Buddy Valastro says his right hand is “about 90 percent back” following traumatic injury

Cake Boss star Buddy Valastro is almost completely healed from a freak bowling accident that nearly cost him the use of his right hand.

Speaking to ABC Audio, the acclaimed baker assured, “I would say that I’m about 90 percent back with my strength and my dexterity… So I feel pretty confident that I’m as good as I ever was!”

Valastro, 44, was injured last September and required multiple surgeries to repair the damage caused by a malfunction in his personal bowling pinsetter machine. Before he began filming the third season of the Food Network show Buddy vs. Duff, Valastro thought his cake-making days were finished.

“Laying in the hospital, I said to myself, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make these cakes again,” he revealed. “We started filming in April. Before then, I could not bend my [middle and ring] fingers… So, the doctor went in and released the tendons and cut out scar tissue so that I could do it.”

Because he went into this season not knowing “what my capabilities were going to be,” Valastro said he didn’t “really care about winning or losing. I just want to be able to make cakes… So the fact that I was able to was amazing.”

Now that he’s back to creating jaw-dropping cake creations that can “spin,” and “jump” or “fly,” Valastro is thrilled he is once again inspiring the next generation of bakers.

“No matter how crazy it was or how outlandish or what it took to [make these cakes,] I always took the challenge because I always thought, ‘Hey, there’s a little kid out there who’s going to be inspired from what I’m doing,” he grinned.