Posted on: Friday, February 1, 2008
The outer limits of wedding cakes
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Staff Writer
When you ask Carmen Emerson-Bass, the owner of Cake Couture in 'Aina Haina, and Rick Reichart, who co-owns cakelava in Kailua, if they have any rules, their first answer is disbelief. But press a little further, and you hit the artistic boundaries where they won't go.
So here are some wedding cake decrees:
Don't ask either of them to put the cake outside in the hot sun. Won't do it. Ain't gonna happen.
Cake Couture's Emerson-Bass doesn't do groom's cakes because she's focusing on the wedding cake. She also doesn't like to put fresh flowers — or anything inedible — on the cake itself, preferring to make a candy version of it.
Reichart doesn't like to duplicate cakes. "I have my own style," he said. "I like to get a sense of the couple, then let me take the reins. The more they dictate, the cake isn't going to be as nice." And don't ask him to do a pornographic cake. (Yes, he's been asked.) Oh, and he can't reproduce Grandma's special whatever cake. "I can rearrange flavors, but if I don't think it's going to taste good, I won't do it."
