Baby Block Cake

A little while ago, I showed a few pics of the baby block that I was working on. I had to practice to get ready for the real thing. I am glad that I did the practice cake. It made me realize that my fondant was too thin, and that my cake was too short. Had I just learned that when it was time for the real thing, I would have had many tears going on in my kitchen! I am a big believer in practice cakes!

So, a friend of mine asked me to bake the cakes for her friends baby shower. I knew immediately that no ordinary cake would do. I didn’t want to do the typical baby bootie cake, or just a sheet cake with baby decorations on it. I loved the idea of doing four baby blocks for the cake! Not that I am the first one to think of this, but it just seemed like a cute idea for the shower. Having said that, it was an incredible amount of work.

I was totally happy and excited to make this. I have never really shown off my skills to people. This was my first chance to show them what I can do. Working by yourself can be really great and really slow at the same time. I always watch the cake shows on tv to check out what they are doing. I watch and think I bet I can do that. Then when I do it takes me three times as long because I don’t have three people helping me!! Oh well…I would rather bake cakes by myself than not bake them at all!

For the cakes, the mommy-to-be requested red velvet. I used four cakes for each block. I used my 6×2 pans. Since they were about six inches across, I needed four layers of cake to be six inches high. I did not slice the layers in half. Hubs and I thought that it would be too much frosting if each of the four layers was halved and filled with frosting. I did trim up the layers that needed it and put frosting in between each layer of cake. For the frosting, I used a white chocolate buttercream frosting. When they were all stacked, I crumb coated and stored in the fridge. When the cakes were set, I frosted them again with the final coating. They chilled in the fridge overnight.

Now for the fun part…the fondant borders and shapes. For this cake, I used the boxed fondant. I know, gross. But, I had way underpriced myself on this and needed a convenience factor. I will say that it took more than I thought it would—of course!! Having run out of fondant at one in the morning, I sent hubs to the store to get some new first thing in the morning. Ahh…it is so nice to have him run my errands when I run out of stuff. He never complains and always run right out to get whatever I need! Such a good one!!

Since these are going to look like blocks, they have to have the trademark baby block border on all sides. When I practiced, I cut all the sides without a template. For the real thing, I knew that I needed a template. I measured the cake top and sides and made a template for each. For some reason, the tops of the cakes were all a tad bit larger than the sides. I used a pizza cutter to trace the template and cut out the block faces. When I had them all cut out, I used my gum paste tools to make a stitch border and the indentation in each corner. I also used different baby cookie cutters to cut shapes from the fondant. I used these on the sides of the cakes. On the top of the cake, I spelled out baby with one letter on each cake. 

With everything all cut out and ready, I started putting the pieces on the cakes. It did take some time to get everything lined up. Some pieces took a little stretching and tugging to get them in place, but it all came together beautifully! Once I put the top piece on the cake, it really did look like a baby block!! I was so proud of myself for these cakes! They were a hit at the shower and I had so much fun making these. I knew what I wanted to do, but actually having it come out like I had thought was really cool to see. I can’t wait to do more cakes and see all of the fun things that I can do! Enjoy!

Meg