Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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Features

Friendship forged in frosting

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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Cake baker Hector decorates his "Tres Leches" cake using a piping bag to create a shape of a large rose.
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COURTESY HECTOR WONG
Hector Wong was inspired by Ruth Levy Beranbaum’s Red Fruit Shortcake to create his Yellow Fruit Shortcake, above. Hers uses raspberries, strawberries and red currants; his uses passion fruit, pineapple and papaya. The shells covering the cake are molded out of gelatin.
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COURTESY BEN FINK
Ruth Levy Beranbaum’s Red Fruit Shortcake
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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Rose Levy Beranbaum, right, is assisted by Mark “Woody” Wolston and Hector Wong during a baking demonstration at Leeward Community College. Beranbaum’s visit to Honolulu in December was the first time she and Wong met in person after years discussing baking via email.
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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hector Wong based the above cake on Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Golden Lemon Almond Cake wedding cake, garnished with candied citron and Kona lemon skin roses.
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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hector Wong’s Deep Chocolate Passion Cake, top, uses 4.5 pounds of chocolate in the cake, ganache and glaze. It is trimmed with vanilla pods. He used Hawaii-grown chocolate and vanilla.
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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hector Wong baked up his starfruit and Tres Leches cakes in the yellow kitchen of his condominium. Wong’s mentor and friend is cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum, whose recipes he adapts to use tropical fruits. He blogs about his baking on a website he calls “My Yellow Kitchen Takes the Cake.”