King of the Jungle Baby Shower Cake

Anyone who knows me, knows that I tend to go a little over the top.  As my mom always put it I "oversubscribe" myself.  So when I was hired to make a cake for a friend's baby's homecoming, I got a little crazy.

Yeah... see?  Got a little crazy.  It was really just supposed to be a cake/cupcake tower that matched the decorations, but my desire to work with gumpaste got the best of me.  So I decided to make a whole gang of jungle friends to sit on top of the cake.

Having never worked with gumpaste before, I figured I should start early.  And it's a good thing because my dog once again couldn't resist the smell of sugar and ate the first elephant I made.  This isn't the first time he has been tempted by my cake decorating.  View my previous post to see how he devoured a bridal shower cake.  I thought at first that maybe I moved the elephant without remembering... or maybe he fell on the floor... nope, he was gone.  10 minutes upstairs, unattended, and he was gone.  Gumpaste, toothpick (holding the head to the body) and all.  Gone.  I was in denial at first - how on EARTH could a dog devour en entire 3" high gumpaste elephant in 10 minutes???  It must be here somewhere... But the dog's guilty look and the absence of any trace of the elephant whatsoever finally convinced me that somehow, it could be done.

It took me a couple weeks before I could face the gumpaste again, but I'm glad I did.  First I remade the elephant:

Then I moved on to the lion:

Then the monkey:

 

 And then my favorite, the giraffe:

Isn't he cute???  To be honest, he was the hardest to make, so that may be why I have a certain affinity for him.

Here's a close-up of the cake with cupcakes and jungle friends topper:

The cupcakes are pumpkin spice with cream cheese frosting, and chocolate with vanilla buttercream.  The cupcake toppers are dark chocolate rounds with white chocolate feet dyed to match the decorations.

Congrats to Jen and Alan on their adorable Caleb!