Fun on the 4th

The theme of the day is silliness. At breakfast we saw the winner of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest on TV. The current world record holder, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut beat his rival Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi in a final "dog off" where, after both consuming 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes resulting in a tie, the two contestants battled to see who could eat 5 more the fastest. Joey will retain the "Coveted Mustard Yellow International Belt." After arriving at work, we heard Weezer's "Pork and Beans" on the radio and knew it was all downhill from there.

Since its the Fabulous 4th and it's all about celebrations and having fun, why not showcase a site that makes us seriously smile called Cake Wrecks. We learned about Cake Wrecks through our friend and fellow cake designer, Annie Welch. Annie and Rick used to work together in Redmond, Washington, and her work is fabulous!

Cake Wrecks is a beauty of a site! Visit it often to see the latest professional cake-tastrophes. As a designer, you PRAY your cake never makes it to this site. Check it out and you'll see why. Here's today's entry. It's hilarious! Happy 4th!

Weddings on the Edge

Nearly 2 years ago we were approached by Mona Hirata of Weddings by Grace & Mona, on behalf of her clients Naomi and Jamie, who were marrying on the island of Kauai and were interested in hiring us to make their wedding cake. Due to a number of factors, we were not able to fly to Kauai to do their cake, but during our interactions, we learned they were publishers of a magazine called Pacific Edge Magazine. The first time I picked up Pacific Edge which focuses on business, culture, lifestyle and art in Hawaii, I was immediately drawn in. I read the issue from cover to cover and learned so much in the process. It's rare to see magazines focusing on business being hip and interesting. When we later got the call to be a Featured Young Professional in their 1 -Year anniversary issue which would focus on weddings, Rick and I were excited to be a part of it. The cover and the 2 page feature is shown below. We did the shoot with one of our favorite photographers, Dave Miyamoto at Sheraton Waikiki's Hanohano Room, which has the most incredible view of Waikiki. And the cover models? None other than Naomi and Jamie Giambrone.


For their 2-year anniversary, they did a recap "where are they now" for the featured young professionals from the past year, which was fun. Coinciding with their 2 year anniversary, Pacific Edge Magazine just released their second weddings issue and it's gonna be a doozy. We were proud to be asked to take part in a special wedding feature in the issue, shot at the lovely Bayer Estate with some of our favorite vendors, including Les Saisons, Weddings by Grace & Mona, and Flowergirls to name a few. Having Dave Miyamoto photograph the shoot was the icing on the cake (so to speak). We can't wait to see the photos! We'd like to thank Naomi, Jamie, Lauren and Jessica for all their hard work on the new issue. Copies of the special wedding issue of Pacific Edge Magazine may be purchased through Barnes and Noble, Borders or through the Pacific Edge website.

Her 1st Bee-Day

The "buzz" was that it's Brooklen's 1st Bee-Day last Saturday and her mommy wanted her to have a special cake for her Big Day. The theme of the party was bees and sunflowers, and we were sent the invitation above and a photo of their centerpieces which was a honeycomb flower pot with a sunflower coming out of it to draw inspiration from. The result is above, a 3-tier Chocolate Dream and Lemon Pucker cake with buttercream icing and handcrafted bees and sunflowers and a bee hive on top. Very cute!

The Bride & Bloom Magazine!

Today couldn't have started out more perfect! Ever since Rick was invited to design a cake for the "Color Pairing" feature of The Bride & Bloom Magazine's Fall 2008 issue, we've been giddy with excitement for its release, and we don't have to wait long because it is being released nationally tomorrow! The Bride & Bloom Magazine, is an exquisite national wedding publication, one of the very best out there, and if you pick up a copy, you'll see why. The editorial is on the cutting edge of fashion, the colors pop off the page and I must have looked through our current issue from cover to cover at least 3 times already.

For those not familiar with the magazine, the color pairing feature is a color inspiration composite found near the front of the magazine. 2 cakes per issue get the honor. We were given a color palette and components and asked to design a cake around what we were provided. After seeing our feature, we are very pleased with the outcome. We shot the feature with the wonderful Stefanie Riedel, of Absolutely Loved who we've worked with at many weddings and magazine shoots and she captures the cakes beautifully!

The interesting backstory on this is that during the communications with the magazine, we found out that the other cake designer in the Color Pairings was none other than Gabrielle Feurersinger, who Rick worked with at Cake Divas in L.A. Our contact at the magazine had read both of our bios and realized Rick and Gabrielle both worked for Cake Divas, and had started their own companies, Rick with cakelava and Gabrielle and with Cake Coquette. Gabrielle is quite a talent and works exclusively in buttercream. It was a coincidence that both were contacted for the same feature. What a small world!