My nephew Baby T had a blue cake – his mama had planned a Blue colour theme party and I proposed a layered cake with varying shades of blue!
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| Happy Birthday Tim |
And a good friend's daughter Baby M had a pink cake - her mama planned a Minnie Mouse party and I created a delicate pink cake with Minnie mouse accents.
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| Happy Birthday Mere |
That got me thinking... how did we come to determine gender-specific colours? While I know of some parents who rather give their kids gender-neutral clothes and toys, and I'm personally indifferent about such signifiers, there is quite an interesting background to this pink and blue business for girls and boys.
According to a Smithsonian magazine article, "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”
And did you know that around the time of World War I, it was generally accepted that boys wore pink and girls wore blue. Time magazine in 1927 published a sex-appropriate colour chart for boys and girls and it was pink for the boys and blue for the girls! That wasn't so long ago.
Then somewhere along the way, there was a colour swap. Maybe it was the feminist movement in the 60s that rejected any gender-defining norms, or maybe some boy really liked his sister's blue dress? Ok ok, I know all this has nothing to do with baking but it's really interesting to read, if you want to know more, check out this article at Smithsonian.com
Ok, so back to the cakes...
For Baby T's blue cake, I made a Vanilla Butter cake in layers of blue hue with cream cheese frosting in between. Both cakes were covered in fondant and I love how clean it looks.
For decoration, I tried those springy wires and made fondant stars with his name on it. They make really great cake toppers and I love how it bounces around when you move the cake.
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| Tim's stars |
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| My hubby's precision dotting |
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| A Blue Rainbow Cake |
For Baby M's pink cake, I made the perennial favourite Moist Chocolate cake and the mama suggested an oreo cream cheese frosting! What a great combination it turned out to be.
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| Looks like giant oreo cookies |
There were 3 layers at the bottom tier and 3 smaller layers at the top tier. It was covered with fondant again and decorated with Minnie mouse cutouts and pretty pink bows.
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| Pretty Pink |
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| Minnie Mouse in the house! |
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| Happy 1st |
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