Giraffe Baby Shower Cake
Today I'm going to demonstrate a cute Giraffe Baby Shower Cake!
It is such a cute and cheerful cake that would work on cakes of any size, whether single or double tiered.
Table of Contents
Double Barrel Cake
Double barrel cakes (aka TALL cakes) are a huge trend in the cake world these days. I see them everywhere, and I love them.
They are fabulous standing alone, and they always add a boost of drama when used in tiered cake designs.
The basic idea here is that you are stacking two cake tiers as usual, with cake board and doweling/bubble tea straws in between. The difference is that the two tiers are the same size, and therefore once the cake is frosted or covered in fondant, you have the illusion of one extra tall cake.
Since we've had requests both for double barrel cakes as well as a tutorial on how to cover tall cakes with fondant, we thought we'd demonstrate both in this video. We also needed some fresh new shower cake ideas and so I went with a theme that would work great with a baby shower (as well as a young birthday)!
PART 1
How to construct a double barrel cake and how to cover it with fondant.
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Materials
For the Double Barrel Cake~
8 inch cake layers for the double barrel cake--Use what you like, but I used 2 fat layers on the bottom portion, and 3 thinner layers for the top for a total height of 7 inches.
6" cake layers for the top tier (I used two fat layers)
Cardboard Cake Circles-- I used four 12 inch cake circles to create the base (glued together). I used two 8 inch cake circles--one beneath the 8" tier, and another in the middle of the double barrel cake. I used one 6" cake circle.
Dowels/Bubble Tea Straws- I used 6 bubble tea straws and one central wooden dowel (sharpened)
Frosting and Ganache-- We used our fluffy vanilla buttercream as our filling between layers. We used chocolate ganache (a 2:1 ratio of semi-sweet chocolate chips to heavy cream--aka our "Simple Spreadable Ganache")
Fondant- We used Satin Ice fondant to cover our cake.
Freezer paper: Parchment paper or acetate would work also. We used this to support our "wrap". We also used this as a template for the wrap.
Vinyl covering: optional-- We like "The Mat". This is optional but it does help to prevent the fondant from drying out if you have any time between cutting out your wrap and actually placing on the cake.
Vegetable Shortening: This is helpful in rubbing over the ganached cake before placing on the wrap. We also used a light coating on our freezer paper.
PART 2
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For the Giraffe and Baby Block Decorations
Tylose Powder: I kneaded some tylose into my fondant for the baby blocks. You could also use gum paste.
Gum paste: (Optional) --You will want to make your giraffes from either gum paste or fondant with a good amount of tylose kneaded into it. It's important that the giraffes (especially the tall one) dry firm and strong. I like Satin Ice brand gum paste.
1 ½ inch square cutter (or something close) for our baby blocks.
Vodka or lemon extract- This is to mix with our coloring gel to create a "paint". Something with a high alcohol content is important because it dries very quickly. We prefer vodka.
Alphabet Cutters- We used these for our alphabet blocks.
Fondant Smoothers- Helpful for creating straight edges for the blocks, as well as for smoothing the fondant on the cake
tylose or sugar "glue" (or your edible glue of choice)
Food coloring pen- To draw on the eyes of the giraffe. A toothpick dipped in "paint" or a small paintbrush would work too. So would a "real" pen if the giraffes won't be consumed (I wouldn't recommend eating the giraffes anyway--not very tasty if they are gum paste!)
Miscellaneous Supplies
Rolling Pin for rolling fondant and gum paste
x-acto or other sharp knife
pizza wheel: Optional, for cutting away excess fondant. (Pizza wheels don't pull on the fondant as much as using a knife does.)
turntable: Optional, but really such a lifesaver if you plan on doing a lot of cakes!
Bench scraper- Optional, but good for smoothing the ganache and creating a nice straight edge.
Spatulas- Your preferred spatulas. I used a smallish 9" one.
Paint brushes- (Optional) I used for painting on our giraffe pattern. Another option is edible ink pens or fondant cut outs.
***A note about our baby blocks~ I was truly *inspired* by a written tutorial on baby blocks that I found on YouTube, which was posted by Inspired by Michelle. This also lead me to her amazing website, ;
Hi Alex--Thanks! Can't wait to see yours :0) --
I have not ever had issues with the cardboards getting soft, even when they are not the grease proof boards. I have heard of the "soggy boards" issue before, but somehow it has never been an issue for me. Maybe issues are less likely if the buttercream is crusting (which is what I use). I've heard of people wrapping their boards, but I've never needed to. You can also find grease proof cake circles out there which would help.
When you talk about putting a smear of buttercream, do you mean on the top of the bottom "tier"? Meaning, that the top of the cake would be unfrosted with the exception of the smear of buttercream? If so, I think that would be fine...but the biggest drawback would be that when you serve the top half of the double barrel, you will have a bottom half to serve that has no frosting on top.
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for your reply! Yes, it makes sense that there would be less issues with soggy boards when using crusting buttercream...I will be using Swiss Meringue Buttercream in between my cake layers, so that is why I am a little worried.
I was thinking of putting a little smear of SMBC on the top of the second cake layer (from bottom up; cake board, smear of smbc, cake, layer of smbc, cake, smear of smbc instead of a full layer of smbc, cake board, smear of smbc, cake, layer of smbc, cake)...but you are right, those slices (the bottom half of the barrel tier) won't have frosting on the top :0( Hmmmm.
I know I will probably be paranoid about the potential soggy cake board and lose sleep over it and holding my breath until it safely makes it through the shower...but the idea of the grease proof cake circle makes me feel a little better--maybe with the "grease proof" side down in the SMBC, right? And then the next cake layer sitting on the bottom/brown/not grease proof side of the cake circle? Hmmm....this might work!
Thanks for the suggestion! Keeping my fingers crossed...
;0)
Alex
Melissa, I am going to attempt this utterly beautiful bad boy for a baby shower next week. Assuming I do the same height of cake as you did for both tiers, how much ganache should I make?
Also, have you had good luck (or ever tried) doing the wrap method with MMF? The family of the mom-to-be aren't huge fondant fans, so I don't want to go to the expense of using Satin Ice, since I am the one helping to throw the baby shower and this is my part of the expenses.
How many pounds of fondant did it require for the entire cake?
Thanks! And I am so glad I joined this site! Best $30 I spent.
I used my Cricut Cake to make the letters for the baby blocks since I do not have the alphabet cutters. I tried my Tappits but they were too big.
Melissa, when I rolled my log of gumpaste (colored pink) for the blocks, I tended to get a bit of a crease or line running through it. How did you keep from having this in your log prior to cutting out the blocks?
beautiful cake and great technique !!
My question is regarding filling and fondant : What filling can you use for a cake that has to be done and covered with fondant 2 days before the party ?
Hi guys! Love this cake and can't wait to try ganache and a double barrel! I have always used buttercream and I am really excited to try gananche! By the way, what do you guys do with all of the finished cakes?
Can you tell me what cake recipe you used for the barrel? You may have stated it in the video, but I forget!
Thanks, Pam
I have another question. When you are doing the barrel, you put a cardboard circle between the two cakes. Won't this take off the icing of the cake underneath? Does this question make sense?
Pam
Hi Veronica, you could use buttercream as a filling. There are fillings that can be ordered online if you are interested here is a link http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/searchresults.aspx?Description=filling
Hi Pamela, some of the cakes we give away, we eat others and some that have given us trouble we want to throw out the back door.
For the double barrel cake we used the White Almond Sour Cream recipe, a doctored cake mix.
In case anyone is wondering, I made 56 oz of semi-sweet/bitter sweet chocolate and 28 oz of heavy whipping cream. This was enough to cover the 8" tall 8" round double barrel and the 4" tall 6" round top tier. I did not use it as a filling. I had about 1/3 cup left over ganache from this batch.
Because I couldn't figure out how much ganache to make for this cake, I ended up making twice this amoount, and now I get the happy problem of figuring out a use for all that ganache!
Melissa can I make a double barrel using buttercream? Will it bulge?
@Spooky--thanks for sharing your amounts! Yes, that is a happy problem. You can always freeze if it doesn't disappear too quickly from the bowl ;0)
@Jass-- Yes, you can do this with buttercream. Just as with any cake, you'll want to let the cake settle--this will prevent bulging. Let us know how it goes!