Jungle Baby Shower

One of my brother's good friends is a veterinarian. She's extremely nice and was having a little girls. My sister-in-law asked if I would do the cake for the shower. She had definite ideas about what should be on the cake. She wanted two tiers with one tier being white and the other chocolate. It got interesting from there. She wanted a checkerboard pattern on the bottom and jungle wildlife on the top with vines and vegetation. She had a material swatch that was going to be used in the nursery as a reference material. I had fun with it from there. The colors were a light green and apricot, which is an interesting combination that works somehow.

Now, I finished this cake on the same day that I did the red wedding cake. It was a busy week. I don't want to do that again. It's way too much work to do two cakes of that size in one week when I'm doing it in the evenings.

The cakes were first covered with buttercream, then I put a thin layer of fondant over them. Next, the animals and checker board pattern were made from marshmallow fondant as well. I kept everything very thin so it wouldn't be too chewy when all stacked up. The vines on top are buttercream.

To make things even more interesting, I was not delivering this cake. Since it was so far away and I had to deliver the wedding cake on the same day, we decided that my brother would bring the cake, stack it, and pipe between the layers. I sent the leftover icing to do that. Since I wouldn't be there, I sent the instruction to get pictures once the cake was complete, so I didn't take these. I got them in my inbox as I was setting up the wedding cake and was pleased with the result. I get a little anxious when I'm not the one finishing up the cake.