This was my first baby shower I've had to plan and the first cake I've decorated! Needless to say, since Andrea and I set the date for July 11th, I could hardly wait to get this thing started! I enjoyed planning the wedding so much and adding personal touches, that I started months in advanced for her shower - from finding the place to decorating the cake. I LOVE me some parties!!
Andrew did a great job helping...he'd put up with my head full of spinning ideas and I had to have certain things that Andrea enjoyed or liked. The coffee shop was an organic, earthly, homey place. Karen and her staff at Otherlands Coffee Bar did a fabulous job with the catering...they served banana, peanut butter, honey sandwiches, pimento cheese sandwiches, fresh fruit, carrot/apple muffins, herbal tea punch, and all served elegantly! So the theme was colorful and natural. Here are the few personal touches we added for the special Mommy and Daddy-to-be:
Made name tags and pinned on with diaper pins and pacifiers.
Andrew and I designed the invites to reflect the nature of the parents :) After all they did plant a seed!
The cake was made 3-4 days earlier...I was very anxious and mom advised me to refrigerate and to make cakes the day before in the future. Andrew was honest to tell me it was a little dry but still good...how can you go wrong with Lemon icing?!Rich Butter Cake from Good Housekeeping
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1 cup margarine (softened)
4 large eggs
6 tbsps seedless red rasberry jam (or any fruit jam)
Buttercream Frosting
(I used 3/4 of this recipe - that is 4-5 cups of sugar instead of package and a little over 1/4 cup of softened butter - which made plenty)
1 package (16 oz) confectioners sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsps (or more as needed) milk or half-and-half
1. Prepare rich butter cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with waxed paper; grease and flour paper.
2. On another sheet of wax paper, combine, flour, baking powder, and salt. In measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla.
3. In large bowl, with mixer on low speed, beat sugar and butter until blended. Increase speed to medium-high; beat until creamy, about 3 minutes, frequently scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture alternatively with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until smooth, scraping bowl occasionally.
4. Spoon batter evenly into prepared cake pans. Stagger pans on 2 oven racks, placing 2 on upper rack and 1 on lower rack, so that pans are not directly above one another. Bake 26-28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. With small knife, loosen layers from sides of pans; invert onto racks. Remove wax paper; cool completely, about 45 minutes.
5. Prepare Lemon Frosting: From lemon, grate 1 tsp peel and squeeze 2 tbsps juice. Prepare buttercream frosting as recipe directs, adding lemon peel and juice with vanilla. When frosting is a good spreading consistency, beat in enough yellow food coloring to tint a pale yellow.
6. To assemble cake, place 1 layer rounded side down, on cake plate; spread with 3 tablespoons rasberry jam (or enough to spread on entire layer). Top with second layer, rounded side down, and remaining 3 tablespoons of jam. Top with 3rd layer, rounded side up. Use lemon frosting to frost sides and top of cake, making frosting as smooth as possible (hint: use water on spatula to smooth).
7. Decorate however you'd like :)
Decorating was based on my childhood memories of watching my mom decorate wedding, birthday, and shower cakes! I definitely got the creative brain from the Blancs (my mom's side). Andrew wanted me to add bugs...so I added bumble bees and lady bugs to make it more garden like :) Accidentally, got into the Anne Geddes look.
FYI...it takes a long time to decorate...gotta consider the time invested in coloring the icing before decorating and changing tips for the icing styles, etc.!! Plus, I didn't really know what to do!! Although, it's nothing compared to TLC's Cake Boss...I tried hard to make it a cool cake ;) I thought it was okay...but everyone seemed to like it.
Created our own little flower jars with recycled baby food jars and got fresh flowers at a local Farmers Market! Turned out fabulous!!!
Karen and her staff made it look so elegant!!
Got some of Andrea's favorite flowers :)
Chris' favorite candy is Jelly Bellies...so those were the party favors and just added a little stamped diaper pin to the favor box.
Mama Dill just glowing and growing!
Andrew got Chris a "Baby Daddy Changing Protective Gear 2000" kit. Inside joke...Chris is not only a pediatrician, but also has an engineering degree, so he's constantly inventing things. Once he is through, he names his invention and usually adds the number 2000 to " make it sound futuristic".
Here it is...air sanitizer, mask with ear plugs and goggles, and gloves!
It was hard to cut the decorations!!!!
Me and my sister-n-laws chilling after a long day!!
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