Happy 235th Birthday, United States Marines!

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Last Friday, November 5th, we celebrated the 235th Birthday of the United States Marines.  This is the fourth cake we have made for the U.S. Marines Birthday Ball, and each year we do a different design for them.  This year however  they surprised us and asked for the same design as last year, with just a couple minor changes.  Rick added a ribbed effect to the red area and made the whole side of the cake a beautiful gold color. The cake was just as massive as last year and the same flavor, Strawberries Chantilly was ordered again.  The officers who greeted us were thrilled with the cake and we were very happy with it as well.  We want to wish the United States Marines a Happy 235th Birthday, and we look forward to serving them again next year!

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Giveaway! - CSN Stores

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!  If you submitted an entry past Midnight PST on November 17th, your entry was not counted. Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!

We are excited to announce a fantastic new giveaway for our readers just in time for the holidays courtesy of CSN Stores!  If you haven't had the opportunity to visit one of the 200+ online stores at CSN, you are certainly missing out. Whether you are looking for a special gift or something new for yourself, there are over one million products to peruse at CSN!

In my most recent "travels" to the site, I found the cutest aprons (see below), fabulous cookware, and some amazing upholstered headboards.  As the sponsor for our giveaway, CSN Stores is generously offering a $45 gift certificate to one lucky "Musings from Cakeland" reader and we couldn't be happier! We want our faithful readers who have supported our blog to be rewarded with a little retail therapy at any of their stores! 

How CUTE is this! I found the Flirty Aprons Women's Apron in "Frosted Cupcake" on Cookware.com and at $34.95, it can be purchased with your gift certificate!

RULES

This giveaway is available to residents of the U.S. and Canada ONLY.  Please be aware there may be shipping charges for certain items.

HOW TO ENTER

To enter the giveaway, simply visit CSN Stores and leave us a comment telling us what you would like to purchase using your $45 gift certificate.
- Earn an extra entry by tweeting about the giveaway on twitter - include a link to this post.  Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

The giveaway ends on Wednesday November 17th at Midnight PST.  One winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Friday November 19th on our blog. 

Special thanks to CSN Stores for donating the generous prize!  Good luck everyone!

Naomi and Roy's "Pillows" cake

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In the past couple of weeks Rick has had the opportunity to recreate some of his previous designs.  Our "Pillows" cake has been widely circulated on the internet and in print since 2008 when it was designed for a wedding.  The original "pillows" cake had an Indian flair to it because it was designed for yoga instructors.  On October 30th, a few hours before the "Dia de los Muertos" wedding cake was delivered to Katie and Chuck, we celebrated Naomi and Roy's wedding at an oceanfront venue in Ko Olina.  Naomi and Roy's wedding colors were metallic blues, greens and purples and their accent color was coffee brown.  The couple are Filipino and desired to have their heritage integrated into the design and provided us with Filipino patterns to use on the pillows.  It looked absolutely gorgeous and was meaningful to the couple.  For the Indian pillows cake Rick made handcrafted whimsical looking stylized flowers and for Naomi and Roy, opted for more delicate orchids in whites and soft pinks.   Congratulations to Naomi and Roy!

Rick Reichart "Cake Shoe Diaries" on The Sugar Cove Blog

Cake Shoe Diaries Welcomes Rick Reichart

"The Sugar Cove" blog has a wonderful interview blog series called "Cake Shoe Diaries" which features a different cake designer each month.  Rick was invited to be the November feature, and he felt honored to do it.  Angela, the owner of The Sugar Cove blog interviews each of her selected cake artists to find out what ignited their passion for sugar.  In her interview with Rick she asked him how he got started, what keeps him motivated, what principles guide his work, and what advice would he give to others just starting out.  Click the above link to read the interview and feel free to leave comments for Angela as she works hard on this series.  Thank you Angela for featuring Rick and for your continued passion of all things sugar!