Carolyn Tada did fine in her art classes at Punahou School, but her desire to excel in science kept her from exploring her other talents.

“When I’m focused on what I’m doing, I’m focused 100 percent,” she said. “I was focused on science so I didn’t bother with other stuff.”

Luckily, perceptive doctors in a pathology lab, where she was working after graduating from the University of North Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and minor in biology, sensed that her heart lay outside the realm of autopsies and pharmaceuticals, and set her on a trajectory to discover her true calling as a cake artist.

Forget the idea of a round or square cake decorated with piping and sugar flowers. Tada’s cakes have come in the shapes of Moet & Chandon champagne bottles, Chanel purses, Louis Vuitton luggage, cameras, Porsches and, perhaps drawing on her work in the autopsy room, a bloody-looking “Walking Dead” cake created for the cast of the AMC series.

Her cakes now elicit the gamut of emotional responses from tears to smiles at the Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort, when they are presented to VIPs or guests celebrating special occasions on the property. Those unaffiliated with the property can also request cakes, time permitting. Prices depend on the size of the cake and the intricacy of design, but they start at around $150. A multitier wedding cake she created for the Bridal Expo was valued at $10,000.

“I was interested in going to the University of Denver to become a pharmaceutical toxicologist, but the doctors didn’t support me going. They said, ‘Picture yourself in 10 to 20 years. Would you want to be doing this work?’ And the answer was, ‘Absolutely not.’”

Tada enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley to see where her love of baking and pastry might lead.

“Once I got in there, it was so fun. I was so excited because it was nice to meet people who came from all walks of life. There were strippers, exotic dancers and one 70-year-old woman I had to help all the time because she couldn’t lift things. They wanted to learn to bake, not necessarily go into the profession.”

Tada returned home to work for Alan Wong and eventually married one of her co-workers. The couple ended up moving to Las Vegas in 2005, where she found work as a pastry chef at the Venetian Resort and Casino.

But it wasn’t until leaving the Venetian in favor of being a stay-at-home mom that she jump-started her career. At home she started baking cakes for anyone who asked. And people in Vegas asked for a lot of weird things based on their passions, from liquor bottles to honey badgers, to a Kermit the Frog smoking a cigarette while sitting on a stack of pancakes.

She said she had the feeling some people were trying to stump her because, when presented with the cakes, they’d say things like, “You actually did it!”

“Whenever people asked if I could do something, the answer was, ‘Absolutely.’ Then I’d go home and figure it out,” she said. “I’m excited when people ask for something I’ve never done before. If you give me a picture, I can make it exactly the way you want.”

Tada started collecting baking equipment, finding deals on eBay, such as a $10,000 double-deck convection oven for $1,000.

“We had a two-car garage, and it got to a point where we had to walk in there sideways, like a crab. My husband said, ‘You either have to open a bakery or sell everything.’”

Soon afterward they were eating at Sushi Mon in Henderson, where they saw a “space available” sign on the bakery next door. With enough room for a nursery in back, the space became home to Tada’s bakery, Caked, where her work was discovered and featured on TLC’s “Fabulous Cakes.” On one episode she created a 4-foot sushi boat carrying 100 pieces of cake sushi. She was known by her married name at the time, Carolyn Portuondo.

Tada became the go-to cake designer for Paramount Pictures, creating dream cakes for Hollywood parties, premieres and VIP gifts for A-listers and studio honchos at such companies as Nickelodeon and Viacom.

“I’d drive to L.A. once a month and stay the entire month of December,” she said. That time was needed to work on such gift projects as filling full-size Christmas trees with edible ornaments. “They provided me with five employees, a driver, everything.”

Divorce and the desire to raise her children, now 9 and 10, in a healthier environment brought her home to Hawaii last fall. She said she doesn’t miss the limelight, something the former wannabe pathologist never craved. When television first came calling, she said her first thought was not of fame, but, “Ooh, free advertising.”

For inquiries, call the Royal Hawaiian’s Food & Beverage Department at 923-7311.

Reach Nadine Kam at nkam@staradvertiser.com.

BITE SIZE

12th anniversary calls for new menu items at Longhi’s

Longhi’s is celebrating its 12th year on Oahu with a refreshed menu, adding a couple dozen new dishes that have gone through dozens of blind taste tests, arriving at a vast range of crowd pleasers.

These include a rich lobster gnocchi ($36) with a creamy sauce that starts with lobster stock; and “Italian” loco moco ($36 in the evening) with filet mignon, caramelized onions and peppercorn demi-glace over mushroom risotto.

By day the loco moco features a prime beef patty ($18 breakfast and lunch).

One of my favorite dishes off the new menu is a simple yet decadent side dish of Sicilian cauliflower ($8) rolled in breadcrumbs, crisp-fried and served with olive oil, capers, browned garlic and chili peppers.

Finish with dessert of tiramisu pancakes ($16), the griddle cakes standing in for ladyfingers that often tend to be soggy. That’s not the case here, as the pancakes hold up well to the weight of Kahlua, espresso and mascarpone. Yum!

"Bite Size" documents the new, the small, the unsung.