Bienvenue dans la jungle, bébé!

Two of my closest friends will be welcoming a baby girl into this crazy jungle of a world in just about a month, so this past weekend I cohosted a co-ed baby shower in their honor. The mom-to-be's only request (besides minimizing the pink) was that I make a cake for the occasion. All that pressure! So I really didn't want to disappoint...

For this jungle-themed cake I made the raspberry blackout cake from VWAV and added fresh raspberries to the ganache layer in the middle. After frosting it with the thick chocolate ganache, I rolled out white fondant to cover the cake. The zebra stripes were cut freehand from black rolled fondant and I piped a pink buttercream border. But the funnest part of making this cake had to be molding the elephant topper from fondant by hand! It turned out so cute! I have a feeling I will be making more fondant figures in the future...
And just in case the cake went fast (which it did, once I could bring myself to cut into it), I also made a dozen lemon macadamia white chocolate chip cupcakes (VCTOTW) in zebra striped cupcake liners with a piped buttercream swirl, a pink fondant flower, and placed in these adorable cupcake cuppies from Etsy.
I wanted to give the expectant parents a few more personalized gifts than just what was on their registry. So I got out my dressmaking shears, some pretty fabric, and 6 plain, white, organic cloth diapers and turned them into a bib and four colorful burp cloths using tutorials from Chickpea Sewing Studio. I thought the Eiffel tower bib was especially appropriate since the baby daddy is French and they are expecting a little girl. These projects were both so easy!
Testing my beginner sewing skills a bit more... ever since Shellyfish posted about the animal friends fabric book from Natasha who runs Hanies Etsy shop, I knew I wanted to make one for the parents-to-be. They have two rescue dogs and mom is a vegetarian, so animals are a big part of their lives (not to mention the jungle-themed party)! Each page of this fabric book features a different animal, including a cat, elephant, dog, lion, and a chicken. Sewing those tight little curves was a bit stressful for me, luckily my mom was there to help out and we cheered each other on through the tough parts.
And since I enjoy decorating real cakes so much, I figured I would attempt my first diaper cake for the occasion. Since this wasn't just a girly shower and I didn't want the guys feeling too threatened, I kept it simple with a few different ribbon trims and a bow on top. You can't see it, but on the inside are two bottles filled with baby stuff. Not edible, but still fun to look at.
I can hardly wait to meet their little girl! Now I am trying to figure out what homemade foods to make so I can help stock their pantry, fridge, and freezer. After all, they're going to need something to eat during those late night feedings!

This post is a part of Work-In-Progress (W.I.P.) Wednesdays where I share some of my projects that serve as a creative outlet for my mostly left-brained mind. I may be posting the results of finished projects, actual W.I.Ps, or projects that are on my to-do list. Be sure to check out others that are posting their projects as well. Thanks to Shellyfish for inspiring us all!