We did a baby shower this week and decided to show you our step by step process. Hope you enjoy!

The cake is a round, two tier (10″ and 8″), raspberry cake with raspberry mousse filling covered in American Buttercream (the mother-to-be’s request) that served 40 guests.

1.  Mise en place.  This is a snooty cooks term for “get all your stuff ready before you start”.  Here we’ve pulled together the pans, racks, cake boards and recipes needed for today’s project, a baby shower cake for 40 people.

2.  Such a wonderful event calls for pulling out the best ingredients!  We’ve thawed the last of the seasons glorious raspberries to make the Mom-to-be’s favorite Raspberry Cake and it’s delectable Raspberry Mousse Filling.  Yum!

3.  Macerating the berries with just a little sugar, forms a wonderful thick juice that is an important flavor element for the batter to come.

4.  All those lovely berries make a bright pink batter.  Perfect to celebrate the imminent arrival of a beautiful baby girl.

5.  Fill the pans no more than half way, please!  You don’t want that big “hump” in the middle of your layers.

6.  Making the frosting is one of Sarah’s fondest memories from childhood.  Her father and I would work late into the night, mixing and “scratch coating” wedding cake layers.  We’d play the radio…probably too loud for the kids sleeping!…and laugh and talk.  Hmmm…seems it’s one of my favorite memories, too!  (Did you catch the “secret ingredient” in this picture?  Yes, American Buttercream contains solid vegetable shortening.  Sometimes along with butter, sometimes on its own.  It’s a dirty little secret…don’t tell!)

                             

                             

7.  This cakes design calls for fondant “clotheslines” holding up dozens of tiny gumpaste baby clothes.  Aren’t they cute?

 

8.  Each of those tiny little garments needed to be hand painted.  Sarah and I spent hours over this part of the cake!  Lots of work but so much fun.

 

9.  To make the clothesline, Sarah rolled the chocolate fondant into thin logs, trimmed them to length, and set them around the cake.  Then she used a clay extruder to “pipe” the thin lines needed to “hang” the clothes on.  Steady hands a must!

10.  Once the clothes had been “hung”, it was time to pipe on the borders and tiny clothespins made from chocolate frosting.  Who knew there were so many details in one cake?

11.  Finally, we’ve got the cake completed!  We put it on a nice silver tray and loaded it up for delivery.

 

12.  Sarah’s truck is the perfect delivery vehicle!  Plenty of space and a nice secure ride. Into the truck it goes! Side note: if you turn the freshly vacuumed mat upside down, it gives a nice grippy surface for transporting a cake.

 

13.  We’ve arrived on site.  Just a quick positioning of the cake on top of a crystal cake stand and we’re off to clean up!  Whew!  What a day.

 The cake was a hit with everyone, which made us all very happy!