White and Black Hawaiian Wedding Cake

We had a fun time working with our Australian couple Rhianne and Sean for their September wedding at the Moana Surfrider Resort. Their black, and white colored wedding had red floral accents, which we decided to keep off the cake and focus instead on the contrast of white and black, which is always a striking combination. Rick designed their wedding cake using white bamboo accents and handcrafted palm trees placed on the cake, a symbol of Hawaii but also of the couple themselves, as seen in the "SR" monogram. The couple booked with us a year before their wedding and we didn't have a chance to meet with them until shortly before the Big Day. It was great being able to meet them in person finally. We love the way they embraced the Hawaiian "flavor" of the wedding as well, choosing one of our signature flavors, Local Kine Special, a coconut cake with a taro cream filling, a delicious combination popular with our clients since we opened.

Congratulations to Rhianne and Sean!

new cakes have been recently posted on cakelava.com. Enjoy!

Aloha, til next time!

Cute Teddy Bear Baby Shower Cake

I loved the representation of this cute little sleeping teddy bear on its soft pink pillow made for Baby Penelope's shower. Other than the request to have the teddy sleeping and the colors used, Rick had free reign on the design and thought it would look cute to have the little bear sleeping on a pillow. It was completely adorable and realistic looking. I had to remind myself that tiptoeing around the cake wasn't necessary.

more cakes to come! In the meantime visit cakelava.com to see our portfolio of designs.

Aloha, til next time!

Etch A Sketch Wedding Cake

We are huge fans of the Etch A Sketch. It is one of the coolest, most ubiquitous toys ever invented, and we were super excited when our wedding couple Heather and Ron decided they wanted a sculpted Etch A Sketch for their wedding cake. That was definitely a first for us and we embraced the idea from the beginning. They wanted a way to express the union of not just each other but of the family, which included a daughter. Rick drew a portrait of their family inside the Etch A Sketch, and it brought the whole piece to life. It was a special piece that we will remember for years to come.

If you haven't seen it yet, Chun Hee and Robert's Featured Wedding is now up on cakelava.com.

Join us next week as we share more of our newest cakes.

Aloha!

Bizarre Birthday Cakes

In the early part of Summer we were approached by AOL requesting birthday cake photos in preparation of a launch of their new site on AOL Holidays called Party Central. We're always up for a party, and sent in some photos, and were thrilled to see a number of them up there when the site went live. http://www.holidash.com/party-central/birthday/food/bizarre-birthday-cakes. At the time, we had 6 of the 20 cakes in the slideshow, including the cover shot (our sushi cake!) and the feature, along with our Palmolive bottle cake, made it to the front page of AOL! You may recall that blog post: "One of those Days". Apparently the feature has done very well on AOL because we were approached again for photos, and it was back up on the AOL homepage earlier this week. Now there are over 50 cake photos up there, from a wide range of designers, including Charm City Cakes, Cake-O-Rama, Pink Cake Box, and others. cakelava has 11 cakes in the slideshow, some dating back to when we first opened. We want to send a huge shout-out to our friend Annie Welch who owns Cake-O-Rama. Annie is one awesome cake sculptor/designer and all around fabulous gal! Annie and Rick used to make cakes together in Washington state, and we have the utmost respect for her and her work. If you haven't seen the Bizarre Birthday Cakes feature, check it out. Fun Stuff!

Next Featured Wedding Sneak Peek - Chun Hee and Robert

All images courtesy of Absolutely Loved: Stefanie and Anna Riedel

A couple days ago we revealed the wedding cake for our next Featured Wedding couple on cakelava.com. Chun Hee and Robert's exquisite zen-inspired wedding cake, was just one of the many lovely details in their wedding, which took place on August 8, 2009 at the Moana Surfrider Resort in Waikiki. Both the ceremony and reception was held outdoors, with the beautiful Pacific Ocean in front of them and an amazing historic hotel next to them, this sweet couple exchanged their vows in front of more than 100 friends and family members. From the earliest contact with the couple throughout the design process, we knew Chun Hee and Robert wanted only the best for their wedding. The theme was East meets West. Washington D.C. based Heidi Coblentz was the coordinator for the event and she, along with the couple's selected vendors, -- Stefanie and Anna Reidel of Absolutely Loved for photography, Designs by Hemingway for floral design, linens, lighting and lounge furnishings, the Moana Surfrider Resort, and cakelava -- created one romantic event!

Long elegant tables of low, floral centerpiece designs, candles, and sumptous linens lined the terrace at the Moana. The color palette was romantic reds, tropical greens, dark brown and ivory. Red Chinese lanterns were overhead and roses and orchids were everywhere. Chun Hee wore a beautiful ivory beaded gown and Robert looked handsome in his black and white tuxedo. Romance was everywhere! When we saw Stefanie Riedel's images of the wedding, we saw one affectionate couple who looked so happy together and for the feel of the wedding and style of photography, they couldn't have found a better match than Stefanie. Stefanie's images are artful and romantic and so pretty!

We want to wish our couple Chun Hee and Robert the very best as they start their new life together, and thank them for making us part of their special day!

In the next few days we will be posting Chun Hee and Robert's Featured Wedding on cakelava.com. We have also created an archive of our previously featured wedding couples' Sneak Peeks dating back to May 2008, which can be found on the right sidebar of our blog.
Enjoy!












Aloha, til next time!

Tomorrow ...

Image courtesy of Absolutely Loved: Stefanie and Anna Riedel

We had intended to run a sneak peek to the next Featured Wedding on cakelava.com, today, but unfortunately we did not have time to post it. We will look forward to running it tomorrow.

Aloha!

the management :-)

The Wedding Cake for Our Next Featured Wedding - Chun Hee and Robert

Remember the sculpted CANDY LAND cake we made back in August? That was one hectic day full of memorable cakes, including this stunner, made for Chun Hee and Robert's wedding in Waikiki. After running from event to event all day long on August 8, 2009, we ended with a spectacular zen-inspired, sage green, brown and red elegant wedding, which we promptly chose as our Next Featured Wedding on cakelava.com. This beautiful 3-tier square fondant wedding cake had the most intricate hand-painted sage green and brown design on the lifts between the tiers and on the cake board. Rick added handcrafted cymbidium orchids and curly willow to the front of the cake, keeping the design minimalist and zen-inspired. Chun Hee and Robert, who were absolutely wonderful to work with, gave Rick carte blanche on the design and we all fell in love with their wedding cake, which has been patiently waiting in our portfolio along with an incredible slideshow of images by photographer Stefanie Riedel of Absolutely Loved. The photo above is a non-professional image. Tomorrow we will present our Next Featured Wedding Sneak Peek of Chun Hee and Robert's wedding, but for today, we wanted to focus on their beautiful cake. Enjoy!

Aloha, til next time!

A Decade of Love

10 years ago, on September 6, 1999, Alison and Jason were married in Boston. In honor of their 10-year anniversary Rick designed a beautiful pearly blue and ivory cake with the Middle Eastern Hamsa symbol from their invitations. He piped an elegant, delicate design on the cake and wrote their wedding date on the top tier. The day after Alison and Jason's anniversary celebration we received a sweet note from the couple:

Dear Rick and Sasha,

Happy Labor Day! Thank you for laboring so hard to make us a beautiful and delicious cake. It was lovely and more than one guest commented that it was the best they'd ever tasted. Many many thanks for the fabulous cake!

Alison and Jason

We wish Alison and Jason many more tens of years of happiness together!

Aloha, til next time!

Kidrobot Birthday Cake

Until you make it, there's a first time for everything. This is our first Kidrobot and tokidoki themed birthday cake. We've made the tokidoki birthday cakes a number of times, and if you don't yet know what a tokidoki is, you can visit our cakelava crash course on the blog's side bar and read "Fun with tokidoki". We're into the urban animation cakes. They are hip, lots of fun, and we always learn about new characters. But they are also a LOT of work! This time we learned about the "Dunny" characters of Kidrobot and got to play with our familiar tokidoki friends again. The cake was made for a child's urban animation themed birthday party. Rick crafted and painted each piece by hand, a painstaking effort if I ever saw one, but according to the child's grandmother who was quite blown away when she saw the cake, well worth it.

More to come soon.

Aloha, til then!

Malia and Keola - Isn't Love Grand!

All images courtesy of Dave Miyamoto & Company

Ahh, to be young and in love, there is nothing like it in the world. As I received the batch of images of Malia and Keola's wedding from their photographer, Dave Miyamoto, it brought a huge smile to my face. Not only was the wedding beautifully photographed, this is a couple full of youth and spirit and look like they are having a blast being together. Malia and Keola are a sweet, young couple who were recently married at the Moana Surfrider Resort. Their wedding colors were ivory and red and they went for an elegant, romantic feel with red roses. When we met with the couple and their families, Malia wanted a grand wedding cake with lots of handcrafted roses. She loved some of Rick's previous designs that had delicate piping on the tiers and a vase of handcrafted flowers on top. We knew the cake would be 5-plus tiers tall with a ton of roses and would incorporate some concave and unusual shapes. In person, Malia and Keola's wedding cake was incredible! It was regal and romantic, and the red roses popped on the cake and matched the colors in the ballroom beautifully. They loved our pink colored Guava Lava cake so much they chose just one flavor. The couple wrote shortly after the wedding to say how much they and their guests loved the cake. We want to wish Malia and Keola much happiness as they start their new life together!

Kristine's Under-the-Sea Wedding Cake

Here is Kristine's vibrant, fun under-the-sea bridal cake to Jason's Seattle Seahawks groom's cake. With the sparkling Pacific ocean as a backdrop for Kristine and Jason's wedding at the historical Moana Surfrider Resort in Waikiki, their ocean themed cake with handcrafted angel fish, clown fish, and seahorses looked right at home. The inside of their wedding cake was as colorful as the views under water. They chose our signature Rainbowlicious flavor and Banana Nutella to serve their guests. Between this brightly colored wedding cake and Jason's sculptural groom's cake, we're guessing they scored a Touchdown! with their guests.

Join us next time for more matrimonial madness. In the meantime, check out cakelava.com for our online portfolio of wedding cakes.

Seattle Seahawks Stadium Groom's Cake

We've had this Seattle Seahawks Stadium groom's cake on order for the past year and a half when we first met with Kristine and Jason, who got married in Waikiki last weekend. They are cake enthusiasts and wanted something really unique for their wedding and groom's cake. We knew that Seahawks Stadium is now called Qwest Field, after its sponsor, but we went the more nostaligic route and made the stadium as many of us remember it which is Seahawks Stadium. These days many of the sports stadiums are sponsored. I remember Candlestick Park in San Francisco back in the 90's, which later became 3Com Park at Candlestick Point, then about 5 years ago it was renamed Monster Park after its sponsor Monster Cable and it just didn't have the same ring to it. It will always be Candlestick Park.

Jason's Seattle Seahawks stadium groom's cake wasn't easy to sculpt. Rick spent quite some time shaping, icing and decorating the stadium, and in the end we were pleased with the outcome. The cake was massive and commanded a lot of attention on-site. Troy Michael, a DJ we frequently see at weddings, came over to us while we were placing the two cakes and told us that he was even asked to play the Seahawks music at the wedding. This groom is a hardcore fan! Hopefully Jason and Kristine loved their two cakes. We had a blast working with them!

Next week we will show the wedding cake which accompanied the Seahawks Stadium groom's cake. It's a beauty, just like the bride!

Check out more groom's cakes on cakelava.com including Hawaii's very own Aloha Stadium, which thankfully hasn't been sponsored yet...


Aloha, til next week!

Distinguished and Right on Target!

The night before a wedding, when a couple does their rehearsal followed by the rehearsal dinner, is one of the most special times during the wedding process. It's the launch of the weekend's festivities to follow, and excitement is in the air. For a number of our brides, they choose their wedding rehearsal dinner as the perfect time to surprise their fiance with his own special groom's cake. This was the case with Monica and Arin, whose beautiful sea glass and seashells wedding cake was showcased on yesterday's blog. Monica ordered her groom Arin, who is a Marine Corps Sargeant a special cake that would truly speak to his talents and accomplishments. Arin is last year's winner of the elite Interservice Rifle Competition and is a double distinguished marksman. Rick designed his groom's cake to look like an Official 100-Yard Small Bore Rifle Target (which is written on the top of the cake) with his two military badges on the cake. He placed the shots in a tight group in the "X" ring, where they should be for someone of his skill. Monica selected our Hawaii Five-0 flavor for Arin and their guests. The target cake was a big HIT with the guests, and most importantly Monica and Arin. We thought the cake was right on target and we had fun making it.

To see more Groom's cakes, visit cakelava.com.

More to come soon. Aloha, til next time!

It's All About the Weddings

Hope you all had a nice Labor Day weekend. Labor Day weekend for us means we labor just as hard, if not harder than we usually do, we'll book well in advance and the events will be weddings. This weekend was all wedding related cakes, whether it was the football stadium groom's cake, which we'll share this week, or a couple's 10-year wedding anniversary cake. It's all about the weddings! No complaints here, we love our wedding clients, and also got to catch up with a number of friends and enjoy a BBQ. All in all, a great weekend!

Rick spent the early part of the weekend busting his you-know-what. The stadium groom's cake took a significant amount of time, but we were very pleased with the results. The sea glass and shells wedding cake shown above was designed for Monica and Arin, a sweet couple who were married in Waikiki on Saturday night and had a surprise groom's cake on Friday night at their rehearsal dinner. Monica and Arin left the design of the cake up to Rick. He drew inspiration for the beach-themed wedding cake from a glass mosaic frame Monica brought with her to our design meeting, along with their invitation which had seashells on it. Using their wedding colors Rick designed their striking beach themed cake. It was gorgeous and textural in person and we found out the couple loved it too. The day after their wedding, Monica and Arin sent us a Thank You note:

Dear Sasha and Rick--

Just a quick note to tell you how much Arin and I and all our guests LOVED your cakes!!! EVERYONE was soooo impressed with both of them!! You really made our rehearsal dinner and wedding so special!!! And Arin was sooo surprised with the grooms cake!! (it also helped me win over one of his toughest critics ;) So THANK YOU for everything!!!

Aloha,
Monica and Arin!!! :D

Working with Monica and Arin was such a pleasure and we want to give them our best as they embark on a new life together!

Join us tomorrow as we share Arin's groom's cake. This distinguished piece was right on target!

Aloha, til tomorrow!

Tyra and Rich's Maui Wedding - Wedding Day

All images courtesy of Bill Stockwell, Photos on Maui

It's been almost a year since we packed our bags and headed off to Maui for Tyra and Rich's wedding. Tyra, a Firefighter, and groom Rich, a Lifeguard Sergeant in San Diego, were selected by Producer Mark Burnett's (TV's "Survivor", "The Apprentice" and other top rated programs) "Wedding Day" production team as a deserving couple to be gifted with the wedding of their dreams. We got the call from one of Maui's top wedding coordinators, Carolee Higashino, owner of A White Orchid Wedding to be part of her "Dream Team" of vendors selected for their wedding. Other "Dream Team" members included Bill Stockwell of Photos On Maui, Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, Olowalu Plantation House, Pacific Design Group, Asa Florals, Cafe O'Lei Catering, and a number of others. cakelava and Wildflower Linen came from outside of Maui. Celebrity wedding planners Diann Valentine and Alan Dunn hosted the show. Knowing the wedding was being filmed for a Mark Burnett Production in conjunction with Dreamworks, and that we had an opportunity to contribute to such a deserving couple's wedding, we cleared our schedule as much as we could and about 2 weeks later we found ourselves on Maui with their wedding cake. We had events the weekend before so could not be available to meet everyone and do any filming until the day before the wedding. We arrived on a Wednesday to Wailea, Maui, and stayed at the same hotel as Tyra and Rich, the guests and the production team. The wedding took place on Thursday evening and Friday we left to come back to Oahu. We had weddings that weekend and Rick needed to start on their cakes. That was quite a week!

Tyra and Rich's "Wedding Day" episode aired on TNT last month. Unfortunately, "Wedding Day" wasn't renewed for a second season as far as we know, and the show is no longer on the TNT website. It's unfortunate that the show didn't last because it was full of heart and really made couple's wedding dreams come true. For anyone who missed the episode when it aired and would like to see Tyra and Rich's wedding, Bill Stockwell of Photos On Maui who was the couple's photographer, and his wife Judy, were gracious enough to share their exclusive images with our readers. We can't thank them enough for sending us the images and allowing us to re-live that very special day. Bill also posted images from the wedding on a special blog he created. His images show what happened throughout the week they were filming the couple,
and what you didn't see on TV.

Tyra and Rich's wedding cake was significant to us, for many reasons. Rick designed the lovely cake with the hibiscus pattern, which quickly became one of our signature styles, specifically for Tyra and Rich. We were not allowed to show the cake until after the show had aired so it's not on our website yet. Rick has used a similar design in our "Sunset Bamboo" cake and others currently on our site. Their wedding cake complemented the amazing tropical decor beautifully!

Big congratulations to our couple, Tyra and Rich, who are about to celebrate their 1-year anniversary. A big Mahalo to Carolee Higashino of White Orchid Wedding, Jamie Clark of the Pacific Design Group, and the entire team at Burnett Productions. It was an experience we will never forget!

Enjoy the pics, and please leave your comments below for the vendors that made their wedding possible. Carolee and her team moved mountains in just a couple of weeks!


The show put their friends and family to work. Here is the gate they built for Tyra and Rich


the gorgeous bride and her father




the ceremony and reception took place on the grounds of the Olowalu Plantation near Lahaina, Maui




guests were greeted with green orchid leis


one of the many surfboards at the entrance to the home


Jamie of the Pacific Design Group and Wildflowers linen designed the stunning decor. Amazing!



floral design by Asa Flowers and cuisine by Cafe O'Lei Catering


love the lounge!


is that the most gorgeous view ever!


the view near where the cake table was



Tyra and Rich's sweetheart table


one of the many entertainers of the evening




Grammy nominated Hawaiian singer Raiatea Helm sang the "Hawaiian Wedding Song", for the couple's first dance



custom painted surfboard made for the couple



the cake!! it was a beautiful tropical green color with ivory hibiscus and hawaiian leaf pattern




Have a great Labor Day weekend!