A Colorful Celebration of Baby Einstein

This weekend we went on a colorful escapade of cakes. Not one white cake in the bunch, which was completely fine with us. This Baby Einstein themed cake Rick designed for Amber Rose's birthday party was simply adorable and full of color. We went bright, bold, and fun on this one, and with characters as cute as the Baby Einstein team, how could we not go a little crazy. This Bananarama flavored cake was even more dynamic in person and really got a reaction when we delivered it. Happy Birthday, Amber Rose!

See a huge selection of colorful cakes on cakelava.com

Drumroll, Please ... Heather & Jim Are Married!

On Monday night, finishing up a full weekend of cakes, we drove out to the resort area of Ko Olina on the west side of Oahu for Heather and Jim's wedding at the J.W. Marriott Ihilani Resort. We've been looking forward to making their green and silver stacked drums wedding cake since we met with the couple last year to go over the details. Heather and Jim are a fun couple who wanted to WOW their guests with a replica of their drum set, and we were more than happy to make this happen for them. As is the case with many wedding cakes we deliver, we don't get to see the couple on their happy day. We would have loved to see their reaction not just when they saw their cake but also when they cut into their brightly colored Rainbowlicious flavor, which always makes for a stunning presentation.

Congratulations to Heather and Jim! We hope they will make beautiful music together for years to come.

Heather and Jim's sculpted drums wedding cake can be seen on cakelava.com in the near future. Til then, check out our many other sculpted wedding cakes.

Aloha, til next time!

When tokidoki visits the Sushi Bar

When we said earlier we couldn't have dreamed up a more diverse selection of cakes last weekend, we weren't kidding. For Leah's 8th birthday cake Rick incorporated two of her favorite things -- tokidoki and sushi. We put her favorite tokidoki, Tsuru, in a prominent position on the cake and surrounded her with her BFF's where she could rock and roll all night (and party every day). Leah's mother informed us her daughter's favorite food is sushi and she particularly loves to go to a local place here that serves the sushi on a conveyor belt. Rick set forth to give Leah a cake beyond hers and any tokidoki fans wildest dreams, and handcrafted each tokidoki and piece of sushi on the cake. He cleverly created a conveyor belt at the base of the cake and placed some sushi's and tokidiokis on it. So cute! Not wanting to leave anyone out of this party, Rick added little faces to the sushi which I thought was completely adorable. We fell completely head over heels for this cake and luckily so did Leah's mother and another little girl when they came to pick it up. Talk about a reaction. They almost went into shock when they saw it and I wasn't sure they were going to leave. They were afraid to have anyone cut into it. Having now made 3 custom tokidoki cakes, we're starting to get to know our tokidoki friends better each time and have developed a fondness for the little guys. At this point if you are scratching your head saying "toki-what-ee?", we advise you to check out our previous posts: Fun with tokidoki and Cute, cute, Oh So Cute! The Girly Pink tokidoki Cake.

Want more? See our selection of tokidoki cakes on cakelava.com

cakelava Visits "The Mokes"

Rick and I are proud Kailuans. We have our retail space for our business in Kailua and reside in this sweet little beach town located minutes away from one of the most exquisite beaches you'll ever lay eyes on. We love our Kailua, as do most residents living here, and welcome any opportunity to make a cake dedicated to one of our favorite places. As part of our ecclectic weekend of cakes, we had the opportunity to help George celebrate his 50th birthday in style -- paddling his way to the Mokulua Islands located off of Kailua. In Hawaiian, "Moku Lua" means two islands or twin islands. The Mokulua Islands are often called "The Mokes" by the locals, and for those adventurous enough, when the ocean is calm you can take a canoe or kayak or even swim out to The Mokes. Our client who ordered the Chocolate Dream cake for George was originally thinking of a giant tombstone for his 50th. Yikes! If death comes knocking at 50, then I guess Rick and I only have 10+ good years left. Luckily our client decided that George's 50's would be years to celebrate rather than fear and asked if we could make George paddling his way out to the Mokulua Islands. Now that sounded like a cake! Not that we wouldn't have enjoyed making a tombstone, but they've been done so many times before and his canoe paddling excursion to The Mokes is a cake he wouldn't soon forget. Based on the reactions of everyone, it was a huge hit and had the perfect background -- oceanfront Kailua views looking out towards The Mokes. At least George's 50th would be off to a great start and the Grim Reaper was omitted from the guest list.



Rick putting the finishing touches on his creation.


Come back next time to see what happens when we mix a whole bunch of tokidokis and a conveyor belt of sushi ...

In the meantime, visit cakelava.com to see our portfolio of cakes.

Birthday Cake Gone Wild

If this weekend had a theme, it would be "ecclectic". We couldn't have dreamed up a more diverse selection of cakes than these past few days, and we're hard pressed to choose a favorite, so we'll start with this super fab birthday cake with leopard print and bright pink daisies number. We're totally wild about this funky cake and it was a purrr-fect match when we arrived on site. The ballroom was decked out in bright pinks, black and white, and of course, the leopard print was everywhere, from the centerpices, to the candy bar, to the guests favor bags. Clearly a lot of thought was put into the decor of this party. Aside from the colors and pattern involved, Rick was given free reign on the design. The cake was placed on black and pink satin linens in the front of the room, where it instantly had a crowd of admirers. It looked like the several hundred guests were in for a real sweet time. The smell of sugar was everywhere, from the cake to the Godiva chocolates in some of the centerpieces and if that wasn't enough sugar, guests could get their fill at the birthday girl's candy bar. This was one sweet and wild event and we were happy to be a part of it!








Get in touch with your inner animal. Go to cakelava.com and see our selection of animal print cakes.

A Pretty End to "Lesley/Leslie" Week

All images courtesy of VISIONARI

What better way to end a week of "The Leslies" than to post Lesley & Jason's Featured Wedding on cakelava.com and reveal yet another Lesley's, (Lesley P) beautiful wedding. As you can see below, this Lesley's wedding could have easily been a Featured Wedding, it has all the right components, and is very sweet and pretty. Seriously, I could stare at these photos all day. Visionari is awesome, and with a CD full of gorgeous images, what's a gal to do besides share the love with our readers.

I fell in love with this wedding as soon as I saw the images, and it's no surprise that the bride Lesley was inspired by Style Me Pretty. Rick and I are huge fans and Little Black Book members of Style Me Pretty. I can easily see the influences of the site on her wedding, from her selection of the color palette and carefully chosen details, the romantic venue (Queen Emma's Summer Palace in Nuuanu), and her stylish attire. I absolutely adore her choice of the blue shoes -- something blue, indeed!

For Lesley and Patrick's cake, we drew inspiration from their invitation and used antiqued silver accents giving the cake a classic, yet romantic feel. It went beautifully with the rest of their decor. They selected our Kona Toffee Crunch and Chocolate Dream flavors to serve their guests.

Special thanks to Lesley and Patrick for including us in their special day!



note: this photo has been adjusted to protect the identity of our clients























See Lesley and Patrick's cake and Lesley and Jason's Featured Wedding on cakelava.com

Aloha, til next time!

Cakes for the Little Ones

When we posted last week about the Fairy, flowers and butteflies cake, Rick was busy working on Alena's flowers and butterflies cake. Neither of us knew he would be adding cute happy faces on the flowers when he made them, but that's the fun part about making cakes, you never know where it will lead you. Last weekend it led us into the boxing ring , a cheerful garden in the Springtime and back to Tommyland, among other places. We made another Thomas the Tank Engine cake, this time for a 3-year old boy named Zayden (shown below) who had a Thomas the Train themed pool party, which may explain why he has no shirt on. The reason Zayden isn't looking at our camera when we took the photo is he was too busy looking at all the other cameras shooting him with his cake. The cake made a huge splash with the birthday boy and everyone else. Happy Birthday Zayden!



To see more cakes for the little ones, check out cakelava.com.

Next Featured Wedding Sneak Peek - Lesley and Jason

All images courtesy of VISIONARI

Our next Featured Wedding on cakelava.com pretty much selected itself. We got a CD in the mail from the talented photographic team at Visionari and the images were so pretty and the black and white wedding so striking we couldn't ignore it. Plus, they had the most precious flower girl. This wedding must be featured! Lesley and Jason were married on January 14, 2009, at the historic Moana Surfrider Resort on Waikiki Beach. The ceremony took place on the Terrace overlooking the ocean and the reception was held indoors in the Rooftop Garden, a lovely intimate space filled with light and views of Waikiki. Lesley and Jason selected a color palette of black and white and their florals in soft pinks and whites. They hired coordinator Lissa Wilson of The Wedding Planners, who always designs a beautiful event, and left the rest up to their vendors -- Always Flowers for floral design, cakelava for their wedding cake, Leslie Gallagher for hair and makeup, Video 21 Productions for videography.

Lesley and Jason, who reside in Canada, wanted an unusual wedding cake with a fly-fishing theme, since the groom loves to fly fish. We've done many cakes with the ocean fishing theme, but not too many with the river fishing theme. Apart from a fishing themed topper Lesley provided us to add onto the cake, and their black and white color scheme, Rick was given free reign on the design of the cake. They wanted it to be fun and memorable, and that's exactly what we gave them.

We'll be posting Lesley and Jason's Featured Wedding on cakelava.com in the next couple days.
Here's a little sneak peek. Enjoy!
















We couldn't resist these last couple images of this angelic flower girl indulging in Lesley and Jason's cake. Sweet!




Aloha, til next time!