Indeed ‘somebunny’ known as Baby Sweet nor’westerly is not far away at all – he’s due to arrive just four days from now (all going to plan)!!! Hence this is just a quick post to share photos of my baby shower cake from last month.

Yes, LAST month. Yes, I haven’t worked at all this month. So yes, really what excuse do I have for taking so long?!? But look at the cute widdle bunnies, don’t they just make you want to forgive me for holding out on you so long for this post? Sure they do…!

And before you ask, of COURSE I made my own cake!!! My lovely friends who organised the party knew I would love to (and that I already had several ideas hopping around…) so they went along with the bunny theme and let me create this wee number.

The cakey deets are as follows…

• The cake itself was four layers of Caramilk mud cake (using my precious supply of the limited addition Cadbury caramelized white chocolate). I baked two cakes in 7″ round tins – I think I made approx. three times the recipe but substituted regular white chocolate for a third of the Caramilk, and spread the mixture equally between the two tins. Each cake was then split in two and filled with chocolate ganache also made with Caramilk. I dowelled the bottom two layers and put a cake board between them and the top two, as in my experience mud cake layers are so heavy they often squash lower layers (making dense cake look and taste stodgy).
• I covered the cake with regular white chocolate ganache, using a ratio of around 4 parts chocolate to 1 part cream by weight. The method I use has been superbly presented by Natalie at Sweetness and Bite and gives me straight edges and smooth sides, as a perfect canvas for applying fondant.
• For applying fondant I use the upside-down method that I’ve posted about here. But this time it was a rather humbling experience – turns out I’m a bit out of practice! Fortunately the bunny cut outs hid the bumps and air bubbles in the icing!
• The grass was painted on using rose spirit mixed with gel colours. The bunnies, flowers and butterflies were made from Pettinice fondant with tylose powder added to give it strength.

• Little Mr Bunny who sat atop the cake was inspired by a clay model but here I made him from fondant with some tylose added for strength. Oh, and a wooden skewer through the middle to hold him together. If you’ve ever wanted to see a bunny in ‘exploded view’, I pulled him apart (and not all limbs survived!) to show the proportions I used. His little round tummy makes him look as pregnant as me(!) so feel free to make him more slimline 🙂

I’m SO looking forward to meeting our own little bunny, and next time I post here I’ll be able to give an update on how we are getting to know him in person!! In the meantime, here are a couple of photos from the shower: