This week, Ira Sternberg spoke with Rick and Sasha Reichart.
Rick and Sasha Reichart, owners of cakelava, an award-winning custom cake studio in Las Vegas that makes one-of-a-kind wedding cakes, sculpted 3D cakes, and celebration cakes. The couple first opened cakelava on Oahu, Hawaii in 2005 and spent 10 years there before relocating the cake studio to Las Vegas.
Rick Reichart is cakelava’s designer and has more than 25 years experience making custom cakes in Los Angeles, Seattle, Hawaii and Las Vegas. He is originally from New Jersey but spent his adult life on the West Coast, and it was there in Los Angeles that he discovered his passion for making cakes.
Reichart has a background in both fine art and pastry and uses art techniques like painting, sculpting, and airbrushing on his cakes. He makes his own handcrafted flowers, decorations, and custom figurines. Reichart was a competitor on Food Network’s cake show, “Challenge” in the episode “Spongebob Birthday Cakes.” His cakes are regularly featured in magazines and on the internet.
Sasha Reichart is in charge of the front of the house and business side of cakelava. She handles the sales, customer and media relations, marketing, and social media for the business. Reichart grew up on Oahu, Hawaii and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend college.
She spent eight years cooking professionally alongside a number of star chefs in Los Angeles and Seattle before moving back to Hawaii with her husband to open cakelava. In addition to her culinary background, Reichart has marketing and public relations experience.