My mother was a baker, so I grew up believing that a cake is the thing people remember about a party, and a baby shower is the easiest possible excuse to prove it. These 27 DIY baby shower cakes run the whole range. Some are genuinely easy: a box mix with candy hidden inside, a four ingredient yogurt cheesecake you whisk in one bowl, a no bake strawberry cheesecake. Some are the kind you block out a Saturday for, like a sculpted antique cradle built from printable templates or a six layer woodland log held up by dowel rods. There are pink ones, blue ones, gender neutral naked cakes covered in berries and gender reveal cakes that spill candy when you cut them. Perfect for a first shower, a sprinkle, a gender reveal or the friend who asked you because you are the one who bakes!
1. Pink Ombre Swirl Cake
Those rosettes look like a decorating class and are really just one piping tip and patience, worked from the deepest pink at the base up to the palest at the top. The cake underneath is a vanilla cupcake batter with oil and sour cream in it, baked in thin layers for only 12 to 14 minutes. Buttercream is a cup and a half of butter to six cups of powdered sugar. Total time runs about an hour and fifty minutes for twelve servings.
Get the full tutorial at Glorious Treats.
2. Mommy and Baby Princess Crown Cake
Two crowns, one for the mother and a smaller one for the baby, sitting on a quilted pink fondant pillow with tassels at the corners and sugar roses along the side. The pillow shape is the clever part, because a crown wants somewhere to sit and a pillow gives it one. The maker is honest that mixing the colors was the hardest bit, not the sculpting. This is a whole weekend project and it looks like one, in the best way.
Get the full tutorial at Make Fabulous Cakes.
3. Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake
Six layers of vanilla cake with raspberry sauce and a dark chocolate frosting, and the honest part is that the cake starts with a box mix, topped up with a cup of flour, a cup of sugar and a carton of sour cream. That is why the crumb holds six thin layers without collapsing. Three 6 inch rounds at 325 for 40 to 50 minutes. The sauce is two cups of frozen raspberries and two tablespoons of sugar cooked down until syrupy.
Get the full tutorial at Liv for Cake.
4. Sprinkle-tastic Gender Reveal Cake
A white cake recipe tripled and divided into four 6 inch layers, each tinted with a different amount of gel color, then doubled Swiss meringue buttercream over the top and the whole cake rolled in sprinkles. Two things saved it, in the maker’s own telling: cake dowels for stability and a turntable for the icing. She also admits the layers should have gone into the freezer to firm up and did not, because she left it to the last minute. The topper is hot glue, sticker letters and toothpicks.
Get the full tutorial at Ashley Brooke Designs.
5. Rustic Lemon Layer Cake For Baby Shower
The technique here is worth more than the cake. It bakes at 300 rather than 350, low and slow, so the layers rise flat instead of doming, which is exactly what a naked cake needs since there is no frosting to hide a peak. Four cups of cake flour and two cups of buttermilk make a big batch, enough for three 9 inch rounds or, as this baker did, two 9 inch and three little 5 inch ones for a stacked shape.
Get the full tutorial at Simple Bites.
6. 4-Ingredient Easy Cheesecake
This one is ours, a DIY JOY original, and it is the cake to make when you have been asked to bring dessert and have no weekend to give it. Four ingredients, two cups of yogurt with half a cup of sugar, four eggs and five tablespoons of cornstarch, whisked and poured into a parchment lined mold with the paper hanging over the sides so you can lift it out cleanly. Bake at 180C, 356F, for 35 to 45 minutes. The longer it stays in, the darker the burnt top goes, so watch it.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
7. Pink Vanilla Bean Cake
Three sticks of butter, nine egg whites, four and a half cups of flour and a whole vanilla bean scraped into two cups of buttermilk. It is a big cake and it bakes in three 8 inch pans at 350. The make ahead note is the useful one: the layers can be baked up to two days early and refrigerated wrapped tight, or frozen for a month, but the frosting should be made the day you use it because it loses some of its fluff in the fridge. Ten to twelve servings.
Get the full tutorial at Smells Like Home.
8. Surprise on the Inside Gender Reveal Cake
Two boxes of white cake mix, two tubs of whipped fluffy white frosting and two cups of pink or blue candies, which is about as accessible as a reveal cake gets. The candies sit in a cavity cut into the stacked layers so they tumble out on the first slice. Total time is three hours 25 minutes, most of it cooling, and it serves sixteen. Bake in two 8 inch rounds lined with parchment and let them cool ten minutes before turning out.
Get the full tutorial at Betty Crocker.
9. Pink Lemon Pound Cake
A lemon pound cake baked in a round cake dish rather than the usual bundt pan, which the maker chose purely because it looks better, and she is right. The glaze is a tart pink lemon one poured over the cooled cake so it runs down the sides in uneven drips. Drizzle a little extra on each slice as you serve. It is light and fluffy but genuinely rich, and it works for a shower, a bridal shower or a spring party without changing a thing.
Get the full tutorial at Smart School House.
10. Gender Reveal Surprise Inside Cake
The baby shapes inside are the whole trick and the method is clever. Bake one tinted white cake flat in a sheet pan for 12 to 16 minutes, cool five minutes, then gently rub the top with a paper towel to lift off any browned bits so the color stays true. Freeze it an hour, cut shapes with a baby cookie cutter and refreeze them. Those frozen cutouts stand in a 9 inch round of fresh white batter and hold their shape while the second cake bakes around them.
Get the full tutorial at I Am Baker.
11. Pink Rainbow Cake
A rainbow cake that stays in one color family, graded from deep to barely pink, with raspberry jam between the layers. The maker uses paste color sparingly and offers two alternatives worth knowing: swap part of the liquid for raspberry puree, or color the water with beetroot, and if you would rather skip color entirely the cake works plain. She also suggests lemon curd in place of the jam. Plain white frosting outside, so the layers are a surprise.
Get the full tutorial at Call Me Cupcake.
12. Blue Velvet Cupcakes
Blue velvet is red velvet with the coloring swapped, and the detail that makes it work is the tiny dab of violet gel alongside the tablespoon of dark blue, because blue alone against a cocoa batter goes murky. A tablespoon of cocoa, a cup of buttermilk and a teaspoon of white vinegar do the velvet part. Bake at 350 for 17 to 19 minutes and test with a fingertip: the tops should spring back. Vanilla buttercream and blue pearls finish them, and you get 16 to 20.
Get the full tutorial at A Helicopter Mom.
13. Vanilla Naked Cake
The gender neutral option, and the prettiest thing on this list if the shower is outdoors. A thin scrape of vanilla buttercream lets the crumb show through, then fresh berries and herbs go on top. The cake is big, three and three quarter cups of sifted flour, five eggs and a full tablespoon of vanilla across three 9 inch pans. Fresh raspberries folded into the batter are optional and good. Every ingredient needs to be at room temperature.
Get the full tutorial at Sally's Baking Addiction.
14. Pink Velvet Swiss Roll
One move decides this cake. The moment it comes out of the oven, invert the hot sponge onto a tea towel dusted with powdered sugar, peel the parchment off and roll it up in the towel from the short end, then let it cool rolled. That is what stops it cracking later. Beat the eggs on high for a full three minutes first, bake 12 to 15 minutes in a 15 by 10 by 1 pan, and fill with cream cheese, powdered sugar and cool whip. Twelve servings.
Get the full tutorial at Garnish and Glaze.
15. Three-Tier Baby Shower Cake
Three tiers, three different cakes: a 10 inch vanilla, a 7 inch chocolate and a 5 inch banana, which is a lovely solution when the guest list has opinions. The tip that makes it manageable is baking the cakes ahead and freezing them, wrapped airtight in cling film and then foil. Once cooled, each cake is cut in half and the bottom layer stuck to a cake board of matching size with buttercream. They went with lemon because the sex was a surprise.
Get the full tutorial at Daring Home Decor.
16. Triple Lemon Cake
Triple means lemon in the cake, in the pastry cream filling and in the finish. It bakes in three 6 inch pans for only 20 minutes, which gives you a tall cake from a modest amount of batter. The filling is a proper pastry cream with four egg yolks and cornstarch, thick enough to hold between layers without sliding. Lemon baking emulsion is called for and lemon extract works instead. Lavender sprigs on top are the detail that makes it look expensive.
Get the full tutorial at Created by Diane.
17. Antique Cradle Cake
The rockers are the whole engineering problem. She rolled two long logs of a fifty fifty modeling chocolate and gumpaste mix, flattened them a little with a fondant smoother and dried them on their side, and says outright she would use straight pastillage next time because the 50/50 breaks under its own weight. Headboard, footboard, trim and rockers all come off printable templates, cut a few days ahead so they dry hard, then held together with melted candy melts. Five slats a side. There is a video, and she is honest that it is an old one.
Get the full tutorial at Cakeheads.
18. Blue Velvet Cake
An ounce of royal blue gel paste with two drops of violet, made into a paste with two tablespoons of cocoa before it goes anywhere near the batter, which is how you get that deep even color instead of streaks. Shortening rather than butter keeps the crumb tender. The baking soda and vinegar go in last and the instruction is not to beat hard at that point. Three 8 inch pans at 350 for 25 minutes, and it serves 24.
Get the full tutorial at Add a Pinch.
19. No Bake Strawberry Milkshake Cheesecake
No oven, and it tastes exactly like a strawberry milkshake because that is literally what is in it: a cup and a half of strawberry milk powder beaten into 24 ounces of cream cheese, with gelatin bloomed in two tablespoons of cold water holding it together. Make sure every grain of gelatin is touching water or it will not set evenly. The crust is Oreo crumbs with sprinkles mixed in. A 9 inch springform, lined and greased up the sides.
Get the full tutorial at Life Love and Sugar.
20. Woodland Themed Baby Shower Cake
Six layers tall, which needs actual engineering, so dowel rods carry the top three on their own board. The maker kept the cake extremely cold or frozen through stacking and crumb coating, which is the only way something this tall stays vertical. Bark grooves come from a small offset spatula, rings from a round tip smudged slightly, and the toadstools are marshmallow fondant with the caps and stems dried separately. It is served on a real slice of wood with parchment underneath.
Get the full tutorial at Coffee to Compost.
21. Lemon Blueberry Cake
Two cups of wild blueberries get tossed in two tablespoons of cake flour before they go into the batter, which is the step that keeps them suspended instead of sinking to the bottom. The milk and lemon juice sit together first to curdle, essentially homemade buttermilk. Three 8 inch pans at 350, then lemon cream cheese frosting over the top. Frozen berries work as well as fresh. Lemon slices and pansies on top take it from a cake to a centerpiece.
Get the full tutorial at The Cake Blog.
22. Pregnant Belly Cake
Sixteen eggs, and the sponge carries cocoa and ground walnuts, so it is a proper European torte rather than a novelty. The cappuccino powder goes into the frosting instead. The belly shape comes from a 26 centimetre oven-proof bowl paired with a 9.6 inch springform for the base, both greased and floured. Mascarpone whipped cream frosting, a cappuccino syrup to moisten, and 1.8 kilos of white fondant over the top. It serves 26 to 30 and takes around 80 minutes plus two hours of decorating.
Get the full tutorial at Roxy's Kitchen.
23. Mirror Glazed Cake
One number decides whether this works: 32 degrees Celsius, 90 Fahrenheit. Pour the glaze hotter and it slides straight off, cooler and it sets in ribbons. Fifteen grams of gelatin bloom in 80 grams of cold water, then water, sugar and glucose are boiled and combined with condensed milk and 200 grams of real chocolate, which must be actual chocolate and not melting wafers. Freeze the cake first and use a scale, because this is one where volume measurements will let you down.
Get the full tutorial at Southern FATTY.
24. Extremely Strawberry Cake
This is our own, and it is the cake I make for baby showers more than any other. The strawberry flavor comes from three directions: strawberry puree in the batter, three tablespoons of strawberry jello mix, and fresh sliced strawberries layered between the two cakes. The frosting is strawberry cream cheese, which means no piping bag and no fear of ruining the look, because the strawberries do the decorating. It stays moist for days, though it rarely lasts past day two here.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
25. Camping Tent Baby Shower Cake
The tent is not cake. It is rice crispy treats shaped, coated in ganache and covered in modeling chocolate, right down to little rolled up window flaps, which is how you get a clean shape that will not sag on the top of a cake. The maker is refreshingly honest that a three year old pushed in one corner of the tent and it went straight into repair mode, which is the reality of decorating with children in the house.
Get the full tutorial at Jessica Harris Cake Design.
26. Circus Baby Shower Cake
Fondant animals sit around the base like pillars holding up a carved big top on the layer above. The maker’s own note is the one worth having: she would make the bottom layer bigger next time, because the animals ended up crowded, and she was up all night because she badly underestimated how long the figures would take. If you are attempting this, make the animals days ahead and let them firm up while you get on with the cake.
Get the full tutorial at Ashlee Marie.
27. Funfetti Cake From Scratch
All purpose flour instead of cake flour, deliberately, because the batter needs extra structure to hold all those sprinkles in suspension rather than letting them drift to the bottom. Egg whites only, so the crumb stays white enough for the colors to show. Buttermilk breaks down the gluten that develops while mixing, which is what keeps it tender. Bring every cold ingredient to about 70F first or the batter splits. There is a video for the pink buttercream and gold drip.
Get the full tutorial at Sugar Geek Show.
