Feeling the Blues

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It wasn't long ago that I read a tweet by a popular wedding site announcing that blue wedding cakes are trending.  It was a timely announcement because we had made 2 blue wedding cakes that week. I had noticed we've been making more blue colored cakes both for weddings and birthdays in 2014 so I figured it must be a trend, and now I had validation from the wedding powers that be, we will probably be seeing more of them! The cakes posted here were made this year.

For the cake decorators out there, are you also getting requests for blue colored cakes? What other color trends have you been noticing in 2014?

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A Rainbow Connecting Hawaii and New York

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On November 13, 2013 Hawaii Governor, Neil Abercrombie signed a bill legalizing gay marriage, and same-sex couples were allowed to marry starting December 2nd. Having spent my childhood through high school years on Oahu, I recall back in the early '90s when Hawaii was at the forefront of states allowing same-sex unions, but then later amended its constitution to ban those same unions in 1998. The topic of gay marriage is a divisive one, and if you are in the wedding industry in one of the 17 states plus the District of Columbia where same-sex marriage is legal, it is likely at some point you will be approached by a couple wanting to hire you. If you live in Hawaii - one of the most popular wedding destinations in the world - that point will be sooner rather than later.

Ever since we opened our doors back in 2005, cakelava has welcomed any couple to have a special custom cake designed for them. Most recently, we had the pleasure of designing this beautiful wedding cake for Val and Susan who celebrated their marriage after more than 20 years of being together. When we started communicating with Val and Susan, they desired to have Hawaii and New York, where they were both from, represented on the cake in some way. Their requests were simple - Hawaii, New York and a Rainbow, to symbolize their union. Rick decided to take a very stylized, colorful and artistic approach to their cake, bringing together elegance and a traditional shape with an unconventional and playful design. He decided to have a night time scene for New York City, because that is when the city comes alive, and a sunny beach scene for Hawaii, combining the best of two of our favorite places in the world, into one beautiful cake!

Val and Susan adored their cake and wrote us shortly after to say how much they and their guests loved it. Apparently, the kids at the wedding were drawn to the little taxi cabs, which we thought was so cute! I love this cake and the cute NYC taxi cabs make me smile every time I look at them! Congratulations to Val and Susan!

2013, A Year in Review - The Second Half - E.C. and A.E.C., Part 3

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We're having a blast looking back on some of our favorite cakes from 2013 and hope you're enjoying the view! Today, we're exploring cakes made during the months of August and September, following the release of our book Extreme Cakeovers, A.E.C. (After Extreme Cakeovers). We'll devote some time to the eventful month of July and finish the last few months of the year in Part 4. Here is Part 1 and Part 2 of B.E.C (Before Extreme Cakeovers), if you missed the previous posts.

The cake (shown above) we chose to introduce this period of time was a 4 foot tall gold, pink, and white wedding cake. It was made in September and combines some trends and design elements we worked with prominently during this time - wedding cakes that were yellow or gold, beautiful handcrafted flowers, and towering, 3 to 5 feet tall. During the latter half of 2013, Rick was regularly dedicating many hours each week to making gorgeous handcrafted flowers. It was clear that romance was back, elegant and opulent designs were hot, and brides wanted to go bigger and more eleborate, and it kept us very busy!

Before we jump into the After Extreme Cakeovers (A.E.C.) months, we'll look at July, the defining month which divided 2013 in half. Rick and I took the month of July off so we could enjoy one of the most exciting times in our lives - our book's release!  Extreme Cakeovers: Make Showstopping Desserts from Store-Bought Ingredients was released on July 9, 2013. It was a project we began in 2011 with our publisher Clarkson Potter (Random House), and we felt a huge honor to work with a publisher of some of the biggest names in cookbooks - Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, Giada DeLaurentiis, Ina Garten, Rachael Ray, and more! From the beginning, we put everything we had, and more into the book, and even kept our shop open while writing it! Were we crazy? Just a little...

The morning of our book's release, Hawaii News Now's "Sunrise" show aired a segment with Rick and I talking about the book with Anchor Grace Lee. Rick demonstrated his Aloha Shirt cake in their studio kitchen. Click the link to watch the "Sunrise" TV segment.

Like many authors, we "stalked" our book at the local Barnes and Noble and independent bookstores. This photo was taken at the Ala Moana Barnes and Noble, where our book was displayed prominently. I can't explain what a rush it is to see your book on store shelves for the first time!

We filmed a segment at KITV, (ABC) which you can watch here.

A special Apple only iBooks version of Extreme Cakeovers was released. It offers more interactivity than the other ebooks. You can see the Behind the Scenes at the Extreme Cakeovers iBooks photo shoot on The Recipe Club's (Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press) website, and order the iTunes book here.

The book has 40 cake recipes, all made from store-bought products. One of our favorites is the Sushi Platter cake.

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If you want to learn more about the book, check out the Official website for Extreme Cakeovers.

Boston classes: 

As if releasing a book wasn't enough, also during July, we flew to Boston for a week where Rick taught two cake decorating classes to students at The Cake World. It made for an eventful month and a nice break from making cakes! Shortly after returning from Boston, we posted about our experience and a number of photos taken during the classes. You can see it here.

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In Part 2 of our review, I mentioned one of the trends was requests for "incredibly complex sculpted vehicles"(air and land). I'll add, sea vehicles (like a fishing boat) as well. This Monster Truck was made for Stylen's birthday. The entire body and its gigantic wheels were sculpted out of cake and the decorations were handmade and painted by Rick.

We adored the yellow and pink wedding cake Rick made for Chelsea and Kyle in August. They wanted a lot of texture in their cake so Rick designed the cake where all tiers had texture and added handcrafted feathers and large roses, which were also on the bride's dress.

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Here is another yellow wedding cake Rick made, just two weeks after Chelsea and Kyle's yellow and pink wedding cake above. Sarah and Pat's yellow ombre wedding cake with gold accents was inspired by the bride's pretty plumeria flower jewelry and the groom's gold cummerbund. It was a military officer's wedding and the couple cut the cake with a sword. The cake was a huge hit at the wedding and when it was posted afterwards.

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Though we did a fair amount of yellow toned wedding cakes, we made an all blue cake too! One of our favorites of the year, this pretty blue cake was made by Rick for Dara and John, a couple we first met years ago. The flowers were handcrafted and took many hours to make - the whole bottom tier was covered with them and more flowers on the top tier! The Rainbowlicious cake made for a stunning cake cutting!

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You know it's a fun week when you get to make a cake as cute as this! Rick made the cake in late August for Chase's first birthday. Both the mouse and cake in front are made of cake. On top of it being a difficult to sculpt, the baby's father is a celebrity and that always adds more pressure. He and his wife were so kind and appreciative when we delivered the cake. We left the party feeling great, and relieved the hard work was behind us!

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Kiran and Perdeep's wedding cake was delivered the same day as Chelsea and Kyle's yellow and pink wedding cake. I recall the week when Rick spent about 8 hours making all the gorgeous roses for the cascade. It looked amazing! The bride and groom were overjoyed with the cake and we thought it turned out beautifully!

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Brandie and Glen's wedding cake was made the same weekend as Dara and John (blue) and Shanell and Troy's, (shown below). Rick started working on the flowers at least a week before the weddings just to have them all done in time! We previously worked with Brandie and Glen on their twin boys birthday cake and now it was their special day and we were excited to make their wedding cake. Rick's cake design for the couple combined squares and round tiers and pretty purples with silver accents. On the bottom tier was a pair of wedding rings tied with a ribbon. The cake was so lovely and we enjoyed working with our clients again!

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We're starting and ending Part 3 of our Review with a 4 foot tall wedding cake. Shanell and Troy's wedding cake was one of three elaborate floral wedding cakes made in a single weekend. Rick had his work cut out for him! 24 hours were spent making this one cake! For Shanell and Troy, Rick designed their cake to be covered in patterns, with bunches of large, delicate flowers. The main colors were grey and white with a vintage feel. The couple had a "TRON" themed lounge for their guests during the cocktail hour, and Rick added their monogram in a turquoise blue color, to tie in the bride's area with the groom's. We were intrigued with vintage elegance reception room and TRON inspired cocktail lounge. Sounds like a fun wedding!

In our next post, we'll wrap up 2013 with more cakes - more cars, some awesome sculptural compositions with custom figurines and of course, more wedding cakes! Please feel free to share with us your thoughts. Thank you for taking the journey with us!

A Stroll Down Memory Lane - 2009. Part 1

I realized after the 2008 retrospective was posted yesterday, that I had omitted an important mention which was the start of my "Interviews from Cakeland" blog series. My first interviewee "victim" was Jen Yates of Cake Wrecks fame in August 2008. If you missed my interview with Jen, you can read Part 1 and Part 2 here. Little did I know at the time that I was the first in what would be a very long list of people who interviewed Jen and that Cake Wrecks would become very successful. My interview series is listed on the blog, and ended with Katherine and Sophie from TLC's "DC Cupcakes" in 2010, right before the start of their show.

As I scrolled through the cake photos selected for 2009, I realized that it would take at least two posts, like the year 2008, to offer a sampling of what happened that year. It was a crazy busy year from start to finish and ended in December 2009, with the biggest media opportunity we ever had. Rick and I flew to Denver where he competed on Food Network "Challenge" TV show for "Spongebob Birthday Cakes"!

Prior to the months before we were in communications with the Producers of "Challenge" and began preparing for the competition, Rick was making some of the best cakes he has ever done!  It was the year he made his first standing electric guitar, and sculpted a burning firehouse.  He sculpted a Serenity spaceship from the Sci-Fi film "Firefly", a Little Einsteins rocket ship, a bulldog, a Toilet!, a life size tire for Lex Brodie tire company, a P-3 airplane, and with the help of his assistant, a large composition featuring Spongebob and a bunch of his friends! In between the cakes, there was a feature in Your Wedding Day Magazine (YWD), a fundraising calendar for American Cancer Society, and a 50th birthday cake for Ala Moana Center, one of the biggest outdoor malls in America! It was time for cakelava to Go Big or Go Home, and we went for it, in a BIG way!

 The year started with a photo shoot with Stephen Ludwig for a 2010 fundraising calendar for American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" which Rick was invited to be a part of. Rick and I were so excited to be able to give back for such a worthy cause. The creation of this cake was quite precious to both of us. Each cake designer was asked to design a cake that was inspired by a song, and Rick chose a song by Hawaiian artist, Israel Kamakawiwaole and the song was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which you may be familiar with. It is a gorgeous rendition of the classic, and celebrates the beauty of Hawaii, with its abundant rainbows. Rick painted a stylized land/ocean scene on the cake and dedicated the cake to my Aunt, who has been battling cancer for a number of years. Being able to give this art piece that we had such an emotional connection to was one of the most special experiences we had that year!

January 2009. It was Rick's first standing up guitar, made as a groom's cake for a couple who flew in from Baltimore. We hadn't done too many upright sculpted cakes and Rick was excited to take on the challenge. We were both happy with how the guitar turned out. For their wedding cake, the couple went with a traditional and elegant cake with beautiful handcrafted  tropical flowers.

 

A couple of months after Rick made the standing guitar groom's cake, he made a stacked drums wedding cake. The drums were done in a similar green to their wedding colors.

I remember Lena and Mike well. They bucked the traditional wedding cake idea and went for a sculpted burning firehouse with cusom figures of themselves in a fun pose. They were a fun loving couple and Rick was determined to convey this in the cake. He made a handcrafted custom figure of the couple with Lena tossed upside down over Mike's shoulder, a way that he used to carry her. I love this photo, taken by Dave Miyamoto!

 

We both adore this cake! It was a time consuming design for Rick to make because of the artwork, but it was so pretty in person and couldn't have been more at home in its environment.

We're big fans of the MINI Cooper, and enjoyed being able to make one in Rick's favorite color - orange! There is a fun back story for this cake, which you can read about here.

 

In Spring of 2009, Your Wedding Day (YWD) magazine released the issue with a feature called "New Ecclectic Hawaii". We were honored to be asked to do a shoot for YWD and be part of an awesome team of wedding professionals which included blufotographica, Finishing Touch, Yvonne Design, Emi Ink, Rachel Robertson, and Les Saisons. Rick designed the cake around the theme, which combined modern, tropical and Indian themes and included yellows, silver, white, black and bright pink. The result is shown above, captured beautifully by blufotographica.

We saw some themes gain popularity in 2009, like the "animals" theme - jungle animals, farm animals and the Noah's Ark animals. It was the first tine Rick had made a sculpted barn or a Noah's Ark filled with animals. Both cakes were done in all cake and the animals were handcrafted edible pieces. We both remember when he made all the animals for the Noah's Ark cake. There were animals peeking out of every open crevice, 360 degrees. The Ark suddenly felt much more massive when it was home to so many animals!

The start of the jungle/safari theme cake requests. It remains one of the most popular kids party themes and Rick has made many variations. This design is one of the most difficult jungle cakes he made, with each piece made and handpainted and the animals have a more realistic appearance than others.

Another jungle animals cake, done differently than the one above, but just as cute! All decorations are handmade.

 

Then came the Monkeys themed cakes. We have made so many of these, in different sizes, for twin children with two monkeys on top. We love them all!

 

The Sci-Fi/geeky cake theme was another trend we noticed in 2009. We adore the Sci-Fi cakes! More Millennium Falcons (above), R2-D2, the Death Star, a Star Trek Communicator, and "Serenity" ship from Firefly. All shown below.

 

 

The "Serenity" cake has an interesting story, which you can read about  here.  It was one of the most difficult shapes Rick had to create and though he is a Sci-Fi fanatic, neither of us had seen the movie, which made making the cake that much more difficult. 

 

It was our first dimensional Candy Land board game cake, and we set aside a substantial amount of time for this party. At the time we were still making custom cupcake towers and our client added on a candyland themed cupcake tower to go with it. I still remember the week this cake was done. We had a bunch of cakes requiring a lot of artistry, and I don't know how Rick got through it all. Every time I turned around, he was making decorations or painting them, and our kitchen looked like one big colorful art explosion. The cake below was made that same week. Yes, that is, in fact, a dog with a scuba mask on.

The last cake in this post was a striking leopard print with bright pink daisies design and became very popular after it was posted. We loved this cake and it sure made its way around the internet! It will always be one of our favorites and the colors really came together. It was one of those cakes you are sad to deliver because of all the work that went into it, but then you see the expression on the client's face and it's all worth it! 

I hope you have been enjoying seeing the cakes as much as we have liked re-living some great memories! In the next post, we will continue with 2009.