Red Egg & Ginger Party Cake - Year of the Ram

In April, we celebrated our little guy's 30th day with a red egg and ginger party. This celebration is a Chinese tradition during which a baby is named and introduced to friends and family. This was based on high infant mortality rates and the thought that babies were out of the dangerous period by the 30 day mark. This also coincides with the end of the mother's confinement. After childbirth, it is felt that the mother is in a weakened state. There are a whole lot of rules to follow during confinement for example, you aren't allowed to wash yourself or wash your hair, you can't go outside, there are a number of foods you are not allowed to eat, you must rest but not sit for too long, and so on. I am half Chinese and my mother is not particularly superstitious, so there was no delay in naming our little one and no confinement. Basically the red egg and ginger party was just another fun celebration of our new baby with family and good Chinese food.

William was born in the year of the ram/sheep/goat. Apparently there is only one Chinese word for both sheep and goat which is why you may see the sign referred to as all of the above. Based on this, he is supposed to be kind, creative, loyal and empathic. I wanted the cake to be very simple (it had nothing to do with the fact that I was a sleep deprived new mother with a baby who would only sleep while being held and who ate 20 times a day). The main element of the cake was a little baby dressed in a ram costume. This was something that I could make ahead of time and in stages with William in my carrier. My dad came over during the week so that I could bake the cake (somehow leaning into an oven with a baby strapped to my front didn't seem like a good idea). It was so sweet seeing my dad sing Rock-a-bye Baby over and over to William until he fell asleep in his arms. I had no idea that my dad knew any lullabies. William seemed so peaceful. My mom was working at the time and was quite jealous! She came over the night before the party with my sister to hold William while I finished the figure and covered the cake in fondant.  

I went back and forth on whether or not I should put horns on the ram. Apparently they don't all have horns. I decided to make little horns to make it more obvious what animal he was supposed to be dressed up as although he looks a little like a patisserie with a body made of cinnamon rolls, croissants on his head and coffee bean shoes. How appropriate given my love of cake and pastry. 

I did a simple border at the top of the cake using a crimper and painted it gold along with the letters and a fondant ribbon border at the bottom of the cake. I also made cupcakes with hornless sheep and the Chinese symbol for ram/sheep/goat. Thank goodness the symbol was an easy one though the gold paint did not show up well in the photos. 

Along with the cake and cupcakes, we offered our family members red eggs and candied ginger. Eggs are a symbol of fertility and renewal of life and red represents happiness and good luck. The ginger is to balance cold and hot or 'yin' and 'yang' and is important particularly for the mother to regain her strength. 

William behaved wonderfully at the restaurant (he slept through all of dinner). Back at our house, he spent a good portion of the evening eating (he was a marathon feeder). By the time we got around to taking a photo with the cake, William had hit his 'witching' hour and was having none of it. This was the best photo we could get with him. Note the colour of his face matches his shirt and the cake. 

I cannot believe how much he has grown and changed since April. In only 6 and a half more months, I'll be working on a cake for his first birthday. I don't have any ideas yet for a theme. I almost don't want to think about it and hope that the next 6 months go by at a snails pace allowing me to savour every little moment. 

And then there was one more...

I have not done a whole lot of baking or blogging in the past year for a number of reasons. Life just got too busy. I have been working on my MSc for much too long and I really needed to focus on wrapping things up. The other reason was related to being very tired...but not too tired to make this rather fun cake.

Is it obvious what is represents?

I think that I knew how I wanted to announce my pregnancy before I actually became pregnant. Of course I wanted to tell my family through some sort of cake project. I liked the idea of a 'bun in the oven' cake and I love things with a vintage look, hence the vintage oven. I think that had I known they make modern 'vintage' ovens now, I may have gotten one for our kitchen renovation, although I might not have been able to commit to a colour.
Having a higher than average risk of miscarriage, we decided to wait 3 months before making the announcement to our families. We were approaching the end of summer (almost 1 full year ago), and we had not entertained at all. We had decided to have some landscaping done in our backyard late summer, so we got everyone over under the guise of seeing our new and improved yard. The photos  of the cake aren't the best as I didn't have time to take pictures before we had everyone over.

To start off, I made a square cake. I must say, covering cakes with corners are a lot harder than round cakes. Since the cake was just for family, and I was rather tired, I wasn't as picky about how perfect it looked.
I really wanted the bun to be in the oven, rather than just on the front. This meant carving a shallow section out of the cake once it was covered in fondant, and lining it with black fondant. I had to be careful not to have it too close to the edges, so the cake wouldn't fall apart on that side. To have the oven rack elevated (because it just wasn't accurate to have the bun sitting on the bottom of the oven where the element should be), I used a black rectangle of modelling past in the back of the oven to prop up the gumpaste shelf. I used royal icing to pipe the oven rack. The tray and the oven door are made with gumpaste.

I wasn't in love with how I did the elements on the range but it wasn't the most important part of the cake and I still had to fit some naps in my schedule. Growing a kid just so happens to take a lot of energy! 

The date on the range 'clock' was our due date.

We hid the cake upstairs while we had food. When it was dessert time, I brought the cake downstairs. It was perfect as both of our mom's were facing the direction of the cake as I was walking in. The fun part is that English is the second language for both of our moms, so the phrase 'bun in the oven' was a little lost at first. My mom was asking my dad, 'What does that mean? Does that mean she's pregnant?' My mom was so sweet, she asked if she could bring the little bun home. She wondered why we chose blue for the cake. We did not know what we were having at that time. I chose turquoise as I think I would have chosen that colour for a range in our kitchen.

Here is a photo of the hubby and me with the cake. I love my polk-a-dot apron. It was perfect for hiding my little baby 'ponch'. I have matching oven mitts too! 

Now that our little guy is here, I really don't have much time for baking. He is a cat napper which translates into really not getting anything at all done during the day. Just as his naps start to improve, he will be starting solids so my time in the kitchen is going to be spent making baby food rather than sweet treats. 

I am loving parenthood so far. I am sometimes saddened at how quickly time is passing and how fast he is growing but I am excited by each and every new accomplishment. Just this week alone he has started saying 'mmmm' (in preparation for the delicious baby food I'm going to make him), spitting (not the greatest thing but so cute), eating his toes, rolling over and sitting in a tripod position for a couple of seconds. I look forward to when he is old enough to help out in the kitchen and we can cook and bake things together.