Welcoming Megan, Two by Two

This past weekend, my wife helped plan a baby-shower for my sister, who is due in December. I can't wait to be an uncle! My niece's name will be Megan Olivia, hence the title of this particular post!

At first, we were thinking I would do a Winnie the Pooh cake, but as time progressed, I began to develop an idea for a Noah's Ark cake instead. I got different ideas from a variety of cakes, and them compiled them into what you see here.

I used gum paste to make the water, the ark, the animals, and the rainbow on top. To do this, I had to separately tint each color, and then cut out the shapes to make the animals. This includes the dots for the giraffes, the mane for the lion, and the ears for the elephants. I made the ark in three pieces, and after they dried a little, I attached them. I read that you can paint on fondant with vanilla (just add some food coloring to clear vanilla), so I painted some of the boards on the ark to give it extra depth.

The water, I left a little bit marbled so it would look more natural. I brushed pearl dust on the rainbow, so that it wouldn't be so loud, and would fit better with the more neutral/pastel colors on the majority of the cake. I used candy sticks wrapped in ribbon to hang the animals around the cake.

The top tier is a white cake, and the bottom is chocolate. I used buttercream icing for the whole thing instead of tinting the icing pale yellow (which is what I was planning to do). Overall, I am thrilled with this cake, and had a lot of fun brainstorming how everything would work. Everyone seemed to love it, and I love that!