About Rick and Sasha Reichart
cakelava owners Rick and Sasha Reichart are partners in life and love, and authors of Extreme Cakeovers, a crafty cake decorating book. Rick is a cake artist/designer, and the creative force behind cakelava, and Sasha is the “Go To Girl” business manager who passionately works with clients. Rick and Sasha started cakelava in 2005 in Honolulu, Hawaii and opened their first storefront cake studio in Kailua, Oahu a couple years later. In 2016, cakelava relocated their beloved cake studio to Las Vegas in The Montage Shopping Center.
Since cakelava opened, Rick’s artistic cake designs have captured national and international media attention. His work has been featured in numerous print and internet publications. cakelava’s first cake was a towering Hawaiian-themed wedding cake and was featured on TLC’s “A Wedding Story: Sasha and Rick”. Rick and Sasha also appeared together on several episodes of the Food Network series RIDICULOUS CAKES, where Rick was a featured cake artist. In 2022 and 2023, Rick and Sasha were judges at the Eastern Idaho State Fair Sugar Art Show, and found another cake love!
Rick Reichart
Rick is a cake artist/designer with 30 years experience making cakes. He has appeared on Food Network shows Cake Challenge: “Spongebob Birthday Cakes,”, and as a featured cake artist on Seasons 1 and 2 of “Ridiculous Cakes”. Rick loves teaching and has taught his craft internationally with his “Discover Your Inner Artist” cake classes. In 2020, Rick was named one of the Top 10 Cake Artists in the USA by the prestigious UK based Cake Masters magazine.
Rick is originally from New Jersey, but prefers the laid-back lifestyle of the West Coast. He has a background in fine arts and is classically trained with a Baking and Pastry degree. Before discovering cakes, he was a restaurant Pastry Chef. Rick loves sweets but not the high-production demands of a restaurant and wanted a creative outlet that combined his pastry and fine art skills. Custom cakes were a perfect match! While living in Los Angeles, Rick was inspired to pursue a cake career after seeing an Instyle magazine cake article that included Elin Katz, a celebrity cake artist and owner of Rosebud Cakes in Beverly Hills. Rick worked at Rosebud Cakes, and later with cake artist Joan Spitler, of Joanie and Leigh’s Cakes (formerly Cake Divas), and Annie Welch in Seattle. After working as a cake designer at high end cake shops in L.A. and Seattle, he was ready to “do his own thing” and open cakelava.
Sasha Reichart
Sasha manages cakelava and is in charge of customer and media relations. Sasha grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend college. She worked in marketing and public relations before pursuing a culinary career.
Cooking and food appreciation is immensely satisfying to Sasha. She cooked in high-end restaurants for nearly a decade preparing a variety of cuisines including Mediterranean, Japanese, East Indian, New Orleans, and farm to table American food. Sasha thrived in the fast pace, high stress environment of savory cooking. Like Rick, Sasha learned her craft from talented mentors – award winning Chefs Jan Birnbaum, Jonathan Sundstrom, Yutaka Saito, and Shinya Asami. When Rick decided to open cakelava, Sasha chose not to pursue a Sous Chef position so she could assist Rick full time with cakelava. Her culinary background and marketing skills were just the right ingredients for cakelava.
Extreme Cakeovers Book
One of Rick and Sasha’s proudest accomplishments was publishing a cake cookbook in 2013 with NYC Publisher Clarkson Potter (Penguin Random House) called Extreme Cakeovers: Make Showstopping Desserts from Store-Bought Ingredients.
Rick’s Cake Classes
One of Rick’s favorite ways of mentoring is teaching cake decorating classes. He taught his popular “Discover Your Inner Artist” classes throughout the United States and in Canada, London and Australia.
On Location Projects – Will Travel for Cake!
We have been fortunate to have opportunities for Rick to build a cake on location.
Rick and Sasha, Cake Judges – And the Winner Is …
We loved the experience of cake judging. In 2022, Rick and Sasha were invited to judge the well-established Eastern Idaho State Fair Sugar Art Show.
The cakelava name
We are often asked the origin of the cakelava name, which was chosen by Rick. The name combines the words “cake” and “lava”. He wanted a single name word based on something Hawaiian – lava. We thought was beautiful and organic and expressed his love of art without restrictions.