Taryn and Gavin - Lanikuhonua Love on 6-7-08

Taryn and Gavin were one of the lucky ones. Not only did they secure Lanikuhonua, one of the best outdoor venues on Oahu for their wedding day, but they booked it for 6-7-08, one of the most requested dates of the year. Because they hired their vendors a year in advance, they were able to have Visionari, one of Hawaii's most in-demand photography team, shoot their wedding; Creations in Catering for their delicious cuisine and yours truly on cake. Based on the photos submitted to me by Taryn and Gavin, everything looked perfect and most importantly, the couple looked like they enjoyed every minute of their day.

Their wedding ceremony appears to have taken place at the JW Marriott Ihilani hotel in Ko Olina. This is an observation based on the photos sent in by the couple. The Ihilani is a gorgeous venue in the resort area of Ko Olina on the west side of Oahu. After the ceremony, Taryn and Gavin and their 200+ guests arrived next door at Lanikuhonua where the celebration continued and they were able to really let loose. Choosing a color palette of soft pinks, celadon greens, and whites, cymbidium orchids were the dominant flower, and the setting was lush with greenery, palms and the beautiful Hawaiian ocean.

For their wedding cake, Rick designed a 3-tier ivory fondant hexagonal design with appliques of cymbidium orchids, delicate pink beading and a few pink and green handcrafted cymbidiums to accent the cake. Adding to the uniqueness of the design, Taryn requested both pink and green cymbidiums on the cake rather than just pink, as a way of honoring Gavin and their union. It was important to her to have him present on the cake and we did our best to accommodate. The outside of the cake is elegant and romantic but the inside of the cake was VA-VA-VOOM!
-- our ever-popular signature "Rainbowlicious" cake added that WOW factor they wanted for the cake cutting. Half their guests indulged in the Rainbowlicious flavor and the other half got to try our Kona Toffee Crunch flavor.

Taryn and Gavin, may the two of you have an amazing life together. Thank you for sharing with us your beautiful photos and your smiles! - Sasha & Rick

All Photos Courtesy of Visionari




See Taryn and Gavin's cake and many others on cakelava.com

Now that's a candy cake!

Another busy week behind us. One of yesterday's events was for Nicholas' 1st Birthday party. The theme of the party was CANDY and lots of it! From the 3-tier custom designed all-edible candy themed cake Rick created to the candy bar stocked with goodies, and the centerpieces, candy was everywhere. Even the giant inflatable bouncy had pictures of candy bars on them. I can't even begin to imagine how hyped up the kids must have been by the time the party was over. Yikes! For the candy cake, they chose our Bananarama flavor -- banana cake with fresh bananas, caramel cream and chocolate ganache. We hope Nicholas and all his guests had a fun and memorable 1st birthday. It was a sweet beginning for an adorable boy!

See this cake and many more new cakes as well as our next Featured Wedding on cakelava.com in the near future.

Good Things

It appears that our Star Wars cupcakes with Death Star top tier photos are circulating through the blogosphere. What started off as the Great White Snark's Curiosity of the Week on Wednesday (see yesterday's post), made its way over to the popular Cupcakes Take the Cake blog in their post "Death Star cake and Star Wars cupcakes" yesterday. We're thankful to Rachel for putting our cupcakes on the blog, and just wanted to clarify one thing since I'm quoted in the post. It was the Great White Snark who stated this, just in case there is any confusion. :-)

The marvel of this piece is that the near-perfect representation of the Death Star (”Strawberries Chantilly” flavor cake with buttercream frosting) is actually overshadowed by the diversity, detail, and fanboy-goodness of those handmade, fully-edible, sculpted Star Wars cupcake toppers.


Today the cupcakes showed up on yet another blog, MissTheda.com. We weren't familiar with MissTheda's site, and want to thank her as well. We're drooling over the 3G iPhone she posted about.


Other Good Things:

1. Our photo galleries at cakelava.com have a new look - more interactive and more fun.

2. We picked up the Fall 2008 issue of The Bride and Bloom magazine last night. (Borders, Ala Moana, for the locals) Another spectacular issue! It's always a rush to see your cake in print, especially in a magazine this beautiful!



3. Another fun groom's cake! Last night we delivered Mari's sculpted Notre Dame Football Groom's cake to E&O Trading for her rehearsal dinner.


This morning she emailed her excitement:

Just wanted to say thank you for the beautiful football cake!! Everyone at our party absolutely LOVED it and was so amazed that it was actually a cake. It was the highlight of our party! No one wanted to cut into it because it was too beautiful, but when we did they all raved at how good it was. Thanks again for everything!!

Mari

Mari, thank you for the note. Have a fabulous wedding! - Sasha & Rick

Enjoy the weekend!

All Hail the Great White Snark!

Our Star Wars trend started with a birthday request for a themed tower of cupcakes, with a matching top tier cake. Rick suggested putting a sculpted Death Star as the top tier cake and our client Jenn, loved the idea. Then it was a sculpted R2-D2 for a dinner party, which along with the cupcakes is on cakelava.com. In a couple of weeks we're making yet another Star Wars cake, this time for a lucky groom, who will have his Millenium Falcon cake and eat it too.

So I'm bouncing around the internet one day and come across this fantastic site, The Great White Snark , which claims "If your attitude towards geeky stuff like comic books, Star Wars, toys, gadgets, technology, Joss Whedon, and cartoons is a combination of enjoyment and bemusement, then you’re in the right place." Nuf Sed. It is easily one of the more entertaining sites out there. Imagine my excitement when we learned that The Great White Snark himself seems to have a fascination with geeky cakes. Each Wednesday he posts a Geeky Curiosity of the Week showcasing cakes in the theme of everything from Star Wars and the Incredible Hulk to the Transformers. It's apparent he prefers to focus on cakes of the awesome rather than awful variety, but every now and then he'll find the Top Five Awful cakes, such as a recent post of the Top Five Awful R2-D2 cakes. Hi-larious! Having become an instant fan of the Great White Snark, I was motivated to email him some of our Star Wars themed cake photos. Little did we know our Star Wars themed cupcakes with the Death Star top tier would be his Geeky Curiosity of the Week yesterday. Thanks to Mike (aka, the Great White Snark) for his observations and super kind words about our Star Wars cupcakes. We thoroughly enjoyed the feature and are honored to be a part of the site!