Blossoms in Blue and White

Photo courtesy of Absolutely Loved: Stefanie and Anna Riedel Photography

Stefanie Riedel of Absolutely Loved recently sent us this beautiful image of our clients Suzy and Eric's wedding cake, which we made last month. The unsual shape, taller tiers and cherry blossom pattern made for a striking design. Suzy and Eric wanted to bring a touch of Japan, where they currently reside, to their otherwise tropical inspired wedding. Drawing inspiration from both cherry blossoms and Japanese blue and white pottery, Rick designed the couple a beautiful wedding cake that got plenty of "oohs" and "ahhs" upon delivery. For their flavors, Suzy and Eric chose Hawaii Five-0 and Chocolate Dream.

Rick and I would like to wish Suzy and Eric all the best on their new life together and thank them for including us in their special day!

We would also like to give a shout out to their photographer, Stefanie Riedel, who we've worked with on many weddings. Stefanie shot our Color Pairing cake feature for the Fall 2008 issue of The Bride & Bloom Magazine currently in stores, and another feature photo shoot for an upcoming issue of grace ormonde Wedding Style Magazine. Check out her website to see some of the most beautiful and romantic photos, that you'll get Absolutely enveloped in!


Our photo of Stefanie hard at work during the Grace Ormonde photo shoot.


Her talented daughter Anna, who also photographs for Absolutely Loved.

We'll be posting Suzy and Eric's cake along with many more new cakes on cakelava.com soon!

Bowling for Buddha

Today our dear friend Linda added another Buddha to her collection, a sculpted gold Buddha cake. We knew we wanted to make her a birthday cake she would never forget and we came up with the idea of making a gold Buddha for her. Her home is graced with Buddha figures, books on Buddhism and she even flew to Maui to hear the Dalai Lama speak. Oh, this would be PERFECT! Rick and I were both tremendously excited to make the cake for her and thought we would bring it by her home on Saturday night. Small change in plans. Linda had already assembled a group of some of her favorite women together (myself included) today for a lunchtime bowling party, and when she found out we wanted to bring a birthday cake to her she thought it would be better to share it with a group of people, not knowing of course that the cake we were bringing would be so elaborate. She said "can you bring it with you to the bowling alley?" "Sure" I said nervously after thinking about the cake Rick was making, "no problem." The bowling alley we were all meeting at has a restaurant inside that is known to have tasty food and we were going to have lunch there and then enjoy the cake.

When Linda saw her birthday cake for the first time today, her jaw dropped and I thought she was going to start crying with joy. She was so touched and excited to share Rick's creation with her friends, there was a sparkle in her eye and a silly grin on her face.

Carrying the cake into Aiea Bowl has got to be one of the strangest, most memorable deliveries we've ever made. It was positively surreal! From the second we walked through the door with the cake, we got stare after stare and people approaching us asking "is that a cake." Thank goodness I had quite a few business cards on me to pass on to the diners and bowlers who kept asking for them. I was absolutely amazed how many of the bowlers just happened to carry cameras with them and came over to take a photo. After the birthday gal blew out her candles and I made the first incision into the cake, decapitating the poor Buddha head and disassembling it from his body, there were gasps of horror at first, but then our happy lady bowlers got very excited and all I could see was plate after plate coming towards me for a piece. The birthday gal is a chocolate fiend and Rick decided to make her chocolate cake with fudge filling and she was in heaven. Between her several strikes of the day and her gold buddha chocolate cake, Linda left the bowling alley grining from ear to ear. I thought, now how are we gonna top that next year...

Happy Birthday Linda!

See Linda's Gold Buddha Cake and a huge selection of other cakes on cakelava.com.

The "I'd Like to Include My Dog" Cakes

I'm afraid this post has gone to the dogs. We know dogs are Man's Best Friend but do they belong on a cake? Apparently they do because we've been noticing over the years that many of our clients are asking for their pet dog to be added to their cake. Don't get us wrong, we love dogs, and happen to own an adorable Australian Shepherd/Samoyed at home, but we also own a beautiful blue-eyed Siamese/Tabby kitty, and we can't recall the last time a client asked for their pet kitty on their cake.

I've assembled some cakes, I'll call them the "I'd like to include my dog" cake, which differ from the "Can you sculpt my dog" cakes.

The sculpted submarine above was made for a retired commander of a submarine that looked very similar to this one. His family, The Stotts, own their own real estate company here in Kailua, and they happen to live on the beach, and they'd like to include a Rhodesian Ridgeback.



Gayle's retirement cake was an "interests" cake of her favorite things -- her collection of Christmas houses, arts and crafts, Winnie the Pooh and she'd like to include their pair of Yellow Labradors.



For their wedding cake, our couple ordered a cake inspired by Rick's and my wedding cake, but instead of a giant Tiki in front, they wanted a little surfshop, called "Monster's Surf Shop" which they named after their dog Monster, who they'd like to include on the surfboard with them.

The cake above, another "interests" cake made for the same woman who ordered her fiance the sculpted Technics Turntable cake. This cake was in honor of her parents birthdays' and had their interests of fishing and shopping (guess which was which). Sitting on the boat, enjoying the ride, she'd like to include their two adorable puppies.


We've featured the cake above on our blog. Our bride ordered her groom his own sculpted T-Mobile Sidekick cake and "can we include our dog Natto Bean in the screen?"

No problem!

Melinda and Benjamin's cake

Melinda and Benjamin were married in July at the beautiful Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu. Their reception was held in the Sunset Room which overlooks the ocean and the grounds of the resort. Melinda was inspired by a cake we made for our bride Bianca which can be seen on cakelava.com and is shown below. She enjoyed the different shapes and heights of the tiers and like Bianca's cake, she wanted buttercream icing and delicate piping. Her colors were chocolate brown and baby blue and she didn't want any dimensional flowers on the cake. We went for contemporary elegance with her cake, adding only the slightest hint of Hawaiian influence, which came from the honu (Hawaiian sea turtle) on her invitation which we used in the center of the second tier, and the conceptual plumeria flower pattern on the 3rd tier.



The couple's invitation is shown above. Note the honu design between their names. Oh, and those whitish colored spots near the top of the invitation, that's just a little buttercream icing courtesy of Rick.


Melinda and Benjamin chose our Banana Nutella and Kona Toffee Crunch flavors to serve their guests. Two of our popular flavors (which taste great together!). I have been meaning to write about Melinda's cake for some time now, and was recently reminded how much we enjoyed working with Melinda and Benjamin, when we received this ultra-sweet handwritten note from the couple:

Hi Sasha & Rick!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for a really BEAUTIFUL cake!! I loved everything about it! From the color, to the design - it truly was what I had in mind for my wedding day and I thank you for making it a reality for me. Everyone at the wedding could not stop taking pictures or talking about it! I didn't want to ruin it by cutting into it! But when I finally did, I have to say that it was amazingly delicious and I'm so glad I got to try out 2 flavors. Thank you for being so great to work with. I truly appreciate how responsive you were to my needs and for your kindness. I regret not being able to meet you in person but please take this card as a big hug and a "will-never-forget" type deal!

Take care,

Melinda C.


Melinda and Benjamin, please take this post as our big hug and "will-never-forget" type deal. You guys were great to work with and we wish you both the best in your new life together!

- Sasha & Rick

See Melinda and Bianca's wedding cakes and many others on cakelava.com.