Tips for Edible Baby Shower Cakes

What's a baby shower without edible baby shower cakes? These deliciously tempting creations usually form the highlight of a baby shower, not to mention of the guest's meal!

There are quite a few questions, though, that are asked about edible baby shower cakes. One of the most popular problems revolves around baby shower cake decorating. How do you decorate a baby shower cake in an easy and affordable way while still making it look good? Not many people are satisfied with presenting a cake iced in an everyday way with a few sugar flowers simply stuck in the top.

There are some simple edible baby shower cakes that you can use, and not all of them are cakes in the traditional sense of the word. One spectacular cake is actually a tower of cream puffs. But to make them look different from the traditional wedding croquembouche, each one is glazed in pastel colored white chocolate instead of the amber caramel that is usually used. Finished off with coordinating sugar flowers, this beautiful cake is an attention-getter supreme.

A simpler variation is the doughnut center tower. Although it looks the same as a croquembouche, it's much easier to make since it involves sticking different types of doughnut centers (plain, chocolate, icing sugar dipped, chocolate and cocoa dipped) onto toothpicks and then onto a styrofoam tree form that had been covered with aluminum foil. Finished off with some sparkling candles stuck on the top, this is a truly terrific cake. Easy, simple, affordable. Need I say more?

A modern form of edible baby shower cakes are baby blocks made from large cake cubes. Cut sheet cakes into perfect squares and sandwich them together with jam or icing to form a cube. Cover each one with butter cream or cream cheese frosting and decorate like baby blocks with extruded sugar letters and cake or cupcake decorations that can be purchased from specialty cake companies like Wilton or Decko.

Purchased cakes from the bakery can be further embellished with breathtaking natural décor like edible flowers, sugared flowers and whole sugared fruits. Arranging the edible flowers to form a bouquet on top of a cake with its sides decorated in basketweave design makes an unusual basket of flowers. Or a pile of sugared fruits on top of the cake makes a 3D della Robbia still-life. And nothing can beat the traditional dark chocolate topped with mounds of softly whipped cream, candied violets, and perfect whole walnuts, except maybe gilding the walnuts in 24K gold leaf!

More casual cakes are easily decorated with little candies like colored shot or dragees, MMs, Runts, and Nerds. The colorful candies contrast well with brightly iced cakes and give a fun, informal feel to the cakes. This would be really cute for family showers, since a candy-covered cake is something that would really pique the kids' interests.

Another problem revolves around baby shower cake recipe tips. The most common problem is that the cake is invariably delicious, yet unfortunately very dry. A tried and tested remedy for that is taking a new atomizer and after washing it out with soap and water and rinsing it twice, is to spray the cake layers with fruit juice, coffee, or flavored tea before putting on the icing. An alternative would be rum or brandy, but that's not recommended for the pregnant mommy! A sweeter version would be to soak the cake in light syrup, like what you would get from a can of fruit cocktail or sliced peaches.