Sunday
Jan172010
Sunday Sweets: Baby Showers
January 17, 2010 Over the past few weeks we've seen plenty of ways to do it wrong, so here are some sweet ways to do a shower cake right.
(As always, if you recognize a cake that's not credited please let me know.)
(By Cake Lady Cakes)Hey, we haven't had one of these in while - so how about a mostly fondant-free Sweet?
(By Cake Central member dinkadoo)Here's another mostly fondant-free beauty:
(Made by Megan Blackburn. See more of her stuff here)Proof that you really can get buttercream that smooth! Oh, and those pink ruffles are fantastic. (Hey bakers, which tip do you use for those? Just a simple flat one?)
I pretty much love everything there is to love about this next one:
(Baker Unknown)
That's an engineering feat right there - and so many great details!
Which isn't to say that simple can't be gorgeous, of course:
(By Latrells25)And lastly, I thought this was a clever way to hide columns, in addition to being adorable:
(By Patisserie Ganache)Ah, you just can't go wrong with buttons and bows. :)
Have a Sweet to nominate? E-mail it to me at Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com!
Reader Comments (79)
they're all so pretty! but I have to say the basket is my favorite! it's nice to see cake artists instead of cake wrecks occasionally. yay for sunday sweets!
the pink ruffles are made with a rose tip
Cake is like figure skating, in that they both involve leotards and knives.
It's a little creepy to have a baby cake with the "sweet prince" phrase on it. Is there another meaning besides Horatio mourning Hamlet's death?
Wow. That first one looks *just* like the rocking horse that my grandparents made for my mom way-back-when. Amazing!
I love the ones with the teddy bears - and the tea party! So cute! :)
I am sorry but the first cake is scary. It is the eyeball that is creeping me out because it looks like it is staring me down. I didn't think it was a Sunday Sweet. And at first the basket cake looked like a baby casket instead of a baby basket. But after looking at it for awhile I noticed how beautiful it really is. The fondant free cakes are always my favorites because they showcase the most talent. Thanks for posting the fondant free ones.
The Sweet Prince cake also scares me because it looks like a disembodied torso.
Love the one with the teapot in the middle, but how the heck are they going to cut it?
That bassinet looks funerary to me.
Sundays give me hope around here--and these beautiful baby cakes will give me a chance to brace myself for the next round of wrecks!
Are you sure that tea kettle cake isn't in motion (or won't be if you try to move it)? That looks like livin' on the edge a bit to me. I'd be too scared to try serving it!
Sigh. Simply beautiful, as will be the babies to come!
Alternate title: Cakes that make you go "Awwwwwwwwwwwww"
GORGEOUS cakes, I love culinary art:) Others have mentioned it and I'd really like to know myself as I've always wondered how DO you cut the lopsided/tilted cakes without the whole thing collapsing? Are they on tiers and can stand on their own or...?
IMHO, the 'Sweet Prince' one has more of a Wreck feel than a Sweet one... but all the others are gorgeous. The gravity-defying one, and the adorable rocking horse especially (but not exclusively!).
Sweet Sundays, I love Sunday Sweets.
Wow. Stunning.
They are adorable!
Jen, are you suuuure there isn't something you want to tell us? Sure is a lot of baby talk 'round about these parts lately...
Well, this just makes me want to have a baby to get one of these. Beautiful.
These are all so sweet and pretty!
To get the ruffles you use the same tip you would for roses such as a 104. They're pretty easy to make too! Here the Wilton website has a step-by-step guide with pictures: http://www.wilton.com/technique/Ruffle
Some of these shower cakes have more servings than my wedding cake. Do they really have this many people at their shower (I can NOT even imagine) or are they just eating leftover cake for the rest of their pregnancy??
I agree with other posters that something on that horse head is just not quite right.
I've never been to a baby shower before, but if I do go to one I hope I get to help eat one of these cakes instead of the dead-baby cakes.
These are beautiful! The pink and brown one (near the beginning) is my favorite, though!
These are all beautiful. I hink the topsy-turvy one is my favorite.
My sister-in-law would love that pink and brown dotty one. Her birth announcement had pink and brown dots, and I think most of the baby gear does too.
My sister and I had a rocking horse just like the first cake. I'm also just now pregnant. What a great idea for my shower. Thanks, Jen, for showing us!
there is definately a lot of talent shown ... and who doesn't love cake??
look at the little drops of water coming out of the teapots!!
ohmygosh!!
love love love this sweet, pink tea party theme!!!!
I am awed by that basket weave cake. How can that be mostly fondant free?
Those are all so beautiful and inspirational (even though I couldn't decorate a cake to save my life). Wish I had a cake like that for my baby shower!!
Now THESE have me wanting a baby shower! That is how you do cakes.
I don't think those ruffles are made with a rose tip, they look more like they were done with a petal tip or a ruffle tip. If you look closely they weren't done sideways along the cake but rather each ruffle is done individually, like a curved petal.
In addition to being a wonderful example for bakeries everwhere, these should be held up as good examples to prospective cake buyers.
I thought the bassinet was creepy, too. Funerary. I think it would have been better if it didn't look so box-like on top.
Oh but I'm sure some wreckerators could find a way to go wrong with buttons and bows! :)
I agree with Annette, the 'ruffle' appears to actually be individual petals. I'd guess 104 but it might be 103, 105, or 106 depending on how large those layers actually are. Definitely 10-something anyway! Fiddly but it's going be more even than a ruffle since it's very tricky to disguise the joins in a ruffle and even harder to go all the way around with a join.
The bassinet really wouldn't be that hard to make, just wicked fiddly and it would take forever. I don't mind doing basket weave on smaller cakes but my piping hand is cramping up just looking at the much weave.
The basket weave is really neat and consistant.
The cakes were all lovely and a nice change to the "life-like or "rude" cakes
Are the parties really that big and require all that cake?
I can appreciate the beauty of the bassinet cake, and the fact that the baker wisely chose not to include a "sleeping" baby, BUT it still looks like a coffin, or at least very funeral-esque.
Yeah, that 'Sweet Prince' torso cake was actually a bit creepy.
But I LOVED the rocking horse! So sweet!
I have a rocking horse like that! My grandfather made it. That would've been the perfect cake for me!
All these cakes are so inspiring. Well done.
How can anyone stand to eat something that beautiful. It's amazing work. Real art.
Bear number 1 is totally saying
'Muahahahaha!'
I was really surprised to see that the fondant free cakes are made with buttercream - I always assumed that all your fondant free choices are made with royal icing (and was never quite sure why you took against it tbh.) I don't think I've ever seen a cake iced in buttercream! doesn't it make them a bit sickly? perhaps it's a British thing to only use Royal or fondant icing - royal every time for me :¬)
the baby basinette is by "dinkadoo" on cake central. Second week in a row that a pic in my favorites file on cake central made it here. Some seriously awesome talent on that website.
I don't believe the sweet prince cake is meant to be a torsoe; it looks like it is a cute outfit on a hanger.
Anon, buttercream is quite common over here in the States, though the kind of buttercream most people are familiar with is butter or shortening and powdered sugar with a touch of vanilla, and it crusts over. Not as hard as royal icing, but it still crusts over. It's rare to find a decorated cake that's made with meringue-based buttercreams. It doesn't make it any stickier to use buttercream than to use royal icing, in my experience.
As for cutting a topsy turvy or any other stacked cake, you take the layers down one by one and cut them. It's a lot more stable than you think, thanks to boards between each layer and stakes or other stabilizers holding each layer up!
A rose tip was used on the baby shower cake to make those pink ruffles :)
That pink teapot and teacup cake was outstanding. I love the humor in the happy baby, calmly enjoying her bath atop this crazy pile of cakes!
I like #1, 4 and 5. The expression on the rocking horse's face is funny. The bears are great too, #4 is definitely going bwahahahaha but the thumbs up from #5 is probably my favorite. I want to remember this page when we have my sister's baby shower.
My instant thought upon seeing the pink cake was 'The Mad Hatter's Baby Shower.' Yes, I realise what I'm saying.
But all those cakes are quite good. 'Sweet Prince' was simple, a little off centre but good.
A bit hurried today, so comment is going to be brief.