August 13, 1959 - August 13, 2009

According to Wikipedia, Ala Moana Shopping Center ranks as the 15th largest shopping mall in the United States. It is also one of the largest if not the largest outdoor shopping mall in the world. With nearly 300 stores and opening them faster than we can keep up, Ala Moana Center as a retail giant is a force to be reckoned with. Hundreds of thousands of tourists flock there on their Hawaiian vacation and for the locals is it one stop shopping at its best. Ala Moana and I go way back, back to the '70s when my family would head down to the massive mall to purchase just about anything we needed. During my teen years Ala Moana Center opened another level with exclusive high-end Rodeo-drive or NYC based stores and ever since then, it's attracted the best of the best. You want Chanel, they have one. Louis Vuitton, Prada, Tiffany, Jimmy Choo, Neimn Marcus, M.A.C. Cosmetics, and on and on. If its designer and its hot, you'll find it at Ala Moana Center. They also have nearly every store you'd find in most malls -- Banana Republic, American Eagle, J Crew, and coming in October, Hawaii's first Victoria's Secret. No big deal for most of you, but us locals have had to mail order from Victoria's Secret or stop by one of their stores on a mainland vacation. In the shopping department, Hawaii is definitely not deficient. Culinarily speaking, Ala Moana has a massive amount of options sure to satisfy any palette and every budget, including one of the largest International Food courts I've seen.

As an employer, Ala Moana has been providing jobs for local residents dating back to their opening in 1959, August 13, 1959 to be precise. The name "Ala Moana" was chosen because of its location across from the ocean. "Ala" means street and "Moana" is ocean. Of the nearly 300 retailers at Ala Moana Center, there are 11 original tenants. On Thursday, August 13, 2009, Ala Moana will be celebrating their 50 year anniversary, with a BIG birthday celebration followed by a two and a half week long extravaganza that kicks off at Centerstage at 5:30pm. Of course you can't have a proper birthday party without a proper cake! Ala Moana Center hired cakelava to design an exquisite birthday cake to honor their 50 years, and we're having a blast making it! Rick designed them a really beautiful cake!

For those of you who are able to make it to Ala Moana Center on Thursday, there will be goodies galore, including a traditional Hawaiian blessing, a live performance by the Brothers Cazimero, chinese lion dances, Taiko drummers and so much more. Ala Moana will be giving away 1,959 chocolate bars, five of which will contain a golden ticket, worth a $250 gift card. Rick and I are thankful and honored to make their 50th Anniversary cake and can't wait to get the party started! Hope to see you there!

more cakes, coming soon!
visit cakelava.com to get your fix.

CANDY LAND Cake!

We knew ahead of time 8-8-09 was going to be one of those cringe-inducing dates, not unlike 8-8-08 where we were booked solid for months prior, worked 11+ hour days the week of, and would spend the actual day going from event to event. However, the way these well-requested dates go -- yes, they are a LOT of work -- but we always have a bunch of cool cakes in the mix, and this past weekend was no different. One of the cakes we were most excited about was our sculpted CANDY LAND cake which was made for the niece of one of our previous bride's birthday party. For the Candy Land themed party we were hired to make a big sculpted Candy Land cake that resembled the board game as well as cupcake tiers with a cake to match. Rick pulled out all the stops on this one, making and painting every piece by hand. Considering how many other cakes with involved artistry he made for the weekend (one was the ocean themed wedding cake) , the level of detail was amazing! The cupcake tiers were also involved, and designed to compliment the Candy Land cake.



detail view of the CANDY LAND cake


Candy themed cupcake tiers


Side by side in perfect harmony at the Candy Land party!

Join us tomorrow to see more of our latest work.

Aloha, til next time!

Fresh Cake! - So Fresh, these Fish Should be Slapped

I don't recall exactly when it was that the television networks started called their "New" episodes "Fresh." Suddenly we were hearing "A fresh episode of" this and "a fresh episode of" that. I wonder what their non-new episodes are called? Stale? Tired? Old? Today we decided to share with you one of our freshest cakes. It would only be fresher if we could show you the cakes were currently working on, but sorry we can't, you'll have to wait. This is about as fresh as it's going to get.

So how fresh is this cake? All the colorful fish and marine life on this cake are so fresh, they should be slapped. Is a wedding last night fresh enough? This beautiful ocean cake with colorful marine life was designed with our bride and groom (with the JS initials) and their puppy dog "Sprout" in mind. Rick handcrafted all the pieces on the cake, including Sprout and the coral "JS" monogram. The reception took place at lovely Kahala Resort's "Tokyo Tokyo" restaurant, which serves some of the freshest raw fish around. Keeping with the colorful cake, the couple chose our signature Rainbowlicious flavor and Strawberries Chantilly. As all ingredients in our cakes are fresh, no preservatives are used, this cake was one fresh and refreshing bite after another.

Congratulations to S & J. It was a pleasure working with you both!

Come back next week to see some of our freshest cake designs. In the meantime, enjoy our portfolio at cakelava.com, or join us on twitter.

Aloha, til next time!

Blue Hawaii

Image courtesy of Dulce Photo

For this wedding cake we drew inspiration from one of our own, the "Kelly" cake, shown on cakelava.com and also in a destination feature in BRIDE'S Magazine. It was through this feature that our bride contacted us requesting a similar design for her wedding cake. As we began working with our bride, we realized that a few of the components of the "Kelly" cake would be present, but that this would be her and her fiance's own unique and special design. Their wedding colors included bright pinks, which we used in the handcrafted hibiscus. The golf club placed on the 2nd tier of the cake was in honor of the groom, for which golf was a big part of his life. They also requested a tiki and palm trees on the cake and dolphins in the water, so we gave them everything they wanted, and delivered the lovely cake to their reception at the gorgeous North Shore oceanfront Loulu Palm Estate. We only saw the bride and groom from afar at the wedding, but knew they loved their cake, based on their Thank You note we received shortly after the wedding:

Wow wow wow wow wow
Wonderful wonderful wonderful cake and people you are.

The cake was a true show stopper.
Floored all of our guests!!!

Chris & I Absolutely loved it :)

Congratulations Leah and Chris! A big thank you to Dulce Photo for providng us with beautiful cake images.

More of our tropical beachy wedding cakes may be seen at cakelava.com.

til next time, Aloha!