Hi all! I have an order for 5/31 for a baby shower cake. It is going to be a "book shower" and the mom-to-be's favorite children's book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The client wants a picture of the caterpillar on the cake and wants primary colors used, but also requested that it look like a "baby cake", not just a children's cake. Well, I'm stumped! Any ideas on how to make the cake look more baby-ish, but still use the caterpillar and bright colors? Thanks!

Tracy

Hmm, tall order!
I can only think that you make the hungry caterpillar a 'baby hungry caterpillar'! have all his little feet with baby booties on and sucking a pacifier!
Or how about baby hungry caterpillar in a nursury setting, blanket, toys, bottle?
Lol!
Sorry brains gone, v late here!

Can you try and incorporate the book's pictures into baby items? Maybe a bib with the fruit on it from the book, or blocks with the sun/moon/leaves from the story?
Or maybe just the baby caterpillar asleep on a leaf with the moon and stars around it?

Wow, that is a tough request!!!
Well, what about if you put a little baby laying on top of an open book (kind of like the cakes were all the baby is covered with a blanket except for it's back end but with its head and hands would be sticking out of the blanket),and book would have pictures from the story on it.. So the cake would look like the baby is reading the story...
Or for the top of the cake you could make a baby with a book in front of it and a catirpiller like the one in the story sitting next to the baby kind of like a stuffed animal .. And do the cake in one solid primery color and little primery colored ball going around the bottom of the cake...
These are just some idea's I had I hope they will help you and send some pics when you get it done.. I'd love to see what it looks like...

This is a fantastic chance to just go with it and use your creativity! How about a tiered round cake with the caterpillar made of fondant balls sitting at the bottom ready to make the climb through the story. Then I would list some of the phrases from the book with royal or bc with a scroll like print and make the pictures of the food out of fondant and paint( using all the primary colors). At the top, I would have a butterfly made of fondant stuck in with wire and ready to fly. My other suggestion would be create a stack of books out of cake with the favorite one on top and a few little babies sitting against them, reading miniature versions.....hope this helps!

I love the idea of the cake being books w/ the pictures on it. Good luck with this order. I look forward to seeing pictures when it is done.

My thoughts are to make the cake in the shape of a book. Then put some/or all of the foods that the caterpillar ate on the top of the cake. Then, you could make a caterpillar out of fondant and have it look as if it's eating through the fruit and going through the cake. To do this you could scoop out balls of cake and stick green fondant balls in there, which would make it look like the caterpillar is eating thru the cake. Then put his head sticking out at the end.
As far as making it look like a "baby" cake, I'm sorry, some things would just be implied to me...it's for a baby shower using a children's book theme...my goodness! But, since we aim to please our customers...you could put the book cake on top of another cake that is decorated with "baby stuff".
I hope you're not confused...cuz of course I can totally see this in my head. Too bad we can't satellite our visions to you

You could make a caterpillar cake using a bundt pan. Cook a bundt cake, then cut the cake in thirds and stand it up on the ends (like the shape of a M). You will already have the bumps on the back.

I saw an adorable Hungry Caterpillar cake not long ago. http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1203094

that hungry caterpillar cake gave me an idea!
you could do the top and the sides differently- like hungry caterpillar on top, with baby stuff around the edges or vice versa.

Oh I would die to do this cake!!! What imagination you could put into this...

Here's my two cents. In the story, the catapillar eats a number of objects, and you see them pictured with holes where he ate through. What if you had the catapillar out of fondant balls on top, or the side whatever, and have fondant baby objects (booties, bib, rattle, etc) with the holes through them? Like he has just eaten through them?

I also like the idea of a previous poster about making the catapillar with booties sucking on a passi... how cute would that be.

Just some suggestions. Cant wait to see how this turns out! I love this book!! Good Luck!

Wow! Thanks for all the responses!

You guys have given me a lot of great ideas! I'm thinking I'll either incorporate a sleeping baby somehow or I really like the idea of making the caterpillar a "baby" with pacifier and booties! Cute!!!

Now, if only I can pull this off......I'm limited in my decorating skills, so I'm not sure how well I can do this, but I'll give it a try and let you all know how it goes! Luckily I've got lots of time to think and plan!

Thanks again, everyone!!!

Don't forget to post a pic when your done!