One of Kailua-based “cake master” Rick Reichart’s creations will be featured in a “SpongeBob Birthday Cakes” contest on The Food Network’s popular show “Challenge.”
The show, which features an eight-hour timed culinary competition involving the nation’s best experts in their field. will air at 2 p.m. April 4 (Hawaii time) on The Food Network.
The theme of the challenge is Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants and the title of the competition is “SpongeBob Birthday Cakes.” The show will run several times the following week and will go into rotation throughout the year.
Reichart, a nationally-recognized cake artist at Kailua’s cakelava, was notified that the show wanted him as a contestant last November; and he filmed the episode in December.
“It is a cake designer’s honor to be chosen for the show,” Reichart said in a news release. “You have to be selected by way of your reputation. They don’t accept queries or applications.”
Reichart has baked and sculpted cakes in the shape of football stadiums, classic cars, giant cupcakes, airplanes, Star Wars characters, giant Hello Kittys, Scooby Doos, and designer handbags. He once made a life-sized tire cake with an actual rim placed in the middle of it.
Reichart and his wife Sasha own cakelava, a cake design company opened in March 2005 in Honolulu.