Look Inside EXTREME CAKEOVERS!

We have been anxiously awaiting Amazon.com's "Look Inside" for EXTREME CAKEOVERS for quite some time, and were excited to see it posted earlier than anticipated. The "Look Inside" feature displays a preview of the pages of the book and is often the public's first opportunity to see past the cover. We already own a precious advance copy of our book, but our family, friends, and the general public haven't seen it yet and we are thrilled to share it with everyone!

Getting to see the "Look Inside" feature for EXTREME CAKEOVERS was exhilarating! Then, we saw the book was selected by Amazon to offer Featured Recipes available to the reader for download, and our wonderful surprise tasted even sweeter! You can download our Gift Box of Pearls and Jukebox cake recipes directly from the Amazon listing.
 
We hope you like what you see in the book and look forward to making some cakes!

Diver's Helmet Cake

cakelava.com

I was recently asking Rick if he has a cake bucket list. I was curious if he had one and what was on it. While he doesn't have a formal list written down, there are definitely designs he has his eye on and just needs the right client to request them. As I suspected, one of the designs on his cake bucket list is a hard hat diver's helmet.  After last weekend, Rick can cross the diver's helmet off his list!

It's hard to say who was more excited when the request for the cake came in - Rick or myself. I had been communicating with the client who was considering one of two themes for her husband Scott's 60th birthday party. Both themes had something to do the ocean and her husband's careers. We were happy to make either of them, but hopeful she would choose the diver's helmet since Rick hadn't made one before and apparently, was on his cake bucket list. If it was meant to be, it would happen. We were thrilled when she sent us an email telling us to move forward with the diver's helmet!

Knowing the diver's helmet would be a challenging cake, Rick allocated a good amount of time to work on it. It took him 9 hours to sculpt and decorate the cake. We wanted Scott and our client to be blown away when they saw it, and make it a birthday celebration he would never forget!

The party was held at our client's home. She told us that she had designed a theme based on the cake. We were very impressed at her attention to detail and how much the theme was carried out in the decor of the party. When we arrived, some guests were already there. It didn't take long for the cake to draw a crowd, which was soon followed by "THAT'S a cake?!" - music to any cake designer's ears!
The diver's helmet cake was a huge hit, with both our client and her guests.

This amazing display at the entrance to the party which included a photo of Scott, greeted guests as they arrived. The antique diver's helmet in the display was one of many on display throughout the property.

Thank you to our wonderful client for including us in Scott's very special day, and for giving us an opportunity to cross one of our new favorite cakes off the bucket list!

A Stroll Down Memory Lane - 2011, Part 3

 

It's been a couple weeks since our last "Stroll Down Memory Lane" post. We've been busy working on new cakes and getting ready for our book release on July 9th, which has created much excitement around here! We started writing EXTREME CAKEOVERS  in 2011 and have now come full circle. We can't wait to finally share the fruits of our labor - and believe me, it was definitely labor! If you missed the previous cake retrospective posts, you can read them here:

Part 1
Part 2

We ended Part 2 of the 2011 retrospective of selected cakes in late June, when summer weddings in Hawaii were in full swing and we felt the added pressure of having a book to produce. Our studio was a crazy place! A portion of each day was spent working on cakelava cakes for customers and the other part was spent working on our book, and the two couldn't be more different. We had our custom made-from-scratch cakes where each cake was uniquely designed with a specific client in mind, and simultaneously designing cakes using all store-bought products. If we weren't making a cake, we were on a delivery, or going to a store to get products for the book.

I've chosen some cakes to share from the months of July through October, starting with a very tall, dramatic hibiscus cake, shown above. It was one of four cakes, including a fun and swirly circles design (below) Rick made for July 3rd events.

In Honor of our Veterans

cakelava.com

Today's post is dedicated to my grandfather Kazuo who is a veteran of World War II, and to all of our military veterans. We honor our brave men and women and thank them for their service!

I've been thinking about my grandfather, as I have every Memorial Day weekend since he passed away. This year he is on mind even more, because in less than 2 months our book will be released and we won't be able to show it to him. He passed away long before writing a book was even on the horizon. My grandfather was a veteran of World War II, proudly serving in the 100th Infantry Batallion and a member of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). He was a successful entrepreneur who often asked about our business and gave us advice. He had a sweet tooth and loved to eat cake. We miss seeing the big grin on his face when we showed him photos of Rick's latest designs. It would have meant so much to my grandfather that we have a book, a tangible representation of all our hard work and determination, and I know he would love the subject matter!

Last weekend, I thought about my grandfather as we delivered a Kiowa Warrior helicopter groom's cake to a military wedding. The Kiowa Warrior is one of the most difficult military cakes Rick has ever made and was a surprise gift from a bride to her groom. The cake was 3 feet long and sculpted out of chocolate cake. It took a significant amount of time to make because of the intricacy of the details and the pressure to make an accurate representation since the groom flies this model of helicopter. In relation to other sculpted helicopter cakes Rick has made, the Kiowa Warrior was more labor intensive than either the CH53 Delta or the CH53 Echo cakes. The Delta and Echo are impressive helicopters but we thought this one was especially Bad Ass!

In honor of our veterans and Memorial Day, Craftsy, the online crafting website is running a very special Memorial Day promotion. This weekend only, a portion of all Craftsy class sales will benefit a veteran's organization to support those who have served our country. Select classes, including a bunch of cake decorating classes, will be 60% off. The Memorial Day promotion runs from now through Monday, May 27th at Midnight MST (expires Tuesday morning). To take advantage of this wonderful promotion on Craftsy, click here!