Gender Reveal Party

So this past weekend was Easter and our gender reveal party. Busy but fun! I know a few people have been waiting not only for pictures, but also for the details of the party: the cake, the decor and how we made the reveal. So here's the pics with the corresponding descriptions!

First: The Cake! I originally was going to use the filling of the cake to be the actual reveal, but after more thought I decided to have a package wrapped up and then reveal that way. So below is a 5-layer angel food cake with a strawberry filling, masked in green icing and decorated with flowers (Hobby Lobby) and sprinkles.  I used 2 boxes of angel food cake (makes about five to six 9-inch-rounds, depending on how full you make them). Filling the cake pans about 2/3 full is the best. Only half full and you'll get some sunken cakes which leads to the "compressed" look. I saved the best cake for the top.

The filling went in between each layer. Since I had some sunken cakes I put more filling in the middle, and as you'll see, that makes for an interesting cut when the time comes.



The Filling: 
(I made too much)
2 8-oz pkg of cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 pkg strawberry gelatin 
1/2 cup fresh strawberries (food processed into fine pieces)
1 8-oz container Cool Whip

Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing on medium speed until blended. Add the gelatin and fresh strawberries. Once mixed, add in the Cool Whip (I used store brand) and fold until well blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Once I assembled the cake, putting a good amount of filling in between each layer, I used one container of Key Lime icing as the crumb coat, (bought at Wal-Mart during Easter time. I am not sure if this is seasonal, so next time I may need to use food color). Angel food cake is very crumbly! After the first coat I put the cake in the freezer to let the icing get hard. This REALLY helped when I put the second coat on to cover up those crumbs. It wasn't perfect, but in the end the cake turned out fine (for my standards).

 These flowers were bought at Hobby Lobby in the cake decorating aisle. They are gum paste, but I was able to put them back into their container and save them for another cake. The sprinkles (pearls and silver pieces) I've had from another cake-making day, but they were also bought at Hobby Lobby.

You don't have to do this, but I was feeling curiously ambitious and started putting the little balls on the bottom. Once you start, it's a good idea to finish! About half way through I got the hang of it and it went a bit quicker.








And as you can see, all that filling in the middle made for a slight mess, albeit a delicious one!






Okay, so that was the cake. Now onto the guests, who cast their votes for boy or girl by making gender specific onesies. I got the idea at some point in time (probably something I saw on Pinterest, but I don't remember). At first I was scouring stores for deals on onesies when it dawned on me (preggo minds run behind) that I've had TWO kids already and they have old clothes in storage. So then I went through all the bins of clothing (forcing me to filter through the clothes anyway) and I came across 35 useable onesies (not counting ones that were stained!).

 Once again, a few trips to Hobby Lobby (shocker!) I started purchasing iron-on patches. This takes time if you want to use the 40% off coupon each time you go. I am sure Michael's has similar items, but HL is just down the road from me, thus all things HL. As the guests arrived I had them choose a onesie, a patch or two, and then instructed them to decorate as they wish. I also had fabric paint available so they could add their own embellishments. In the end, I had some awesome new clothes! As for those who made boy onesies, they will either be gifted to my other preggo friends or donated. Some I could possibly add more girly things. We'll see! I had a line strung up so we could hang dry the clothes and take pics!

 

 

 

As for food, I just did finger foods mostly. My awesome mother-in-law made an orzo salad and my own parents provided the grapes. I bought some pink and regular lemonade, mixing some blue food coloring to the  regular lemonade to make it blue. That was it! People ate and drank as they pleased, the kids played out back (praise the Lord for great weather!) and we had fun. Once all the votes were "made" and people had their fill, we prepared for the big reveal.  

 

I bought some items and gifts for our newest little one that were gender specific. When Ryan and I had a date of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, we bought a "woolly mammoth"  (elephant) for the baby. I used a table cloth to wrap this thing and tied it at the top with a ribbon. When it came time to reveal, Tom and I simply untied it and let the cloth fall...  

Yay, it's a girl!