Baby Bum Baby Shower Cake

This was a cake I made for a baby shower for a friend of mine. We found out she was having a boy, so blue was the main theme. And she had been craving fruit through the pregnancy. Her favorite fruits? Raspberries and cherries.

I also happened to know this expectant mother doesn't care for fondant. So I decided not to cover the cake with fondant. But I could make some fondant decorations.

I decided to make vanilla cake in my 10-inch square pans and fill my sphere pan about halfway full with batter and leveled them all. To make them taste like cherries, I made cherry syrup by boiling about 1/4 cup of cherry jam with 1/2 cup of water and painting it onto the cake with a brush.

 Then I made a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream and flavored it with cherry jam again. It turns out the flavor really didn't come through at all. So I added about a teaspoon of strawberry flavoring to it and it just had a light, fruity aftertaste, but didn't taste strongly of any one fruit. Then I colored it with blue food coloring.

 Then I stacked the cake with the 10-inch square layers on the bottom and the half sphere face down on top. The cake was filled with blue Swiss meringue buttercream and crumb coated with it as well.

 Then I carefully iced the cake on more time.

Then I modeled baby feet out of flesh colored fondant, making mirror images of each other.

And I placed them toes down and arches in the middle onto the back of the cake.

Then I rolled out a piece of light blue fondant and textured it with a flower textured rolling pin.

Then I cut it into a square and used my overstitch wheel to make it look quilted.

Finally, I placed it over the round part of the cake and covering the heels of the feet so no one wonders what happened to the baby's legs.

 Then I cut out the letters for welcome baby out of the same light blue fondant.

 Then I placed them on the cake below the feet.

 I really love how the cake turned out. I think it's adorable and is perfect for a baby shower.