It's a Jungle In Here

My sister called me up saying there was a baby shower at her work and was wondering if I might be able to make a cake or cupcakes for it. I love baby showers, with the pastel color palettes, the cute little clothes, and the enormous amount of food...how could I possibly say no? Even if it was needed in 3 days...I still happily agreed! But with the design I had planned, I had to start working right away.

I started making the cake topper first, giving it a full day of drying. I found great instructions for a bow here. I mixed my fondant with tylose powder to make it dry faster and more durable. I cut and formed each loop separately, as well as each curly ribbon, and in the main colors of the shower...pastel blue, green and yellow. I made about 24 loops, allowing extra for breakage. I usually make 18 1" loops, but since I was making smaller (about 3/4") loops this time, I needed to make more for this bow.


The next day, Blue mixed all my cake batter and 3 batches (at once!) of buttercream. She's such a hard little worker!

I baked 36 cupcakes (18 vanilla and 18 chocolate) and used the rest of the batter to make 2 halves of a 6" cake. I divided the buttercream into 4 equal quarters...one stayed white, while the others were dyed blue, green and yellow. I used my white buttercream for filling in the cake and then a crumb coat before I applied the fondant.

I iced all my cupcakes with a Wilton 2D tip and then stored them for transport (after taking a couple pics, of course).

That night, I melted some Wilton candy melts and "glued" my bow topper together. I let it chill and harden for a little while in the fridge, then I took it out and placed it on my itty bitty cake with a dab of the melted candy. I added a fondant rope border and I was done!

I brought it to the shower the next day and set it up. I added Wilton jungle wrappers and picks since the theme matched the baby's jungle bedding.

And I got about as much "Ooohhhh"s and "Aaahhh"s over the cake, bow and cupcakes as a newborn baby!