Giving cakes character

Manu Ululani mixes up and applies the frostings that make your cake special

Manu Ululani Title: Cake decorator Job: Applies frostings and messages to cakes and other bakery products for Leonard's Bakery

Manu Ululani says let them eat cake, because for herself she's already had quite enough, thank you very much. Call it an occupational hazard: Ululani is the cake decorator for Leonard's Bakery in Kapahulu. She says she enjoys applying her creative energies toward the 30 to 40 cakes she works on each day, but she has burned out on eating them. In any case, Ululani soldiers on, applying frosting and other decorations to cakes for birthdays, graduations and other meaningful occasions. A 1975 graduate of Oceanside High School in California, Ululani moved to Hawaii in 1977 with her parents and nine sisters. Her first job here was trimming pineapples at the old Dole pineapple cannery in Iwilei. These days she works not only for Leonard's, but also for Wal-Mart, as a stock associate on the night shift. Ululani lives in Maunalani Heights with Keith Masui, with whom she has a 7-year-old son. She also has three adult children (two daughters and a son) from a previous relationship. Ululani adds that she likes to "swim, fish and have fun."

Question: How many cakes do you decorate each day?

Answer: Roughly between 30 and 40 a day.

Q: How big are these cakes generally?

A: They're 8-inch, quarter sheets, half sheets and full sheets.

Q: What's a sheet?

A: What's a sheet?

Q: Yeah.

A: You want the size of the sheet?

Q: Yeah.

A: OK. I've got it right here. ... The size of the full sheet is 18 by 24 inches, and it feeds 96 people. But there's a catch -- only if it's cut 2 inches by 2 inches.

Q: So how tall would that be?

A: I would say about 2 inches to 2 1/2 inches.

Q: Do you do wedding cakes?

A: Oh yes.

Q: What are the most typical types of decorations that you inscribe on the cakes?

A: Most of it is just plain "Happy birthday." Or it's "Congratulations" -- you know, the common, basic kind of thing. Now we also have "adult" kinds of cakes. Use your imagination. (Laughter) You know what I mean. ... So I make birthday cakes, wedding cakes, miniature cakes -- 4-inch cakes.

Q: What would those be for?

A: Oh, like for a single person or an elderly person, or just someone who is craving for a piece of cake.

Q: What types of frostings do you use?

A: We have french butter cream, chocolate butter cream, and we have whipped cream, and we have white icing.

Q: Are you ever tempted to eat the cakes or frostings yourself?

A: Oh no, Mark, no. (Laughter) Those days for me are over. Let me tell you, ever since I started here, I tell my family, when it comes my birthday, don't get me a cake. You can get me a pie or some cookies, but don't even think of getting me a cake.

Q: What kinds of tools do you use?

A: A regular bag, a saucing bag, like a funnel; that and a spatula, or I use a bowl scrapper as the smoother.

Q: How did you get to be a cake decorator?

A: You want me to tell you the truth?

Q: Sure.

A: Long story short, it was on-the-job a job training. I was a sales clerk.

Q: At Leonard's?

A: Yeah.

Q: How long have you been decorating?

A: About 2 1/2 years.

Q: What were you doing before Leonard's?

A: I worked at Daiei.

Q: And what were you there?

A: I was a head clerk.

Q: In what department?

A: General merchandise.

Q: Are there always cakes for you to work on, or are there other things you have to do at Leonard's?

A: No, there's always, always cakes to do, because I'm the only decorator here. We had three once upon a time. But now. ...

Q: Do you ever help make the malasadas? (Editor's note: Leonard's Bakery is famous for its malasadas.)

A: Oh no. I don't have to make malasadas. That's somebody else.

Q: What's the biggest cake you ever worked on?

A: We only make three layers.

Q: Do you ever decorate pies?

A: Once in a while we have somebody who wants a pie decorated.

Q: What's the biggest seller?

A: Of cakes?

Q: Yes.

A: It's the full sheet, like for birthdays and graduations. And the quarter sheet is like for the last-minute kind of cake, for birthdays and baby showers, and yakudoshis.

Q: Is it hot in the bakery?

A: Very. Just ask Craig (Kojima, the Star-Bulletin photographer). And tell him don't lie.

Q: Whom do you work most closely with?

A: Just me and the baker, Taki (Takiyoshi Imoto).

Q: At that store, how many people are there?

A: Twenty-seven people, but we all have different shifts.

Q: How creative can you be with the designs?

A: It just depends on what that customer wants. I can get it to them in maybe 10 to 15 minutes. If it's something extravagant, you gotta give me days.

Q: Do you consult books or anything for ideas?

A: Oh yes, I read a lot of books, and I remember the decorators that used to work here, and I try to do my best to do what they did. It wasn't easy.

Q: Those are the ones that taught you?

A: Yes, the three decorators that were here before were excellent.

Q: How long do you want to keep being a cake decorator?

A: For as long as possible, because Mr. (Leonard) Rego, the owner, he's helped me out a lot and showed me how to decorate, how to make flowers, how to make things from scratch.

Q: He's the son of the founder?

A: Yes.

Q: Is the founder still alive?

A: Only the Mrs. (Margaret). She's about 80-something by now. I've never met her.

Q: Do you find working with the cakes and frostings fun or meditative or anything?

A: I find it fun, exciting, very creative. I love it because I work alone.

Q: How many days a week are you there?

A: I'm off on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Those are the only two days I'm not here.

Q: What is your typical shift?

A: When I'm not working at my other job, I try to be here from 8:30 in the morning to 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

Q: What's your other job?

A: I work for Wal-Mart.

Q: Which one?

A: The Keeaumoku one.

Q: What do you there?

A: I'm a third-shift stock associate.

Q: So that means you're there late at night?

A: Yes. We start 10 in the evening till 8:30 in the morning.

Q: So you go from Wal-Mart straight to Leonard's?

A: Sometimes I make it (on time) and sometimes I don't.

Q: Are you full time over there (at Wal-Mart)?

A: Oh yes. I love it. But, hey, you know what? They're good -- benefits, pay, the whole works.

Q: Aren't you full time at the bakery?

A: Oh no. they only want part time.

Q: With both jobs, how do find time for your personal life?

A: I try to squeeze it in. Like whenever I'm off days at Wal-Mart, I make it a point to not be here. I need at least one day a week with my family.

---