cakelava is an innovative cake design company owned by the husband and wife team of Rick and Sasha Reichart.  cakelava opened in March 2005 in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii and is available for consultation by appointment only.

Why cakelava? Rick chose the name cakelava because he wanted a name and concept that was based on something Hawaiian, something very beautiful, and organic at the same time, something that expressed his love of art without restrictions, but not so elusive that people wouldn’t understand the reference.

Rick Reichart has over 15 years experience in pastry and cake design. He got his culinary education at Baltimore International College School of Culinary Arts, but his real training happened on the job, when he worked as a Pastry Chef and later as a Cake Designer for some of Seattle and Los Angeles’ best restaurants and cake design companies. In Los Angeles, Rick started at Takes the Cake in Pasadena, and then worked with Elin Katz at Rosebud Cakes in Beverly Hills. He moved to Seattle in 1999 and there he designed cakes for Caramella Cakes and Great Cakes and Edible Monuments . He met the immensely talented Annie Welch, who has worked with Mike McCarey of Mike's Amazing Cakes in Redmond, Washington and who now owns Annie's Cake-o-Rama. Rick and Sasha moved back to Los Angeles in 2002  and Rick was hired at Cake Divas in Los Angeles. Working with Joan Spitler at Cake Divas, Rick had the opportunity to create some of his most memorable cakes for a very distinguished clientele and many celebrities. 

Sasha Reichart is a Honolulu native and Punahou graduate, and lived on Oahu until the age of 18, when she moved to The SF Bay Area to attend college.  After graduating from college, she moved first to Seattle, where she met Rick and then they moved together to Santa Monica, CA to further their culinary careers. They were married in September of 2004 in Malibu, California. Rick made the cake of course!

Sasha is in charge of all the marketing, public, and customer relations for cakelava. Before cakelava, Sasha spent 8 years cooking professionally on the savory side and was on her way to becoming a chef. Prior to cooking, she held several jobs in both Marketing and Public Relations in San Francisco and Seattle. She joined cakelava fulltime when the company opened in March 2005.

A member of grace ormonde Wedding Style's Platinum List and Style Me Pretty's "Little Black Book", cakelava has been featured in numerous publications including The Bride and Bloom, People Magazine, American Cake Decorating, grace ormonde Wedding Style, and Pacific Edge Magazine, and local publications Midweek, The Honolulu Advertiser and The Star Bulletin.  cakelava has also appeared on television on numerous occasions.

When Rick and Sasha got married in Malibu, California in September 2004, the crew from TLC’s long-running daytime show, “A Wedding Story” was there to film the pre-wedding activities as well as the ceremony and reception. In our episode titled “Sasha & Rick”, Rick is filmed while he is making our Hawaiian-themed wedding cake, and it is revealed that he woke up at 3am the morning of their wedding to finish the beautiful cake.