Baby Shower Cake - Pea in the Pod

It has been a while since I have been able to post on my blog and even longer since I have had the time to sit down and make a cake that I was proud of. Last week I had the pleasure to do just that. A friend of mine asked me if I could make a cake for a baby shower she was throwing. She had sent me a few pictures of what she was thinking and one of the pictures was a cake with a pea in the pod theme. I find those cakes so adorable, so thats what we decided on and I was excited to get started! She chose simple yet elegant flavors for the cake, classic white with raspberry buttercream. I got my cake baked off and chilled, for the buttercream I just made a simple vanilla buttercream and added my raspberry sauce along with some fresh raspberries. Using a fresh raspberry sauce which is mostly just a raspberry puree not only gives the buttercream a bright beautiful color, but also gives it such a fresh and bright flavor as well. I assembled my cake with 3 layers and 2 layers of buttercream. Once assembled I gave it a quick crumb coat with vanilla buttercream and let it chill for about 4 hours so it would set. While the cake was chilling I got started on my little pea pod.

The peas I made out of cake balls. I had some left over cake batter so I baked it off and formed multiple sized balls. I popped them in the freezer and got them all nice and hard. (this blog is not sounding so much like a food blog anymore with all this talk of balls) Once they were frozen enough I wrapped them with a thin layer of colored fondant. For the baby face I just made a thin indentation for the mouth and the eyes. You can use any thin tool you have or you could just use a toothpick. I used a soft pink petal dust for the cheeks and formed the hat with fondant as well. When I made the pod I mixed fondant and gum paste together. That way the pod would be sturdy enough to hold all the peas in place.

When I finished the pea pod I set it aside to harden and pulled out my chilled cake. I covered it in a buttercream fondant. I am self taught when it comes to handling fondant so the way I do things may not be correct, but it works for me. I always make a batch of simple syrup which is equal parts sugar and water. All you do is bring the sugar and water to a boil just until all your sugar is dissolved and then let cool. I brush my cake all over with the cooled simple sugar right before I cover with fondant. This allows the fondant to stick on to the cake. I use a fondant smoothing tool to get all the sides and top of the cake smooth. After I my fondant was on I placed my pea pod on top of the cake and curled it just enough to match up with the edge of the cake. Again I used the simple syrup on the bottom of the pod so it would stick to the cake. Next I started with some of the small details that really just make the cake! I made the leaves and the curly strings at each end of the pod. For the strings I used the gum paste/fondant mixture and I just rolled them out and then started twisting. I put a small yellow flower bud at the end of the pod for a little extra color and to make the babies hat pop. I finished off the cake with a small pearl border to match the peas. I just piped those on with my vanilla buttercream and that was that!
    The cake came out better than I had imagined and it reminded me of why I loved decorating cakes so much. It may take me hours to do but the end result is always so gratifying. Sometimes I even surprise myself.

 

Happy Eatings Everyone!

Krystal

P.S. The mother to be was very happy with her cake and I was told "OMG the cake was amazing...not kidding!"