A Stroll Down Memory Lane - 2011, Part 2

Thank you for joining us as we continue our retrospective of cakes made in 2011. Yesterday, we began Part 1 of "A Stroll Down Memory Lane - 2011", showcasing a selection of some of our favorite cakes, ending with the month of May. Throughout the history of our business, the month of May - "Mayhem" as I like to refer to it - is always one of the most hectic. It feels like the start of summer here, but while everyone else is playing, we work that much harder! In May 2011, our stars aligned and collided at the same time. We were busy fulfilling cake orders and quite suddenly, had an incredible book deal on our hands! We needed to quickly figure out how to balance our company's commitments and a deadline for our book.

The week we signed with our publisher for EXTREME CAKEOVERS was filled with cake orders and all very different from each other.  Rick made two Law school graduation cakes - a bright pink floral cake, and a "Legally Blonde" inspired cake - a Parisian cake (above), a Little Einstein's cake, and a 70's themed cake. I also had dental sugery scheduled that week!

Cake Inspired by Candy Land

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One of our new favorite Candy Land themed cakes, Rick made this adorable cake for a 2 year old's birthday party last weekend. Our client flew in from Las Vegas to celebrate with her family and friends and requested a Candy Land theme with lollipops, ice cream cones, peppermint candy and the Candy Land sweets trail, and she got all that she asked for, and more! Rick made all the candy by hand, and included a large variety of goodies on the cake. Both the client and Rick felt "old school" was the way to go for the design. Not knowing in advance what her little girl's cake would look like, our client was so excited when she saw the cake and couldn't wait to show it off at the party.  She chose flavors both sweet (Hot Fudge Sundae) and tropical (Guava Lava) for the cake.  I love the addition of the happy face lollipops and that is exactly how this cake made us feel.  Happy!

Totally Groovy!

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Here at cakelava, we're definitely not afraid of color.  We embrace it, celebrate it and fortunately, get a good amount of requests for colorful cakes.  Rick designed this totally groovy 70's themed cake for a sweet young girl whose family are regular clients of ours.  They are one of the kindest families we know and Rick took the responsibility to make a special cake for their daughter seriously.  The cake was a celebration cake made for the girl and her friends as they kick off their summer and prepare for 6th grade.  We were asked for a fun cake in bright colors, for someone who loves pre-teen music and peace signs.  They gave Rick creative control and he really worked his magic on this one.  When I walked into our kitchen while he was working on the cake, I couldn't believe how colorful and fun this cake was, and the medley of colors really worked together.  We loved the writing for the cake "You Rocked 5th Grade!" She is one lucky girl.  What a fun kick-off to her summer, and ours!

Happy New Year! Now back to the cakes!

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Happy New Year everyone!  It feels like ages since I last wrote on the blog.  We've been consumed with the holidays and making cakes and are now beginning to get into the groove of 2011. It's looking like an amazing year with some unbelievable cake designs on order and lots of exciting things in the works!  We can't wait to travel to Ontario, Canada in March, where Rick will be teaching at Icing Inspirations with two 3-day classes.  Being able to meet Chrissie, our host, and all the students who we've gotten to know over a distance is sure to be one of our highlights of 2011.  Here's to an incredible, fun-filled, unforgettable year for all of us!

To kick off this exciting year, we're sharing a cake that just makes us feel good when we see it.  It's cute, colorful and full of life!  This pretty cake was made for Ava's first birthday in December.

Isabella's Pool Party

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Happy Friday Everyone!  We went through our portfolio of recent work and pulled one of the cutest, happiest cakes we could find to share.  The theme was "Chobits Land" and the occasion was Isabella's 9th birthday pool party.  If you are asking "What is Chobits Land?" that was our reaction as well.  Chobits Land has cute characters similar in appearance to the Sanrio animals with large adorable features.  We heard that Isabella's favorite animals were the panda and brown bear and Rick gave them a prominent position on top and in front of the cake. Throughout the party area Chobits Land was everywhere -- hanging above the tables, on top of the tables, and sticking out of the grass. It was adorable!

Almost immediately a crowd of children and adults gathered around the cake.  It took an immense amount of willpower for the children to hold back from touching it. We gave our birthday girl a big hug and she told us how much she loved her cake.  She was grinning from ear to ear, as were all the children and shortly after, so were we! 

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Baby Zoo Animals Cake

By nature, anything having to do with babies is cute. The zoo animals theme is a popular request and each time Rick does it a little little differently. Sometimes the animals are done more realistically and other times, like in this case, they are done more as a baby might see them, which is cute and cartoon-y. Rick chose to make this cake colorful with patterns on the cake with big polka dots accenting the cake on the sides. This tall cake was nearly 3 feet and was a huge hit with the mother of the child when she came to pick it up. It was a beautiful explosion of color and full of life and sweetness, just like her baby.

More to come soon. Aloha, 'til next time!

Micah's Little Red Toy Car Cake

If you have children or are around them with any frequency, you probably recognize this little red car. Our next door neighbor's child has one and she has a great time riding it. When our client called requesting this cake to be made for her son Micah's birthday, she told us that he LOVES riding in his little car and thought it would be a great surprise for him to have one made in cake. Rick sculpted the little car, made entirely in our Banana Nutella cake, and put a "1" on the hood and the name "MICAH" on the license plate. Our client, her son and his guests all adored the cake, and she told us after in her thank you note that, not suprisingly, they all wanted to ride in the car. The ultimate compliment!

she wrote:

Yeah ...the cake was pretty much the centerpiece of the party. My son even thought he could ride in it which was pretty funny. Actually all the kids wanted to ride in it but then they realized it was a cake.

Aloha, 'til next time!

Anakin Celebrates with Jack Skellington

If you want to learn the latest trends in baby names, ask the cakers. We hear them all, spelled every which way, and there are very few names we haven't seen come through here, with the exception of "Anakin", yes, as in Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader). Well, last weekend we made our first cake for an Anakin, and not surprisingly, the 6-year old birthday boy's parents are huge fans of Star Wars and originally came to us for a Darth Vader cake. Kids being kids have a mind of their own and Anakin decided he did not want a Darth Vader cake. Instead he would like a "Nightmare Before Christmas" themed birthday cake with Jack Skellington, and so we swapped The Vader for The Skellington, and the result is shown above.

Rick had far too much fun making Anakin's "Nightmare Before Christmas" cake. It's such a cool, fun cake and we both dreaded seeing it leave. Our client seemed extremely happy with it, and hopefully Anakin loved it just as much!

Getting Messy!

When our client Kulia called to order a cake for her daughter Maya's 3rd birthday, she told us she was having a "messy party" and wanted a cake that would match the theme. Let the kids do what they do naturally, and what they do best, get MESSY! Kulia wanted to avoid many of the pitfalls that she had witnessed at other parties where children line up and are made to participate in games they don't want to and watch another kid open up gifts when that age group is torn apart by jealousy. The messy party takes place outside and is made up of "stations" for the children to explore at their own pace. She told me the party was inspired by an article she read online at Mothering Magazine.

What a fantastic concept! Where were these messy parties when we were growing up, and is it too late to have one at our age? Intrigued, I asked Kulia to tell me more. At Maya's messy party, Kulia served sandwiches, fresh fruit and drinks for the kids and Pizza that arrived mid-party. In the yard they had a blow-up pool with water, cups, buckets, a finger painting area, sidewalk chalk, and a glitter/glue/ribbon area where children could decorate their own wands or whatever they wished to make. She told me the most popular "game" was the unplanned Gecko hunting as bands of children attempted to catch them as the geckos ran for the highest tree they could find. They had over 25 children and their parents attend and it was a fun time for all!

For the Messy Cake, Rick got in touch with his inner child (which wasn't too difficult), designing an all-edible creation of delectable messiness for Maya. When Kulia emailed me with information about her party, she described how the messy cake came to be and I thought I'd let her tell you about it:

"When you guys heard about the Messy Party Rick came up with the awesome idea to design a cake that looked like a product of the children at the party. It was the centerpiece of the meal - oohs and ahhs and conversations galore focused on the cake - before people even tasted it! The Guava Lava flavor is always a hit in this house - and we'll be sure to repeat again next year when the party is set to get even messier - cornstarch and water "goo" is on the play menu!"

Ooh, Kulia, cornstarch and water "goo" on the play menu? We are SO there! Thank you for sharing your experience and the photos with us. We had a blast making your cake and will look forward to it again next year!

See Maya's Messy Cake and her Ohana photo on cakelava.com.