Portfolio: Noah's Ark Baby Shower Cake

When it rains, it pours...literally and figuratively!  We had lots of rain this weekend and I had a lot of cakes on my plate too!  After completing a birthday cake, a first communion cake, I had a request for a baby shower cake as well.  The grandmother to be is a friend of a friend and she contacted me to do a Noah's ark cake for her daughter's baby shower.  Wilma sent me pictures of the partyware along with a picture of an adorable cookie jar her friend has that was also an inspiration for the shower.

Noah's List:  Elephants, Hippos, Lions and Giraffes.  And just for good measure, one white dove on top!

They requested a lemon flavor, which is one of my favorites.  I made lemon butter cake with lemon buttercream frosting, and then covered it with brown fondant.  I used fondant sculpting tools to simulate the effect of boards along the side of the cake and the little house on top is actually a mini cereal box covered in fondant.  The roof texture was created by cutting small rounds of fondant, or scales, and then layering them on a flat piece of same colored fondant to create the effect of roofing tiles.  I placed rolled up straws underneath to add some lift to the roof, which worked out nicely.  I sculpted the animals from fondant and tried to match their colors and facial expressions to the partyware.  Finally, I placed all of the animals on the boat and added some leftover blue fondant along the bottom to create the water.

Closeup of the back of the boat: the lions, one giraffe, and the dove.

Closeup of the front of the boat: One hippo, one giraffe, and one elephant.  The other hippo and elephant are peeking out the portholes on the side!

All told, I really like this cake.  I was worried that I might have got the colors wrong or that it wouldn't work out, but in the end I think it came out wonderfully.  I got some great compliments on it at the party when I dropped it off.  This cake almost gave me a heart attack though because it almost bit the dust on the way there–I turned a corner and the tray it was on started sliding and the cake started sliding on the tray.  It was by the grace of God that I managed to catch it justintime before it hit the dashboard of my SUV.  Fortunately the only damage it sustained as a result was one of the lions needed to be put back in place and the elephant on deck had some head issues, both of which were easily rectified.

I do have to laugh though...given all the rain we had this week and weekend, this cake was very appropriate in theme.  The humidity did give me a little bit of trouble but the cake looked great and it appears that everyone at the baby shower loved it too, which is the most important thing of all.

Happy Baking,
Kelly