My mom and dad have birthdays that are three days apart. Their birthdays are also at the end of a very busy birthday month which basically means they never want cake and they usually celebrate it together. This year they opted for cinnamon rolls (I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the cinnamon rolls!) They had a surprise this year however when I made them a cake as well. I told them it was mysteriously commissioned by one of my siblings.

About a week before their joint party my sister-in-law became very cryptic while we were driving around running errands. She tells me, “I have to ask you something” but she had to wait until I had parked the car. I’m a little nervous at this point, thinking something really serious has happened. I park, look over and she says, “I need you to make me a cake.”

This was about the last thing I was expecting to hear. I stammer a little, “Oh… oh, ok. Who is the cake for?” I was thinking maybe she needed another birthday cake. I was also still trying to figure out why she needed me to stop driving to ask for a cake.

“It’s for me.”

“Um, ok.” (Now I’m very confused. Her birthday was in March!) “Whaaat kind of cake?”

She cracks this hint of a smile and says, “A gender reveal cake.”

I felt my face go from shocked, surprised, and super excited in about 2 seconds! Now I understood why I had to park! I would have been a dangerous driver to be sure!

My little bro and her have four kids and I was sure they were finished having more and so this was seriously out of left field but I was so excited! She was keeping it all under wraps but wanted a cake to surprise everyone and announce the gender all at the same time. We decided on my parent birthday because another grandbaby is the most precious gift they could receive.

We were going to do a lovely pound cake with a pink baby shaped center. The idea being that as you cut it, the shape would give it away. Well, I don’t know what I did wrong but my pound cake was a colossal disaster. I ended up throwing it all away and shifted gears to the first idea we had, a hollow central cavern filled with candy!

I baked a funfetti cake and cut a hole out of the bottom two layers which I filled with Shimmer Pink Sixlets candies. I also put in one cute little rubber baby. I chose funfetti because it is always a hit on flavor and it’s so colorful. I covered it with a basic American buttercream.

The icing color choice is unusual for a gender reveal because I used blue and yellow. This was because both of my parents favorite color is blue and my mom thinks yellow is a happy color. The only hint we had on the outside of the cake was the number “10” on top. This new baby will be the tenth grandkid!

The reveal was a hit! My mom especially was very curious about who and why someone commissioned a cake for their birthday and so I told her she got to cut it. Once the first piece was removed and pink candies started to spill out, the little baby was uncovered and my parents put together the pieces. Everyone looked over at my sister-in-law almost in tandem and she just smiled and said “Surprise!”.

It was a great surprise and so fun! If you’ve read my Dragon Egg Gender Reveal! blog, you’ll remember that my other sister-in-law was recently expecting their first baby! She gave birth a few weeks before this party so we are all excited about the two cousins being able to grow up together! Also, I didn’t take any pictures of the inside of the cake! We were so caught up in celebrating, it was all gone before I even thought about it.

Baked July 2022