A Stroll Down Memory Lane - 2005 to 2006

I've long been meaning to go through our photo archives and organize them. The problem is that I couldn't find the time to give our precious memories the attention it deserved and instead we would keep adding to the photos without taking the time to savor the experiences. Nearly 15,000 photos and approaching 8 years in business, it was long overdue! Earlier this month, Rick and I sat down together and looked through years of photos, both personal and business related. Ever since our business began, it seemed we were always moving forward, never stopping to look back, and it was an amazing experience to see the cakes over the years. It was incredible to see how much has changed, in terms of his style and approach to cakes, but at the same time noticing how much has stayed the same. There are certain features in Rick's early designs - using bamboo and tropical/Hawaiian themes, for example - that he still uses almost 8 years later. It was fun to reminisce together about the cakes, and we approached the memories from different perspectives, him from a designer's point of view, as the person who made the cake, and I remembered every client who ordered the cake and their event details. I remembered the process of working with them and he recalled the making the cake. I feel blessed to have been on this crazy ride with Rick and gotten to witness some of the best cakes he has ever made!

As we were looking through the photos together, I had an idea that it would be fun to write a blog showing a sampling of Rick's cakes over the years. Many of these cakes are no longer on our website, and we have had thousands of new people join our communities and social networks who may not have seen these designs. This project was a huge undertaking, because just choosing a "sample" of Rick's cakes (out of well over 1000) is no small task and then writing about it - also no small feat. I decided to make the time to do it. It would be a labor of love and one I hope you all enjoy!

2005 to 2006 - the early years. Rick was working out of a commerical shared kitchen incubator at the time. It wasn't until 2007 that we moved into a shop.

 

cakelava opened for business in March 2005. 6 months later, Rick made this cake for a wedding. Rick first made the all-bamboo covered tiers for our wedding cake before we had even opened cakelava and it has been well-requested over the years.

Rick designed this cake with pretty swirls and stylized flowers in 2005. After this cake was shown on our website, we had numerous clients asking for some version of it. He did the color gradations going from darker pink to lighter. The "ombre" look has become very trendy and we still get requests for it!

2006

 

The "packages" wedding cake, or at least that is how we referred to it. was a cake that helped put cakelava on the map, locally. The cake ended up on the front page of the "TODAY" section of our local paper and was quite a challenge to make, considering we were working in a kitchen with no air conditioning and Rick made everything by hand.

Rick made this cake in June 2006, using the bride's wedding dress as inspiration. He has made many versions of this same design over the years.

This wedding cake was designed around an English country theme with a sculpted water pitcher on top. We both really loved this cake!

The couple who hired us for this wedding cake was smitten with the cake Rick made for our wedding and wanted a similar design but done in blue (ours was pink) and instead of a giant Tiki on the front, they requested a surf shack that would be named after their dog "Monster". The couple and Monster were handcrafted and placed on the side of the cake. The bride also ordered a sculpted Hummer H2 to as a groom's cake. Rick was still making cakes at the culinary incubator when he made this cake. It was around this time we thought about moving into a shop...

This was one of a number of Moroccan cakes Rick has made at cakelava, and most have been delivered to the one Moroccan restaurant on the island. Moroccan cuisine is one of my favorites and I enjoy seeing the intricate tile work and the beautiful color combinations. This was a striking design!

Rick made this unusual wedding cake in August 2006. It was one of our favorite "wonky" cakes at the time and has remained one of our all-time favorite cakes. We are nostalgic about it because it was around this time that Rick was defining his artistic style and this cake made its way around the internet and magazines. It was beautifully shot by photographer Dave Miyamoto.

August 2006, a week after the whimsical wonky cake shown above. Theresa's cake will forever be known at cakelava as "The All-Bamboo" cake, and Rick will forever be making this design for brides who fall in love with it! This one cake became a defining point for our business, as it made its way across the internet, ended up in countless magazines, including People Magazine when it was named the best cake in Hawaii! I can't even count how many times Rick has made this cake, exactly as seen, or in varying amounts of the tiers. We even have a large photograph of this cake in our studio.

Rick made this cake near the end of 2006. It was made for a bride who is a graphic designer and wanted a cake that would incorporate the pattern on her wedding invitation. There is a funny backstory to this awesome photograph, taken by Chrissy Lambert. When we delivered the cake to a beach house, there was a lot of dishes in the background and she wanted to get a great shot, so she went into the bathroom and grabbed the shower curtain, placing it behind the cake, and voila, problem solved. No stacks of dishes behind it!

I remember the hundreds of edible pearls that Rick made for this cake. It was made in November 2006 for a magazine photo shoot and taken by Dave Miyamoto. The cake was so pretty and colorful!

In the next post, we will explore some of the cakes made in 2007, which was quite an eventful year for us! Stay tuned...