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!

Couture Lace Wedding Cake

www.cakelava.com

We have put up a fair share of bold, colorful cakes recently and decided that for at least part of this week, we would focus on cakes with a more muted color palette -- beautiful creams, whites, and champagne tones.  Rick designed a gorgeous champagne and ivory wedding cake for Lindsay and Bob, a couple who were married over the 10-10-10 weekend.  Their wedding cake was inspired by the lace pattern on Lindsay's gown and Rick added a draped ivory bow with a handcrafted jeweled brooch on the side of the cake to complete the elegant look.  The reception room was decorated in champagne, ivory and chocolate brown colors with towering vases of white phalaenopsis orchids for the centerpieces.  Lindsay and Bob chose to add a colorful element to their cake on the inside and selected our yummy Guava Lava and Lemon Pucker flavors to serve their guests.  Congratulations to Lindsay and Bob!

Amy's Wedding Dress Cake

All images courtesy of Absolutely Loved: Stefanie and Anna Riedel

We were all set to reveal another cake from the weekend when two things happened. First, I received a set of incredible images from photographers Stefanie and Anna Riedel of Absolutely Loved, taken of our bride Amy and her groom on their Valentine's Day wedding in Waikiki. Then I saw a comment posted by one of our readers, and fellow cake designer, Rhonda, of Rhonda's Rants, Ravings and Cravings who wrote in response to yesterday's post that she is preparing for a cake show in September and the wedding cake portion is based on a wedding dress style, and loves looking at cakes modelled after wedding dresses, and I thought "too perfect!"

Our bride Amy's wedding cake was designed with her wedding dress in mind. Rick incorporated elements found in her dress like the ruching in the bodice and the delicate designs on her dress as well as the white roses found in her bouquet. So romantic!

Today's post is dedicated to Rhonda and anyone who loves looking at the wedding dress cakes as much as we enjoy making them.
















Like wedding dress cakes? We have many of them posted on cakelava.com.

'til next time, Aloha!

Brandy's Wedding Cake

On Saturday July 19th, before we delivered the sculpted Technics Turntable cake to the Koolau Golf Club, we drove out to the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa out in Ko Olina for Brandy's wedding. For her wedding, she chose the beautiful open air "Pavillion" venue at the Ihilani for her reception venue where she could entertain her 610 guests. Yes, 610 guests! The bride and groom's family are of Hawaiian and Samoan heritage and large guest counts are very common.

When Brandy approached us to make her wedding cake she mentioned that she was going to use a giant birdcage for her envelopes from her guests and possibly integrate the birdcage motif elsewhere in the reception. She wanted to have her cake in the shape of her birdcage and through collaboration with Rick, it was decided that her cake would borrow the shape of the wooden birdcage but still have the elegance of a wedding cake and borrow design elements from her wedding dress. Rick made her cake in white pearlescent fondant with vertical columns representing the gathers in her dress and painstaking amounts of TINY delicate piping all over the cake. On the top of the cake, he added a "T" monogram for the new family name. To honor the heritage of the bride and groom, the couple chose our Local Kine Special and Guava Lava flavors. The Local Kine special, one of our signature flavors has a taro cream filling in a coconut cake. In addition to her wedding cake, she ordered a number of cakes on the side that she and her groom could gift their families with, which I thought was a very sweet gesture.

Two days after her wedding, Brandy sent us this note:

Hi, Sasha and Rick,

My cake was so beautiful. I couldn't imagine a more gorgeous cake. You folks did an awesome job. When we cut the cake the servers started to cut the rest of the cake and it was all gone before I could blink twice. Thanks again!

Brandy

Brandy, we loved making your cake! Thank you for providing the many design inspirations to work from. We hope you and all your guests had a wonderful wedding. All the best to the newlyweds!

-- Sasha & Rick

See Brandy's wedding cake and many other new cakes coming soon on cakelava.com.

Hollyjean and Gary - A Celebration of East and West

All photos courtesy of Visionari

Hollyjean and Gary wed on Sunday, June 29, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Hotel. Their ivory, pink and Japanese themed reception took place in the hotel's Ballroom. Coordinator Lissa Wilson of The Wedding Planners beautifully merged delicate western traditional wedding elements with bold and elegant Japanese accents, honoring Hollyjean and Gary's heritage. Holly was a 2-dress bride, with her bodice-style beaded wedding gown with sash and brooch detailing for the ceremony and a gown with an embroidered japanese pattern (Anne Namba?) for the reception. Floral designer Fong Tagawa of Floral Inspirations created the gorgeous bouquets and towering centerpieces in soft pinks, ivories and greens, keeping the vibe romantic but with a little bling, as seen in the addition of crystals. I was told by their DJ that Hollyjean and Gary had a full program of entertainment planned for their guests, including live musical performances, taiko drumming (shown above), and a DJ. Other fun amenities for their guests were a photo booth and a candy bar with their favorite treats.

For their wedding cake, Holly wanted us to use her wedding gown as inspiration and Rick designed her a beautiful 3-tier ivory fondant wedding cake with delicate piping from her dress and the same brooch/sash detail from her gown on the middle tier of her cake. In the middle of the brooch detail was a swirly "T", honoring the couple's last name. Holly and Gary chose 3 flavors for their wedding cake -- a coconut cake with vanilla cream filling, Strawberries Chantilly and Chocolate Dream.

Photographer Jon of Visionari was there to capture all the special moments of the day. Jon, thank you for sending us such a gorgeous selection of images. It was tremendously difficult to choose!

Hollyjean and Gary, we're thrilled to have been a part of your Big Day! We wish you both the very best in the many years to come!

See Hollyjean and Gary's cake soon on cakelava.com.