A Stroll Down Memory Lane - 2011, Part 1

photo: Christie Pham Photography

It's been a few months since our last "Stroll Down Memory Lane" post. I purposely paused the retrospective after the year 2010, knowing 2011 would require a lot of time to write. 2011 changed our lives in incredible ways! The single biggest event that year was our book deal for EXTREME CAKEOVERS with our publisher, Clarkson Potter. Then all the hard work began! Also that year, Rick began teaching his "Discover Your Inner Artist" classes with his first stop in Canada. The classes were arranged the previous year, long before a book was on the horizon. After returning from Canada in in the Spring, we immediately started the book.

In 2011, we received the coveted "Best of HONOLULU" award for "Best Custom Cakes" by Honolulu Magazine, and Rick's wonky cake was selected for the cover, which were thrilled about! The Hard Rock Cafe Waikiki had its grand opening party which Rick made an outrageous Tiki themed cake for. The year was also full of photo shoots. Just when one was ending, another was starting. We still look back and don't know how we did it all - juggling cake orders, working on the book, traveling to teach, and trying to maintain a blog! It was a crazy, nonstop year of 13 hour workdays. We discovered what we were really made of!

Before all the craziness began that year, we were "just" making cakes, which we've done quite happily for the previous 6 years we were in business. In fact, it is hard to imagine not making the cakes for clients. It brings tremendous satisfaction and keeps the creative juices flowing, and one of the reasons we chose to accept orders while working on the book. We've selected some of our favorite cakes from that year to share with you.

In January 2011, Rick made the gorgeous wedding cake (above) shown next to its inspiration piece, the bride's designer Anne Namba gown. It is one of our favorite wedding cakes ever! The client also ordered a sculpted cat groom's cake pawing a 3-tier wedding cake.

Less than a week after this wedding, Rick made a sculpted Snoopy cake driving a race car for a birthday party. It was all made of cake and took quite some time to make!

Fenway Park Groom's Cake

www.cakelava.com

www.cakelava.com

Today's blog is devoted to our pal Eric, the biggest Boston Red Sox fan we know!

Making architectural replicas in cake is always a time consuming process and the added pressure of having it look like an iconic structure that everyone recognizes makes them difficult to do.  We were hired to make a Fenway Park Groom's cake for a bride wanting to surprise her fiance, who is from Boston and a HUGE Red Sox fan, with one of his favorite places.  Neither Rick or I have ever visited Fenway Park and had to rely on photographs available on the internet.  As fate would have it, one of our close friends, Eric, is a huge Boston Red Sox fan -- he and his wife even have a dog named "Fenway"-- and gave Rick many insider tips and pointers, something that would be appreciated by a true Red Sox fan.  When making the cake, Rick included the Green Monster score board and had Red Sox winning over the Yankees, with all zeros for the Yankees. He also included at Eric's suggestion, on the overhang in right field, the retired Red Sox numbers and provided us the correct order of the numbers, ending in a blue "42" for Jackie Robinson.  A special touch on the cake was found on the billboard that read "Rick and Janice, January 29, 2011".  The Red Sox logo and the Fenway Park sign was also placed prominently on the cake.

We can't thank Eric enough for giving us a devoted Boston Red Sox fan's perspective on this cake, and given his interest in the outcome of the design,  he was the first person, after Janice and Rick, the bride and groom, to see photos of the cake.  We hope we did Eric, Janice and Rick, and every Red Sox fan proud, and hope to one day experience Fenway Park in person.  After sculpting it out of cake, Rick will never look at Fenway Park the same way again!  Congratulations to Janice and Rick!