Towering Elegance in Orange and Gold

At the time we accepted the order for Malia's elegant wedding cake with feminine silhouette, orange roses and gold swirls, Rick already had his hands full with the Superheroes wedding cake, Chinese take-out box, Noah's ark cake and another wedding cake we haven't shared yet. The groom's sister ordered this wedding cake as a gift to her brother and his fiancee. She wanted an elegant white fondant wedding cake with handcrafted roses, gold swirls, and everything else was left up to Rick. He designed her 5-tier wedding cake with a vase of handcrafted roses on top, and a tall concave middle tier. It was a very striking in person and everyone loved the design. It was a beautiful gift that the bride will remember for years to come!




Join us on Tuesday, December 1st as we post part 1 of our Interview with cake designer extraordinaire Marina Sousa of Just Cake. Much will be revealed, including how she got into cakes, her experience on the Oprah Show and Food Network Challenges and just about everything else you would want to know. It was a wonderful interview and we can't wait to run it!

Janelle and Alex's Featured Wedding has been posted on cakelava.com and a selection of new cakes will follow soon.

Aloha, til next time!

Next Featured Wedding Sneak Peek - Janelle and Alex

All images courtesy of Stephen Ludwig Photography

Easily one of our favorite weddings of the year, our next Featured Wedding on cakelava.com will showcase Janelle and Alex's wedding at Lanikuhonua on June 13, 2009. We knew we were in for a real "treat" when Janelle contacted us last year requesting for a cartoon turtle hugging a cupcake for her wedding cake. We thought at first - we won't lie - "That's an odd request", but quickly realized as the rest of hers and Alex's wedding details came together that it was an absolutely perfect cake for their wedding! The couple LOVES their sweets, especially Janelle, and the theme of the wedding revolved around sweets and treats of the edible variety. How much do they love sweets? Let's count the ways ... The wedding cake was a sculpted turtle hugging a giant cupcake. We made giant sculpted cupcakes to be placed on some of the guest tables, and the other tables had baking related centerpieces, such as a bowl filled with small marshmallows, Sprinkles cupcake mix, a giant spoon, etc. Janelle and Alex provided a large candy buffet for their guests, filled with giant lollipops, licorice, salt water taffy, and many other goodies. The motif of the wedding was a cupcake which was found throughout the reception area. The pinata (yes, this wedding had a pinata) was a cupcake for the women and a liquor bottle for the men. This is just the sweets. We didn't even talk about the cuisine. Two words. Food Porn -- this foodie was in heaven! Since Janelle and Alex's wedding was a mid-day reception, guests were served a delicious lunch catered by Ginniberries. Everything was minaiture and the food looked amazing!

The wedding colors were just as fun! Vibrant pinks, greens and oranges were found throughout the wedding. Everything had that special touch, that extra customization that made the wedding unforgettable. Emi Ink, made all the paperie, and she did a wonderful job. The fabulous Mona Hirata of Weddings by Grace & Mona designed a knock-out event giving Janelle and Alex everything they wanted and more, pulling together an A-list of vendors which included Stephen Ludwig Photography, Ginniberries, Showtime DJ's, Emi Ink, Spinning Web Florist, and cakelava for the cakes.

The sweetest part of this wedding was of course, Janelle and Alex. Two of the kindest, most gracious people around, and they do love their cake. So much that we're already working with them on their anniversary cake design.

Janelle and Alex's wedding and their cake were previously showcased on our blog, but with images as beautiful and artistic as what we received from Stephen Ludwig, who is also an amazing artist, how could we pass up this wedding. Enjoy!


























Janelle and Alex's wedding will be posted on cakelava.com in the near future.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rick and Sasha

Mmmm... Noodles. Chinese Take-out Box Cake

It's lunch time and my stomach is growling, which may explain our choice for the next cake to showcase on the blog. One of a number of cakes Rick recently made, this one was made for a 60th birthday party in Chinatown. As I'm looking at the Hot Fudge Sundae flavored Chinese takeout box filled with noodles and the accompanying fortune cookies on the side, I'm reminded I really need to eat lunch. Rick sculpted the box out of cake and all components are edible. To personalize the box, he put a Chinese zodiac sign of the Ox, as requested by the client.

The cake was a huge hit among both the attendees of the party and the people who couldn't make it. See our Thank You note from our client Samantha, who also provided these marvellous photos. Thank you, Sam!

Dear Rick and Sasha,

I just had to email you once more to thank you so much for such an AWESOME cake. I kind of had an idea what the cake would look like, but it's a completely different story when you see it in person. The Chinese Takeout box cake was SO realistic and still just a bit cartoony!! My mom LOVED the cake and so did everyone at the party. For those that couldn't attend I snapped a few pictures with my cell phone and sent them a picture, it wasn't until they read the message that they realized they were looking at a cake! Some of them thought it was an actual order of noodles! It was an awesome cake and tasted just as yummy as it looked!! You both are awesome, awesome people and I so look forward to working with you folks again!

Thanks again and I look forward to seeing you on TV!!

Sincerely,
Samantha T. and Family

Coming Soon - cakelava Interviews Marina Sousa!

It's been a year since we conducted our last interview in our "Interviews from Cakeland" series. When our last interview ran, with Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes, we had already lined up Marina Sousa of Just Cake to be our next interviewee. Around this time Marina suffered a tremendous personal loss and we had to put the interview on hold til the opportunity was right. Last month, shortly before Marina was scheduled to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show, she reached out to us to congratulate Rick on his upcoming Food Network Challenge and it was then that all the stars lined up just as the universe meant them to be, and we decided THIS was the time to run the interview. Over the past couple of weeks Marina and I have been conducting our interview, fulfilling what was started a year ago. I am a firm believer on the timing of things, that events occur when it is appropriate and I can't think of a better time when someone is on top of the world and in her element, to find out how she got there and why she is so deserves to be there. My upcoming interview with Marina left me inspired, touched and an even bigger "Marina" fan than I already was. She is one amazing lady and we are very excited to share the interview with our readers! As one of the top cake designers out there and a Food Network superstar, we are honored she has shared so much with us!

We will be running Marina Sousa's two-part interview on our blog shortly after the Thanksgiving holidays, during the first week in December. We will keep you updated on the exact days both here and on Facebook.

In the meantime, we urge you check out Just Cake's incredible portfolio of cakes and read about Marina's many accomplishments.