Gender Cakes: Cut the cake to learn the gender of your bundle of joy
-
Bethel Bakery Gender Reveal Cake. -
Bethel Bakery Gender Reveal Cake. -
Jen and Paco Carioli with their 7-week-old son, Luca, in their home in Bethel Park. When the cake was cut at the shower, the blue icing let everyone know a boy was expected. Editors Note: Goes with Anya''s story.
Share with others:
First comes love, then comes marriage.
Then comes a wildly festive gathering featuring the grand unveiling of the baby's gender.
And then comes baby in a baby carriage.
Or at least, that's how some of Pittsburgh's prospective parents are doing it.
One Friday night in late December, about 60 of Adam Bush's closest friends and family packed into the party room of the Hyland Hills apartment complex in Green Tree.
A special cake -- adorned with question marks, baby bottles and the phrase "It's a ..." -- was laid out on a half blue, half pink tablecloth. Mr. Bush, dressed "blued out" because he just knew his baby was going to be a boy, cut a corner of the cake to reveal pink icing inside.
His mother, Stephanie Bush, who organized the party, raised her pink-clad arms triumphantly as the cake was cut, amid a chorus of "It's a Girl!"
"I'm so tired of regular baby showers and baby parties," said Ms. Bush, who organized the event and asked guests to just bring diapers and wipes as gifts. "This is a party just to see what the sex of the baby is and to get both families together. It's a cool way to find out."
Popularized by reality television shows (Ms. Bush got the idea from watching "Cake Boss"), gender cake reveal parties are becoming increasingly popular; Bethel Bakery in Bethel Park estimates that it makes several such cakes every week and even featured them in an in-store flier and on its Facebook page.
The parties generally work as follows: At the ultrasound appointment where the parents can find out the baby's gender, they have the ultrasound technician put the gender in a sealed envelope. They then bring the envelope to a bakery, which tints the inner batter or icing pink or blue. Often, everyone at the party finds out the gender for the first time when the cake is cut.
Some, like Ms. Bush, have parties just to unveil the gender. Others, like Jen Carioli of Bethel Park, incorporate cakes as part of their shower.
For months, she and her husband, Paco, kept the envelope from their ultrasound on a table in their living room, with both of them managing not to peek until just before the shower.
First Published February 1, 2012 12:00 am
