Lindsey's Baby Shower Cake

The first cake of 2012 is the baby shower cake I made for my friend, Lindsey. She is expecting her first baby in April and I was happy to attend her Baby Shower. She looked great and is ready for the little guy's arrival. Lindsey picked a farm theme for her cake.  Her husbands' family owns a farm stand and apple orchard so we decided this was the perfect fit. So her sister, my friend and neighbor, Maribeth, and I came up with a design we created from images found on the web in order to make the perfect cake for Lindsey. We decided on a three tier cake (she had 50 people coming to the shower).  The top 6 inch blue layer will have a  red barn, the middle 9 inch yellow layer  will have apple trees and finally the bottom 12 inch green layer will have a fence and haystacks. The cake will also have farm animals and a truck around it, which will complete the look. This also happens to be my first blog entry for 2012 and I hope it's not my last since I have been trying to get blogging unsuccessfully for a while.

To keep myself on track, I started out by creating a sketch of the cake. I felt less stressed because I had a plan which I could rely on. I began with making the decorations going on and around the cake. These little guys need time to dry so all the parts can bond together. I decided based on the size of the cake to go with three cows, one horse, three sheep, one dog, five haystacks, one truck, three pigs and five ducks. Since I was rusty it took me a while to make all the animals but when finally finished they came out super.

They are all made of fondant (I like to think of this stuff as edible play dough for adults), the details are drawn on using edible marker and they are totally safe to eat! Throughout the process of making these little guys you can't help but bond a little with your work. So you pick favorites and it somehow feels wrong but I always end up having one. This time it was the dog. Maybe because it was my first or maybe it was because he came out so cute. 

Having three tiers is very helpful when deciding between cake and frosting flavors. It eliminates choosing vanilla over chocolate or vice versa since you can make both! The two top tiers were chocolate and the bottom layer was going to be vanilla. After doing some browsing on the web, I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to make the bottom layer a strawberry shortcake.  I salivated at a recipe I found on a blog. The blogger made a recipe from a new cookbook by the Pioneer Woman and after looking at the pictures she posted of the cake I was sold! I also thought it would be a perfect recipe to get into the spirit of spring. It was an abnormally warm week here in the Northeast and it inspired me to make a cake that helped people enjoy the warm weather. 

After baking the cakes, I frosted  them  and then covered each layer with fondant. Next I added the barn, the clouds, the trees, the apples and the fence to each tier.  It is always easier to put the cake together on site, so we transported the layers separately. Once the layers were stacked  and the final touches were added we were finally ready to eat the cake!! 

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the cake after it was cut. So I cannot post any images of the scrumptious chocolate layer covered in chocolate buttercream or the refreshing strawberry shortcake covered in vanilla buttercream. Although, without a doubt I will be making both recipes again and will be posting pictures in the very near future.

It took me about 20 hours to complete this cake including all the time I spent during the week making the farm animals.  In the future, I hope to cut that time down to about 10 hours. I am on a constant look out for shortcuts and ideas to help cut down on the time. I think my best bet is to practice making the cakes and working with fondant more. My goal is to take on new projects every week or two to help hone my skills. Why Not??