- Well, ladies and gentlemen, please meet Dena Lumbang.
(audience applauding)
And you are the owner of a Sacramento-based bakery
called Kalani Kakes. - Yes, that's very true.
- Well, I'm honored to introduce to you Ludo and Geoffrey.
- Hello. - Hello, nice to meet you.
- How are you? (audience applauding)
- Beautiful, beautiful cakes. - Thank you.
- Yeah, beautiful. - Mahalo.
- I feel like in Hawaii now. - Yeah.
- What inspired you to, I mean, "50 First Dates,"
your love of Hawaii,
but like how did you actually get it started?
- So in 2019, I was kind of going through
something in my life,
where I didn't know what I wanted to do
and my daughter who's actually here today,
she worked for the airlines.
(audience applauding)
She knew that we needed a break, my husband and I
were kind of trying to figure out what I was gonna do.
I was sick mentally and physically
and she got a job at the airline,
so she could send us to Hawaii
and that trip really inspired
what ended up being Kalani Kakes.
- Okay, these are the kind of stories that freak me out.
You needed something, you got in there,
you went somewhere and you turned it into something.
- First of all, well, you turned something
into something beautiful,
but to turn the restaurant business for baking,
it's so hard, because every one of these things
are done by hand with love,
I mean, it's not like you store them in a factory,
until you need them and someone goes up and picks them up
and sends them, this is love and this is daily,
you have to make this daily. - Daily, fresh.
- Otherwise it's no good.
- What inspired with "50 First Dates?"
- So "50 First Dates" is our favorite movie to watch.
- You and your husband? - Yes.
When we come home from Hawaii or we miss Hawaii
or just to, you know get out of a bad mood
or, you know, when we're low.
And after we came back from Hawaii in 2019,
I was on my way to meet him for lunch
and I was like, oh my God, I know what I wanna do.
I'm gonna make this bakery,
I've always wanted to have a bakery,
I'm gonna have it inspired by the favorite flavors we have,
we taste on Hawaii and it'll be themed
after "50 First Dates," it just kinda made sense.
(audience applauding)
- May I ask you guys,
what was your response when your mom told you the idea?
- It made sense, it was perfect.
It just ties everything together, it's like a full circle.
- Okay, can we taste these?
- I know we're looking. - Absolutely.
- Okay. - Are you gonna tell us
what we have? - Yes.
- Tea, coffee and juice. - Will you tell us
about this beautiful cake that we're so excited about.
- Sure, so this is the Endless Summer
of like because of Hawaii having endless summer.
- [Geoffrey] What's in it?
- This is lilikoi is the purple,
chiffon, the middle is orange chiffon
and then the bottom is guava chiffon.
- Wow, that is so good, so moist.
- Can I ask what the frosting is?
Because it's got some vanilla, it's very creamy and soft.
- I used a mascarpone and Tahitian vanilla.
- Mascarpone! (audience applauding)
That's it!
Mascarpone. - It's good,
'cause you like buttercream, but it melts
and it mimics buttercream,
but has that little bit of acid that the mascarpone has,
so it balances the cake.
- It's very well balanced, it's not too sweet, good job,
because sometime it can be too sweet.
You like it, oh my God. - Sorry.
- Drew, you know that it's good,
when Drew comes to the restaurant, she eat a lot, I love it.
- Yeah, I do. - I love it.
She's away with pudding, it's true, Oh, my God.
(audience applauding)
(Drew laughing) - Oh, yeah.
- Ludo goes, "I remember you, my God."
- Yeah, she eat a lot, she's a good foodie.
- I am, I'm a Hoover, I'm not one of those salad chicks,
who pretend that she's on a diet all the time.
I'm gonna live once and I'm gonna enjoy it.
Well, this is just fantastic.
- Can try this one? - What's this?
- I guess we're lucky enough to try the cupcakes.
I'll get right in there.
- [Dena] So this is the Henry Roth inspired by-
- [Ludo] Oh, what is this?
- That one's pineapple. - Pineapple?
- That one's for Lucy, 'cause she wanted to find a pineapple
on her dad's birthday every year.
- That's right.
- And then this one is Henry Roth,
which is inspired by Adam's character
and my husband, I call him my Henry Roth,
because when we were going through, you know,
at the beginning of Kalani Kakes,
he basically had to make me fall in love with him every day,
so I wouldn't give up and so that's my favorite.
- [Audience] Aw! (applauding)
- With guava.
- Where do you make these?
- I make them from my home kitchen.
- What? - Yeah.
I'm a licensed cottage food outlet.
- I did that before for a long time too
cooking in my kitchen, in my home kitchen,
I did that when I was doing my popup little bit.
I know what it is, it's very difficult to cook at home.
- Yeah, it is.
- Do you have a goal? Do you want any advice?
- Yes, I'm outgrowing my kitchen
and I'm ready for the next step,
but I'm afraid of jumping too far ahead.
So I'd love to get into a food truck,
I'd love to eventually get to a brick and mortar,
but I have a lot of concerns
about what I need to do to get there
and I wanna grow organically and not rush.
So I'd love some advice about that.
- Well, first for food truck, you need money
and driver license. (audience laughing)
You know, I have a food truck before,
you need to be very smart with a food truck.
It is a small kitchen
and you need to use all the space you can
to organize yourself, because it's very challenging,
but it's so much fun.
(melodic upbeat music)