A Stroll Down Memory Lane - 2010, Part 3

Today, we explore Part 3 of a retrospective of cakelava cakes made in 2010. We began our stroll down memory lane in late January 2013, starting with the year 2005, our first year in business, and have selected cakes from each year to share. If you missed Part 1 of 2010's post, you can view it here, and Part 2 here. You can read the entire series by visiting the Archives on the blog.

One of our favorite designs (above, photo by Mike Pham) was a 7-tier towering black, white and silver wedding cake made for Jessica and David. The stunning cake was 3 feet tall with handcrafted flowers and a vase topper, piped swirls and handmade decorations. Rick spent much of the week before the wedding making the decorations. The gorgeous cake was featured on a number of internet websites and in Wedding Essentials Magazine.

An Angel of the Superbowl

cakelava.com

cakelava.com

Many months ago, a client of ours who is also a close friend, placed an order for and purchased a Superbowl themed birthday cake - for herself.  Her party would be on Superbowl Sunday and the cake, a surprise design that she would leave up to Rick. As with any cake, there is a certain amount of pressure because we want it to look great and exceed expectations. The pressure is high when the cake is for a friend, and even higher when the design is something ubiquitous or iconic, like a football helmet. If the shape is wrong, you fail. If the team logo doesn't look right, you fail. If you don't get the logo and the helmet shape right on a cake for a Superbowl party, you may as well pack your bags and close up shop before the angry football fans come knocking.

Rick decided to surprise our friend with a 2-sided football helmet cake - Baltimore Ravens on one half and the San Francisco 49'ers on the other half. In other words, he would make an already difficult design even harder with twice as many logos, different color schemes on each side, and both sides must meet seamlessly in the middle, including on the face mask. The face mask is the most difficult part of making a football helmet because it has to sit right on the cake to look like it is connected to the helmet and not just placed in front.

We were both extremely excited about the design and knew our friend would love it. Rick is always up for a good challenge! We imagined it would be a hit at the party and and a birthday she would never forget. Shortly before the party, our friend called and sounded super excited. She wanted to get our approval on an idea she had. What she said next touched both of our hearts...

The World's Most Expensive Wedding Cake Costs $52 Million!

twitter photo courtesy of Cake UK LTD

Today, we're all about the eye candy!

Have you ever wondered what a $52 million wedding cake would look like? Feast your eyes above on the world's most expensive wedding cake made by baker Tim Smith of Cake UK LTD, based in Chester. The extravagant wedding cake is covered in more than 2000 diamonds supplied by Liverpool jeweler Russell and Case - who most appropriately are located on the ground floor of the Bling Bling Building in Liverpool. The cake was unveiled recently, ahead of its formal unveiling at the National Gay Wedding Show, taking place in Liverpool on March 3, 2013. Congratultations to the team at CAKE UK LTD for their record breaking display of extravagance!

You can visit ITV News for more information and close ups of the blinged out wedding cake.

Rick and I had a small debate about the number of tiers in this cake. We count 6 tiers of cake and 2 separator tiers, which may or may not be cake. This may explain why we have seen conflicting reports of 6 tiers and 8 tiers. How many tiers do you count in this decadent cake?

We have even more eye candy to share! You may have noticed our blog has undergone a dazzling makeover! The new design is courtesy of our awesome designer Dana at Wonder Forest. We are totally smitten with the results and hope you like it too! Our new blog has the same great content - mostly cake, all the time - and a new name that truly reflects us - cake 5-0! Rick and I chose the name cake 5-0 as a nod to our life in Hawaii making cakes in the 50th State. "Hawaii Five-0" is one of our cake flavors, and yes, that ever-popular show "Hawaii 5-0" is filmed here as well. So, come on in, kick off your shoes, and tour the new cakelava blog. We have lots of eye candy lined up in the future and we can't wait to share it with you!

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!