Jessica and David's Wedding Cake

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Jessica and David were married at a Waikiki resort less than 24 hours ago in front of several hundred guests.  We've been looking forward to making their wedding cake ever since it was designed and upon completion it quickly became one of our new favorite designs!  Working with Jessica and David was a wonderful experience! They encouraged Rick's creativity, wanting a showstopping design of contemporary elegance with a minimum of 5 tiers. This cake was 7 tiers, including the floral vase topper and a height of 3 feet.  Their colors were ivory, black and a pewter/silver color.   Rick had been working on all the handcrafted decorations throughout the week and spent most of Saturday making the cake.  When I first saw the finished cake, my jaw dropped.  I knew Jessica and David would fall in love with it. The towering wedding cake commanded a presence in the large ballroom decorated in black, white and silver.  Everything looked gorgeous and I only wish we had a chance to give our best to the couple when we delivered the cake.  We would have loved to see their reaction! 

Jessica and David selected three flavors from our menu to serve to their guests -- Kona Toffee Crunch, Peanut Butter Fudgey and Strawberries Chantilly.  We hope our couple loved their cake as much as we enjoyed making it for them.   Congratulations, Jessica and David!

Birthday Wishes from Afghanistan

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Earlier this year we made a sculpted tiki cake for a woman about to leave to Afghanistan on deployment.  The cake was ordered by her husband as a surprise in honor of a birthday celebration before she left for duty.  The cake was a big success -- she, her husband and their guests loved it!  A number of months later we received an email from Afghanistan.  This time, it was her husband's birthday and she wanted to surprise him with his own special cake!  For both of our clients, incorporating Hawaii into the cake was important to them.  He chose a tiki with a surfboard for her and she requested a sculpted Honu (Hawaiian sea turtle) for him.  Both cakes looked amazingly realistic!

Hawaiian sea turtles are revered in Hawaii and most people think they bring good luck.  Sometimes when we are out swimming at our local beach they come right up to us.  it is a magical moment. They are gentle, beautiful creatures, and also look great in cake!  Rick has made many honu cakes over the years and each looks slightly different from the next.  The honu is sculpted out of cake and handpainted.  The handcrafted hibiscus flowers give it a further tropical touch.

Just like the tiki birthday cake, the honu cake was delivered to a party on a military base.  Our client had arranged for a friend to meet and escort us.  When we arrived at the building where the party was held, a familiar face walked by -- it was the birthday boy -- yikes! -- and we had to dodge him just so he wouldn't see his birthday surprise.  Luckily he didn't see us and we delivered the cake to the table where it patiently waited for its reveal!  From across the miles, we want to say "Thank You!" to our clients for including us in their special days!

A Marriage of a Family

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 Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with their families! I thought this cake, which was actually made for a wedding couple and their daughter, would be a perfect design to share after a holiday weekend that brings families together.

This sculpted island cake complete with custom handcrafted figures, palm trees, rowboat and firepit was made in honor of Christina and Clint's wedding to each other as well as the celebration of their official union as a family with their daughter Kylia and their pet poodle.   It was an idea that touched us, to truly personalize the wedding cake to include the whole family.  Rick based their wedding cake on photographer Dave and Michelle Miyamoto's island themed design he made for their 2009 wedding.  Christina and Clint fell in love with it and asked for a similar design honoring their family with a rowboat instead of the yacht and a poodle instead of a shiba inu.

When the cake was delivered, we knew immediately who greeted us because Rick had spent many hours making and painting the figure -- it was Kylia, their daughter, and she got a kick out of seeing herself and her parents on the cake.  Everyone loved the cake and felt it really represented the spirit of the couple.  Congratulations to Christina, Clint and Kylia!

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Heisman Trophy Cake

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The Heisman Trophy cake had been on the books for a while, and it was a mere coincidence that it happened to be on the same Saturday as the Miami Dolphins Football Helmet with figures wedding cake.  Two football themed cakes for diehard football fans, and the pressure was on!  I remember when the Heisman trophy cake request came in.  I had to look up the name "Heisman" just to make sure it was spelled correctly on the order, (and again had to confirm the spelling for this blog post).  We had certainly heard of the Heisman Trophy, it's the most prestigious trophy in college football,  but could not tell you who had won one in recent years.  As a sculpted piece Rick was determined to make this difficult structure as true to form as possible.  It didn't help that the body in a Heisman trophy contorts itself in a way that doesn't seem natural, or the fact that he had to make the piece look like it was made out of bronze, or that the father of the child who the cake was for was a H-U-G-E football fan -- no pressure there!  The sculpted Heisman Trophy was substantial, the photo does not do justice to the size.  We were both extremely happy with the completed piece and hope it made a huge impression at the party.  When we delivered it to the venue, every football fan in the room who was there setting up commented on how realistic it looked, which we took to be a good sign and a felt a big sigh of relief that Rick had captured such an iconic form as an edible piece.  After spending many hours sculpting the piece, Rick as well as myself, will never look at another Heisman Trophy quite the same way again!