A Marriage of a Family

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 Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with their families! I thought this cake, which was actually made for a wedding couple and their daughter, would be a perfect design to share after a holiday weekend that brings families together.

This sculpted island cake complete with custom handcrafted figures, palm trees, rowboat and firepit was made in honor of Christina and Clint's wedding to each other as well as the celebration of their official union as a family with their daughter Kylia and their pet poodle.   It was an idea that touched us, to truly personalize the wedding cake to include the whole family.  Rick based their wedding cake on photographer Dave and Michelle Miyamoto's island themed design he made for their 2009 wedding.  Christina and Clint fell in love with it and asked for a similar design honoring their family with a rowboat instead of the yacht and a poodle instead of a shiba inu.

When the cake was delivered, we knew immediately who greeted us because Rick had spent many hours making and painting the figure -- it was Kylia, their daughter, and she got a kick out of seeing herself and her parents on the cake.  Everyone loved the cake and felt it really represented the spirit of the couple.  Congratulations to Christina, Clint and Kylia!

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Heisman Trophy Cake

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The Heisman Trophy cake had been on the books for a while, and it was a mere coincidence that it happened to be on the same Saturday as the Miami Dolphins Football Helmet with figures wedding cake.  Two football themed cakes for diehard football fans, and the pressure was on!  I remember when the Heisman trophy cake request came in.  I had to look up the name "Heisman" just to make sure it was spelled correctly on the order, (and again had to confirm the spelling for this blog post).  We had certainly heard of the Heisman Trophy, it's the most prestigious trophy in college football,  but could not tell you who had won one in recent years.  As a sculpted piece Rick was determined to make this difficult structure as true to form as possible.  It didn't help that the body in a Heisman trophy contorts itself in a way that doesn't seem natural, or the fact that he had to make the piece look like it was made out of bronze, or that the father of the child who the cake was for was a H-U-G-E football fan -- no pressure there!  The sculpted Heisman Trophy was substantial, the photo does not do justice to the size.  We were both extremely happy with the completed piece and hope it made a huge impression at the party.  When we delivered it to the venue, every football fan in the room who was there setting up commented on how realistic it looked, which we took to be a good sign and a felt a big sigh of relief that Rick had captured such an iconic form as an edible piece.  After spending many hours sculpting the piece, Rick as well as myself, will never look at another Heisman Trophy quite the same way again!

And the Winner Is .... and a Monkeys Cake!

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Our CSN Stores Giveaway has officially closed and a winner was selected by random on Wednesday.  Our winner did take advantage of the second entry by tweeting about the giveaway, but it was her first entry that was selected as the winning number.  (drumroll please) And the Winner of our CSN Stores Giveway is ...

Kim ~ Kay Kay 

Congratulations to Kim for her winning entry!  When asked what she would purchase using her $45 CSN Stores Gift Certificate, Kim wrote: "Oh my... lots to choose from!  My first choice would be a Le Creuset Dutch oven. I've been wanting one for a very long time.  I also browsed the Bedding for my daughter, she is getting a new bed soon and they have a ton to choose from.  Love the styles!  Thanks for introducing me to the site.  Did not know about them.  Fun stuff!"

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway.  We wish we could give a prize to each of you!!

If you have been reading the blog recently you know Rick recreated several of his designs in the past few weeks with only slight modifications including a customer favorite, his "Monkeys" cake.   The monkeys cake above was made for a first birthday party for twin boys on November 6th.  Like his original monkeys cake, the background was the same and each monkey handcrafted and placed in playful positions on the cake.  At the top of the cake were two monkeys in honor of the birthday twins Branden and Brenden.  The monkeys were holding signs of their names while the others were frolicking and hanging upside down on the cake.  The monkey cake matched the decor beautifully.  Monkey and banana themed items were everywhere, they did a great job on the setup!

The next morning we received a thank you note from the childrens' grandmother who purchased the cake:

Good Morning!!

Just wanted to thank the both of you for the awesome cake.
Not only was it beautiful but sooo delicious!!!

When it was time to cut the cake the children were so excited. Everyone wanted
to have a piece of the monkey.

Again a  big mahalo,
Bernie

It's a Cake!

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We began working with Laressa and Daniel in January of this year for their November wedding.  They were referred by people we knew and we wanted to give them the cake of their dreams.  They desired to have a cake that was both elegant and unique and would long be remembered by their guests.  Laressa and Daniel's wedding colors were blue and white and and Rick drew inspiration for the design from the stylized blue floral motif on their invitation and wedding paperie.  Rather than put the pattern on a traditional 3-tier round, he gave the cake a modern, feminine shape with rounded edges and each tier balanced slightly above.  Laressa and Daniel were so excited about the cake when they saw their design.  I even got a nice call from Stephanie their wedding coordinator shortly before the wedding to work on the cake table.  They wanted to have just the right color linen and size for the table.  A couple after our own hearts!  The table looked perfect! The cake drew a great deal of attention when we delivered it to the beautiful Halekulani resort in Waikiki.  We had both the staff and the coordinator of the wedding surrounding the cake table, and some fascinated looks and "What is it?" questions. To which Rick smiled and proudly said "It's a cake!"

Sadly, we did not get a chance to congratulate Laressa and Daniel on the wedding day.  We really wanted to. It was a hectic weekend for us and we had to run back to our studio for Rick to work on the U.S. Marine Corps birthday cake for the following day and cakes throughout the weekend. 

Shortly after the wedding we received a sweet thank you note from Laressa which included the following:

We just came back from Hawaii and we wanted to send you and Rick a note to thank you for an amazing/tasty cake. Everyone, including the catering folks at the Halekulani, were impressed with the cake. We even took the leftovers to our honeymoon and enjoyed it with coffee and tea.

We wanted to make sure the cake stood out from the white table so Stephanie made the blue table cover with the color of the cake in mind. I am glad you guys thought it was nice :)

You guys are the best!

Laressa

Congratulations to Laressa and Daniel!