Gender Reveal Cake

I'm kind of a Jack of all trades. Well, more like a Lindsay of all trades. I'm a bargin-huntress, karaoke master, 90's boyband expert, freelance makeup artist (I'll get to that at a later post), and a pretty darn good baker.

I've always loved baking, but in the past few years, I've started to bake for friends and family for parties, weddings, etc. I make a mean cupcake, but I've done everything from pies to cakes to making 250 custom decorated starfish sugar cookies for my friend's wedding. Happily, I've gotten great reviews from everyone that I have baked for, and always appreciate the repeat business.

One of my repeat customers is one of my best friends Val. I've made cupcakes for her bridal shower, naughty cakes (yes) for her bachelorette party, and now she is pregnant (due in July!), so I just made the cake for her gender reveal party!

For those of you who have never heard of a gender reveal party, it can work a few ways, but here is how Val and her husband did it.

They went for the ultrasound and the doctor made them close their eyes when she discovered the gender of the baby. Then the doctor wrote the gender in the card that Val provided her and sealed it in the envelope. Val then hand delivered the card to me that night and I was trusted with the biggest secret EVER until that weekend of the party. Seriously, you guys, this was one of the hardest secrets for me to keep! I then made a cake that was either pink or blue inside, which Val and her husband would cut open at the party, revealing the gender of their baby!

I immediately opened the envelope when I got home after she gave it to me, and I was SO HAPPY when I found out she was having a girl! Now I can buy her lots tutus and cupcake EVERYTHING.

So you know what that means, I had to make a pink cake!

Before I knew the gender, I decided on making a vanilla cake that I would tint pink or blue, and then I was going to do a strawberry preserve filling with my famous vanilla buttercream.

Guys, I have an awesome recipe for my vanilla buttercream. Well, except it's not an exact recipe per say. Recipes are extremely important in the science of baking, but for buttercream, I tend to do it by taste. Some days it might be a little more powdered sugar, other days it might need a little less vanilla. Here is the "recipe":

Lindsay's Vanilla Buttercream

2 sticks softened butter (please use a name brand butter, off brands do not taste as yummy)

1 Crisco vegetable shortening baking stick (not the butter flavor one)

2-3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup room temperature water

One 32 oz. bag of 10x powdered sugar

Directions: Beat the softened butter with the Crisco baking stick until combined. Slowly, while mixer is on low-medium speed, start adding a little bit of powdered sugar at a time, alternating with a little bit of the water. In between additions, you can turn the mixer up to the highest setting to fully combine the ingredients. Once I add about half of the bag of powdered sugar, I add in 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and do a taste test. If it needs more sweetness, I will keep adding a little bit more powdered sugar until I get the desired sweetness. If it needs a little more vanilla, I will add another teaspoon. Also, if your buttercream is a little too thick to spread on the cake, you can add more water until you get the perfect consistency. Before you use the buttercream, beat the heck out of it on high for at least 2 minutes to fully combine all of the powdered sugar and vanilla and it will become creamy and fluffy and delicious.

I don't use any salt in my buttercream, especially if I am tinting it with food coloring, because for some reason the salt reacts with the coloring and it seems to separate. Definitely NOT cute.

Here's how the cake turned out!