Gold Buddha Cake for a Vow Renewal

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We were hard at work on our cookbook when we got the request for the sculpted gold Buddha cake. The vow renewal for Romina and Arian would take place nine months later, and at the time, nine months seemed like a lifetime away because there was so much to do before then. We had an entire book to finish by the time the couple's celebration would take place, so in the meantime, it was one of the cakes Rick would look forward to making. Every few months Rick would ask me, "When is that Buddha cake?" I knew he was excited about making it and I could not wait to see it!

Romina and Arian were introduced to us by their wedding coordinator, Laura Lewis from Parasol Events. They were very sweet -- two gracious people whose tastes were particular but also gave Rick plenty of creative freedom to do what he felt was best. The couple are Buddhist and flew to Hawaii from Texas to celebrate their vow renewal, a ceremony I have always thought was such a sweet gesture. To exchange vows and say "I Love You" all over again is so romantic! We were told that the cake would be a very special part of their wedding reception and we were asked to deliver the cake at a time when we would be able to meet the couple. One of the best parts of making a cake is to be able to see the expression on someone's face when they see their cake for the first time. The couple were ecstatic when they saw their cake and were grinning from ear to ear, and their guests approached the cake table one by one to get a closer look. We were thrilled with how the cake turned out and to hear how much Arian and Romina liked it made all the hard work worth it!

Rick sculpted the entire Buddha out of our Guava cake. It was the same cake we brought to the Food Network Challenge when he made the Spongebob cake, and the guava flavor is a real crowd pleaser. The only color used on the cake aside from the gold was white, which was one of the only requests by the couple, since white was one of their primary wedding colors, they asked Rick if he could include that color somewhere on the cake. Rick made a lotus flower and gently placed it in the Buddha's hand. It was a beautiful feminine touch that worked fantastically with the design. Congratulations once again to our lovely couple Romina and Arian. We wish them both the best in their wedding and much success in both their careers!

Romantic Floral Wedding Cake

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In relation to our typical wedding cake order, which is made months in advance, our client who had recently moved to Hawaii from the mainland, had contacted us less than 2 months before her wedding date to make a cake with a "Wow" design for her 200 plus guests. She and her fiance loved one of Rick's cake designs, which he had originally designed for our bride Bree in 2009, and has been a well-requested design from brides since. It is rare that we duplicate previous designs, but certain cakes seem to have mass appeal and this is one of them. Rick has never made this specific design as large as this and spent a good amount of time making all the handcrafted flowers covering the cake. Wanting to be sure he had enough flowers, Rick made 1000 of them and ended up using roughly 700 on the cake. Between the 6-tiers covered in fondant, the hundreds of flowers all over the cake and the inclusion of on of our most weighty and rich flavors of cake, Hot Fudge Sundae on the inside, this cake weighed a ton! We estimated that the cake weighed 100 pounds, slightly less than my weight, but it felt way heavier than me. Rick and I could barely transport the cake together and we opted to have the cake delivered by Rick and another man. Even with two grown men, this cake was an exhausting delivery!

The cake was delivered to an estate on the east side of Oahu that had an extremely large front and back yard, which meant the cake had to be carried about the length of a football field to reach its destination. It was a gorgeous affair with top notch vendors and the cake looked right at home in its environment.

Giddyup, Cowboy!

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We don't get many requests for cowboy/Western theme cakes here, which is probably no surprise given our island location. As I was talking to the client about the order, I felt excited by the theme and knew Rick would enjoy it as well. When we found out that the client would be using red and blue bandannas at the party, Rick thought it would look great to bring in those colors rather than do the usual shades of brown, especially since it was for a child. Both the cowboy hat with the Sheriff's star and the boot were made of cake, and the lasso was edible too. The three pieces together made for a striking composition, and the delicious filled chocolate cake served its purpose as well! Happy Birthday Royce!

Celebrating the Big 3-0!

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We often notice that our cake orders follow certain trends, and last weekend we had three brightly colored, wonky, and slightly over-the-top cakes to make. We posted one of the three cakes on our Facebook page, a crazy Dr. Seuss themed birthday cake, which you may have seen. The next night we delivered this 30th Birthday cake to Mercedes, who was having a pajama party that was just for the girls. Mercedes gave Rick free reign to design her special birthday cake. She wanted something fun, brightly colored and topsy turvy, and requested for any or all of her favorite colors to be included in the cake: Magenta, teal, blue, green, yellow, purple and dark pink. We knew she desired patterns on the cake and plenty of color. Rick didn't know what he was going to do until shortly before he was working on the cake, but decided to use all of her requested colors!

Mercedes and her guests practically squealed when they saw the cake. It made our night to see her so happy and everyone appreciating all the hard work put into the cake. Happy Birthday to Mercedes!