend to shy away from ‘pastry chef’ because I did not go to pastry school,” he says. “I consider myself to be an artist in sugar.”

The second season of Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship premieres Sunday, April 10 at 9 p.m.

Click here to read more about Langan.