A Grand Wedding Cake in Black and White

cakelava.com

This 3 foot tall towering black and white squares wedding cake made for Aren and Dustin is one of our favorites so far this year! The couple were married back in February, but I held off writing about it until we received the professional image of the cake from their photographer, Mike Pham Photography. Our jaws fell to the floor when we saw Mike's photo - it's a beauty!

We first met Aren and Dustin last fall, when they asked Rick to design for them a grand and elegant wedding cake that would be the center of attention. The cake would be done as all squares in black, white and silver - their wedding colors - and have a damask pattern on some of the tiers. Rick would also integrate elements from the bride's second dress, which was silver with a black lace overlay. Since the cake would be designed with a striking  pattern on each tier, Rick kept the use of handcrafted flowers to a minimum with a single bunch on top with the couple's "G initial of their married name.

Making a wedding cake of all squares is more difficult than round shapes. Squares have precise edges and demand perfection in their shaping and placement. When the tiers are as tall as these were, they must be very straight, and it requires a confidence in your craft to apply the fondant. One not-so-perfectly placed tier can affect every cake above it. Having a black on white precise pattern on each tier, left little room for error. It is worth mentioning that Aren is an architecture student, which added pressure to make the edges as straight as can be and the pattern be ultra-precise. We took our responsiblity to the couple seriously!

After the cake was made and decorated, there was one more hurdle - the delivery! The couple's reception was at an outdoor venue on the hotel's property that was located, in delivery terms, very far from our vehicle. The 3 foot tall cake was transported e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y carefully on a cart down a long hall with uneven cobblestone flooring. Then, once outside the hotel, we carted the cake to the reception venue, which was also a trek. I'm sure any cake professional can sympathize, but it felt like the color had escaped from our face and we couldn't breathe normally until the cake was safely delivered to the cake table. Lifting the cake and placing it on the cake table felt AMAZING, and seeing the expression on our bride's face when she saw her gorgeous cake made all the efforts so worth it!

I'm thrilled to report that we and the couple were tremendously happy with their cake, as were their guests. Just a couple days after their wedding, we received the sweetest thank you note from Aren and Dustin!

Dearest Rick and Sasha,

Words cannot express how thankful we are for the gorgeous wedding cake you designed for us. Every guest was in awe. They couldn't believe the cake was real, we were even complimented by the hotel staff as they had never seen a cake so grand. On top of that it was delicious! Of all the pieces of our wedding the cake was the most exciting piece for me, I couldn't stop talking about it to my new husband. I am so grateful to have found you. Thank you for helping to make our wedding day so much more than we could've ever imagined.

Congratulations to Aren and Dustin, and we wish them our very best!

White and Black Hawaiian Wedding Cake

We had a fun time working with our Australian couple Rhianne and Sean for their September wedding at the Moana Surfrider Resort. Their black, and white colored wedding had red floral accents, which we decided to keep off the cake and focus instead on the contrast of white and black, which is always a striking combination. Rick designed their wedding cake using white bamboo accents and handcrafted palm trees placed on the cake, a symbol of Hawaii but also of the couple themselves, as seen in the "SR" monogram. The couple booked with us a year before their wedding and we didn't have a chance to meet with them until shortly before the Big Day. It was great being able to meet them in person finally. We love the way they embraced the Hawaiian "flavor" of the wedding as well, choosing one of our signature flavors, Local Kine Special, a coconut cake with a taro cream filling, a delicious combination popular with our clients since we opened.

Congratulations to Rhianne and Sean!

new cakes have been recently posted on cakelava.com. Enjoy!

Aloha, til next time!

The Perfect Catch!

One of our newest wedding cakes this week took place at the Moana Surfrider's "Rooftop Garden" venue overlooking Waikiki Beach and featured a fly-fishing theme for a Canadian couple. Most of the cakes we've made using a fishing theme were for ocean fishing, not river, and this was a unique request that Rick embraced. Our bride Lesley gave Rick creative control over the design of the cake. Her only requests apart from the theme were the white/black contrasting colors and to use her porcelain toppers she purchased for the wedding. We thought these toppers were very cute and worked well with the fishing theme of the cake.


See this fly-fishing cake and many new cakes on cakelava.com soon!