Baby Belly Baby Shower Cake

This cake was a request from a friend of mine organizing a baby shower for another friend. She asked me to make a cake for it and can it please be vanilla cake with Swiss meringue buttercream. No problem. I know just the design.

I had recently attended a baby shower with a baby belly cake and I wanted to make one, too. The expectant mother is having a boy, so I decided on a blue dress.

The first thing I did was cover my cake board with iridescent craft paper. Then I wrapped it in plastic wrap to make it food safe.

 I had baked six layers of vanilla cake, but it was only two recipes of it. Two layers of ten-inch cake and four layers of four-inch cake.

 Here's what it looked like unpacked.

 I began by sticking down the ten-inch cake onto the board with a bit of buttercream. Then I stuck down the four-inch cakes the same way just above the ten-inch, but touching it.

 I filled and stacked my cakes.

 I realized that my four-inch cakes weren't even, so I shaved some off the top of the taller cake to make them both the same height.

 Then I rounded down the four-inch cakes to make them more spherical.

 I did the same thing with the ten-inch cake. This will be the baby belly and the four-inch cakes will be the mother's breasts.

 Then I took some of the cake scraps from trimming the cakes and shaped a little baby sized footprint.

 Then I stuck it onto the baby belly with some buttercream.

 The I crumb coated the cake with Swiss meringue buttercream.

 And then frosted it once more.

 I mixed some flesh-colored fondant with ivory and pink food coloring. I rolled it out and draped it over the top of the breasts, trimming it to be flush with the cake at the top line.

 Then I rolled out light blue fondant and draped it over the cake from the breasts to the bottom of the cake board. I pressed the fondant into the baby footprint to show all the details and left the fondant between and under the breasts loose, which I felt was more realistic.

Then I trimmed the fondant over the breasts and around the sides. I also trimmed the excess along the bottom, and tore the fondant a bit while I was smoothing it. We'll cover that up later.

 But the cleavage bothered me a bit. I felt it was a bit too low.

 I decided to add some lace to the dress. I cut a strip of white fondant and used a fancy border cutter to make the other edge. Then I punched some holes in it with a round piping tip.

 I laid it over the breasts just above the cleavage and stuck it on with edible glue.

 Then I made another piece of lace with a different border cutter and round piping tip for the bottom of the dress.

 I stuck it onto the cake board with edible glue.

 That fondant tear bothered me, though, so I decided to cover it with some decorations. I used a small daisy cutter to make some dark blue daisies.

 I first covered the tear in the fondant, then made a little border along the bottom of the dress.

 Then I made the same border along the top of the dress.

 Then I used my clay extruder to make some lines of blue fondant.

 I glued them onto the line between the lace and the dress.

 I thought the border was exactly what it needed.

 I love how this cake turned out. I mean, how feminine is the quintessential pregnant belly?

 I love the overall effect. The baby footprint is adorable and everything about this cake screams female.

 Congratulations on the new baby!

To watch the whole process on YouTube, click here: https://youtu.be/LL52-csMVc4
Um das ganze Prozess auf YouTube anzuschauen, hier klicken: https://youtu.be/nIFAK9JJ-Kg