Gender Reveal Party

Our friends, Diana and Justin, are having baby number two! We are so excited for them. Owen loves to say that Tristen is going to be a "big butter" (Translation: Big Brother)  

They chose the coolest way ever to find out the gender of the baby.... a gender reveal cake!  

That's a cake that has been colored, either blue or pink, to show the Mom and Dad if they are having a boy or girl.  Their doctor determined the sex of the baby, put the results in an envelope, and sealed it up.  That sealed envelope was delivered to me ~eek~ and I made them this beehive cake! 

I was so proud of it, I took pictures from every side! 

Keeping the secret nearly killed me!  But, there was no way that I'd let the news slip before the big reveal. I feel so honored that they trusted me to share their big news and making the cake was almost as much fun as their party! 

There were so many amazing details. 

Did you see Tristen's little hand and footprints turned into bees on the banner? 

The guests placed their guesses on a chalkboard that read, "What is our lil honey bee... a he or a she?"

 The kids snacked on HoneyComb cereal (Owen loved that) before we ate lunch.  

There were bee themed party favors for everyone and a drawing area for the kids to "Bee Creative".  

Now, onto the big reveal!  

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Before cutting into the cake, Justin took the time to explain the purpose. 

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He reached forward to cut it---but remembered he wanted to thank everyone for coming. 

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After stalling the big reveal at least three times, you could feel the excitement and anticipation filling the whole room!

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You're curious too, aren't you?! And, I've only kept you a quarter of the time Justin did! 

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Then.... 

He S-L-O-W-L-Y cut out a big bright BLUE piece of cake!  

IT'S A BOY!

As Owen would say, Tristen's having a "butter" :O)

Congratulations--- Justin, Diana, and Tristen! 

Want to see how I made the beehive cake?  

I baked the cake in Wilton's Giant Cupcake Pan.  

After coloring the batter, I filled each, un-greased, section ---2 cups in the top and 3 cups in the bottom. 

The cake baked for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Note: I wore gloves so that the food coloring wouldn't stain my skin. 

After the cake cooled, I leveled the top of the cakes so the two parts would join together evenly. 

Then, I cut the peak off the cupcake topper to make it more rounded. 

This is the most important part... icing all those blue crumbs down so that nothing gives away the secret!

I used white buttercream for the dirty icing.  

I chose Golden Yellow Icing Color #610-159  by Wilton to color the buttercream that would decorate the cake.  After placing the cake on my turntable, I started piping from the bottom to the top.... making sure that each row of icing stacks on top of the previous row, so that no cake shows through. 

After the cake was covered, I opened up the bee factory. 

I made a batch of Wilton Royal Icing. Here's the Recipe, it's really simple, but I add about 2 tablespoons of water to make it a little thinner and easier to pipe.  

Divide the batch into 2 parts -- Half to make the wings and half Golden yellow for the bee bodies.  

Using a #2 Wilton tip and the white royal icing, draw heart shaped wings on wax paper. 

Using a #3 Wilton tip and the Golden yellow royal icing, make the bee body. 

Holding the piping bag at a 45 degree angle, I squeezed a big ball and then pulled back and decreased the pressure as I pulled away to make the bee's stinger. 

Allow them to dry completely.... mine set for about 2 hours. Then, I used a paintbrush and Wilton black icing coloring gel to paint on the eye and stripes. 

I carefully pulled the bee's off the wax paper (making sure not to touch the black) and placed them on the cake.  I used royal icing as my "glue" to keep the bees floating on the side of the cake. 

I bought the curved metal pieces in the cake section at Michaels.  Using yellow royal icing I glued the bee to the metal and let it dry before adding it to the cake. 

Of all the cakes I've made, this is my favorite one.  I love the shape, the flying bees, and their little black royal icing flight patterns. But, most of all, I love it because it was so exciting to see their faces when they saw that big blue slice of cake!