Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! ... Here's a Cake for You!

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 Theodor Seuss Geisel, who is better known as Dr. Seuss would have turned 109 on Saturday. Dr. Seuss is one of the most influential authors of our time and his wonderful world of whimsy is celebrated daily across the world. We honor Dr. Seuss' influence by remembering our collection of books - some of our earliest exposure to literature was Dr. Seuss' Cat In the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and so forth. We've seen the movies, both live action and animated, and the Dr. Seuss theme has been popular for designers across many disciplines. It has especially resonated within the cake community. Some of our favorite cakes made at cakelava have had a Seussian theme.

This fun and colorful Dr. Seuss themed cake was made by Rick and featured Cat and the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and Horton Hears a Who characters as selected by our client. The cake was made in March 2012 and was never shared on our blog that month because I didn't have an opportunity. A quick look through our 2012 archive and you'll note we don't have a single post in March. We traveled for part of the month, then immediately had a photo shoot for 'Extreme Cakeovers" book, then were occupied with cakes for the rest of the month. I had meant to share it after March because we were proud of the cake and the client absolutely adored it, but the cake got filed away. Then, over the weekend Rick and I were talking about Dr. Seuss' birthday and he brought up the cake.

It was one of our favorite cakes that Rick made in 2012. Each of the characters were made and hand painted. It was a super cute topsy, turvy design with each tier done in a different color scheme. I really like the truffulas and playful pieces sticking out of the cake and theme lends itself to many different approaches for the design. On a previous Seuss themed cake, our client wanted the cake with a sculpted Cat and the Hat on top, which Rick made out of cake. Each version has its own special qualities and we love them both! Happy Birthday to the late Dr. Seuss! We are grateful to this visionary for creating a magnificent world where anything is possible, filled with positive messages that makes us feel great, and reminds us what it is like to be a kid again!

A Stroll Down Memory Lane - 2010. Part 2

We're continuing our retrospective of a selection of cakes made in 2010. If you missed yesterday's post of Part 1, you can read it here. Yesterday, we ended with a black, white and gray tattoo inspired wedding cake and today we are starting by showcasing a cake that is predominantly black and white and equally as unusual.

Katie and Chuck's "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) themed wedding cake was one of our most memorable cakes of the year! The artistic, detailed "Day of the Dead" theme was a cake dream request for Rick. We have always been fond of "Day of the Dead" themed art and we jumped at the opportunity to make it for Katie and Chuck! They had a black and white wedding with red roses, and the couple wore black, not white at the wedding. Rick was given carte blanche on the design, and the result was an amazing cake with extremely intricate detailing, all done freehand, with handmade bride and groom skull cake toppers reminiscent of the sugar skulls commonly found in "Dia de los Muertos" celebrations. The cake took a lot of time to make, but Katie and Chuck were worth it and their cake was a big hit at the wedding!

Blue Daisies Baby Shower Cake

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You wouldn't know from looking at the cake above that it was made for a baby shower. There was no baby props -- no rattles, blocks, bottles or teddy bears to be found anywhere on the cake.  Our client chose 10-10-10, one of the biggest wedding dates of the year to celebrate the upcoming birth of her baby.  This was the third cake Rick designed for Leilani and her family and each has been drastically different from the next.  For her baby shower, the only requests Leilani had were the colors of blue and grey to be used in the cake, to make it fun and whimsical, and to omit the baby props.  Rick made pretty handcrafted daisies combined with a playful print on the cake and ramped up the WOW factor by adding interesting shapes to the cake.  The cake had a lot of attention when we delivered it.  Our pregnant client came over beaming and expressed how much she loved her cake, as did several of her guests.  We loved the cake too and were thrilled to be part of such a joyous celebration!

Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Cake

We were so excited when we got the order for the Dr. Seuss and Cat in the Hat themed birthday cake! We had worked with the client before on an Elmo and Sesame Street cake for her other son and wanted her to be just as happy with this one. We knew from the beginning her cake would contain a sculpted Cat in the Hat figure and other Dr. Suess characters would be present. She provided us a list of the characters that she was interested in, her flavors (Hot Fudge Sundae and Strawberries Chantilly) and left the rest of the design up to Rick. The design of her cake would have a wonky, Seussian shape and be full of color and whimsy. Honestly, other than that, Rick wasn't sure what he was going to do, until the week of the order when he did a quick sketch of the design and started making all the pieces for the cake. He spent a full day working on this cake, sculpting the tiers and the Cat in the Hat and finishing the design. The characters on the bottom -- Thing 1 & Thing 2, The Lorax and truffula trees, Horton and his pink clover, the fish from Cat in the Hat, the green eggs and ham, and others, were all meticulously handpainted. At the end of the day we took a step back and looked at the cake and a grin as big and goofy as any Seussian character could muster up was plastered on our faces. I said "she (the client) is going to DIE when she sees this!" We and our Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 and half of Who-ville took a long drive out to their North Shore home. Each time we looked back at the cake the Cat in the Hat was grinning back at us, making us smile over and over. When we arrived at our client's home, she did just about die when she saw the cake. She and her husband greeted us wearing matching Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts -- so cute! Their jaws dropped when they saw the cake, there was an "Oh Rick!!" in there somewhere, and they both looked incredibly happy. We felt proud of the cake and all the work was most definitely worth it!

Here's hoping our Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat cake makes you smile and puts you in a celebratory mood for the holiday weekend.

Aloha, 'til next time!

50 Goes Fabulous

This bold and playful 50th Birthday cake was ordered by our client as a surprise for his wife. Other than a few small requests -- fun shapes, purple and yellow colors and possibly orchids integrated into the design -- he gave Rick carte blanche on his wife's surprise cake. Rick gave our client everything he asked for and more. He wanted her cake to be fabulous and a bold expression of celebration for this significant year. When we delivered her cake we got to meet his wife and she loved her cake. She seemed truly touched by the gesture and we had a great time making it for her!

Hi Rick and Sasha,

Thanks again for making such a wonderful AND delicious cake. My wife loved
it and all were impressed by it's color and design. Mahalo nui for
helping make a memorable evening.

Aloha,

Pat



Aloha 'til next time ...

Sou and Takako's Wedding

All images courtesy of VISIONARI

If you follow our blog, the names Sou and Takako may be familiar to you. We showcased their super cute, whimsical wedding cake on the blog last month, and after receiving images from their photographers at VISIONARI, we thought our lovely couple from Japan would be a delightful way to end the week. During the process of designing their cake we became very fond of this sweet and gracious couple. They were so excited about their mystery design that they would leave completely up to Rick. We didn't have the opportunity to meet Sou and Takako prior to the wedding, and felt lucky to be introduced to them via VISIONARI's gorgeous images. Sou and Takako did things a little different from many couples, which was just fine with us. Rather than matching the elegant style of their wedding to their cake, Rick designed their cake independently of anything they were using at the wedding. It was the colorful POP, and burst of whimsy in their otherwise formal and elegant wedding. We'd be hard pressed to choose a favorite photo -- they are all spectacular! -- but one of the most meaningful to us was seeing the look of happiness on Sou and Takako's faces as they cut into their wedding cake. It's that look of appreciation that makes all of our efforts worth it! Thank you, Sou and Takako for sharing your special day with us! Mahalo to Hiko, Jon and Mike at VISIONARI for the images!















check out cakelava.com for other fun and whimiscal cakes.

Aloha!

"The Fun Cake"

During the course of communications with our client, we began referring to her cake as "the Fun Cake". We knew her cake design was going to be bright, fun, and wonky, but other than that, she left the entire design in Rick's hands and we were all excited to see what he would dream up for her. The event which took place last weekend, was a church's 10 year anniversary party, with hundreds of people attending to celebrate. As her gift to her church, our client ordered this "fun cake", 2 other cakes and several dozen of our cupcakes. She chose a diverse selection of flavors for the party including our "Broke da Mouth", Totally Turtle, and Strawberries Chantilly for the cakes, and our Kamp Kailua and Guavatini cupcakes. For "The Fun Cake" we wanted to emphasize children, the Earth, and lots of color. Although the cake was for her church, she didn't want religious symbols on the cake, apart from the church's logo, and she wanted lots and lots of color. The cake was absolutely adorable in person and emanated happiness from every smile!

Check out our other fun cakes at cakelava.com

til next time, Aloha!

Her Super Sweet 16 and A PEZ Wedding Cake

Yesterday I couldn't resist the temptation to write about Amy's wedding dress cake, even if it meant leaving our regularly scheduled program of the Wild Weekend of Cakes. After a brief, but beautiful interruption, we're back and ready to share more goodies with you.

Starting with a bright and FUN Super Sweet 16 cake. Shortly before we headed to our Elegant/ tropical-meets-STAR WARS wedding, we helped Kealaka'i welcome year 16 in style. Her father called us in January for her late February party but we were already booked and had to turn him away. In early February he called again and really wanted Rick to make his daughter's cake and offered us all sorts of dates, none of which we were available unfortunately. He couldn't hide his dissapointment. He and his daughter are close and wanted her to have a very special cake. Fate must have intervened because I talked to Rick about it and after looking at the calendar which had BOOKED written over each date he wanted, Rick then said "I'll do it." Rick makes the final call on requests and it surprises me how many cakes he can take. He has a huge heart and genuinely wants to make people happy through cake, even if it means we're working 12 hours days for the week. In the end, the smiles and Thank You's are worth it! Shortly after the Sweet 16 cake was picked up, we received a call from Kealakai's father saying how much he loved the cake, followed by an ecstatic email from the birthday girl herself along with a few photos from the party. Their huge smiles reminded us why we do what we do.

Unlike the Sweet 16 cake , our PEZ-themed black and white wedding cake for Taylor and Scott had been ordered almost a year ago and we had been looking forward to it because well, it's PEZ! When we intially met with the couple they brought in their own bride/groom PEZ toppers and Rick designed a cake around this. I love the design he came up with! It was striking and elegant, and our first PEZ themed wedding cake. I'm guessing it won't be our last. Much happiness to Taylor and Scott in their new life as Mr. and Mrs. (PEZ)!


Hope you've enjoyed seeing some of these cakes. Have a wonderful weekend!

Love in Red and White

In August 2007, we made this whimsical red and white fondant wedding cake for David and his fiance Fritzi who flew in from San Diego to get married on Oahu. They had a lovely red and white themed wedding reception at the beachfront restaurant "Ola" at Turtle Bay Resort. Other than his requests of red and white, roses and lillies, and FUN, for the cake, he gave Rick free artistic reign over the design.

Shortly after the wedding, David sent us this thank you note:

I wanted to send you a quick e-mail to thank you for the amazing cake. You did a great job of taking inspiration from the other cake designs that we liked on your website to create a unique cake that everyone commented on—wedding guests and other patrons in the restaurant alike. We hated to cut into your creation, but thoroughly enjoyed both the lemon and Hawaii 5-0 flavors when we did. Thanks again for your help in creating a wedding cake that we will always remember.



Last month David notified us he and his wife would be back on Oahu and wanted to order a first year anniversary cake, continuing with the red and white theme. Rather than give him the same top tier cake design from his wedding cake, Rick designed this beautiful anniversary cake for the couple. Note the heart plaque that says "ILU Always". Isn't that the sweetest thing! Again they ordered our ever-popular Hawaii Five-0 flavor for the cake. We wish David and Fritzi the best and look forward to making them more anniversary cakes in the future!

See David and Fritzi's cakes and so many more on cakelava.com

It's Fun to Turn One!

Makenna celebrated her 1st birthday today and probably doesn't realize how lucky she is that her mommy bought her such a special and fun cake! Neither Rick or I got a cake like this when we turned one. Quite frankly, we don't recall what our 1st birthday cake was, but I guarantee it wasn't anything like this. It makes me want to turn one all over again. Rick was given a pink and olive color palette with a polka dot theme and carte blanche on the design and from there he let his imagination run wild. Makenna's mother chose Strawberries Chantilly and Kona Toffee Crunch to serve to their 200 guests. We wish Makenna the happiest of birthdays!

Fun with tokidoki

When our client Tina ordered a tokidoki theme for her daughter's 14th birthday cake it was our first introduction to tokidoki, which is a bit embarassing considering I wrote my thesis in college on Japanese Anime and have an appreciation for pop culture kitsch. Tina sent us many images to work off of and each one slightly more fun and bizarre than the next. Talking to her, I got an instant crash course on tokidoki. We should have known from the "Latte" and "Leche" milk carton tokidokis that they were of Italian origin but I assumed they were Japanese. For anyone (besides us) not previously familiar with tokidoki, they are the brainchild of Italian artist and designer Simone Legno. There is a huge tokidoki fan base, and an extensive tokidoki website and of course, a blog.

For our tokidoki cake, Tina turned over the design to Rick. Her only request was to have the base color of the cake be in black and white and to try and incorporate the girl image in some way. Rick made all the tokidoki figures by hand and tried to put as many on the cake as possible to mimic the tokidoki design style. Tina chose our Kona Toffee Crunch flavor for the cake. When we delivered the cake, Tina and her husband were thrilled and excited to celebrate with their daughter Laneah, her friends and her many tokidokis.

See the tokidoki cake and many others on cakelava.com.