Baby shower food ideas you’ll love

Oh baby! It’s time to celebrate an incoming new arrival with a baby shower. With so many things organise for the big day, sometimes the food can fall by the wayside. But what if you use the food to really add to your party atmosphere?

Whether you’re throwing a surprise party for a friend or relative, or taking charge and organising the celebrations for yourself, we’ve got some delicious baby shower food ideas to really make your party pop.

Baby shower afternoon tea

A perfect theme for those still waiting to find out the gender of their impending arrival(s), afternoon tea is a classy way to celebrate a new baby. We’ve pulled together some top tips for your baby shower afternoon tea:

• Tiny savoury sandwiches are an afternoon tea staple! Try fillings such as cream cheese and asparagus, apple and cheddar, smoked salmon or tuna salad. Cut your sandwiches into finger-sized bites, being careful to remove any crusts. Don’t forget to ask your guests about food intolerances before the party, as it might mean sourcing some gluten-free bread or alternatives to your sandwich fillings.

Top tip: Serve your sandwiches on a tiered cake stand to add some height to the table decorations.

• Stick to finger foods for your sweet course too. Think chocolate eclairs, macaroons and small slices of cake. Of course, make sure to serve scones with butter, cream and jam.
• Don’t forget to serve tea and coffee (Or for mum-to-be, a caffeine-free alternative!). If you’re catering for children too, offer up cloudy lemonade or pink lemonade in paper cups.

Check out how to make the perfect afternoon tea for more inspiration.

Savoury baby shower food ideas

Putting out a platter? A buffet is a simple way to make sure there’s something for everyone to eat. Stock up on the essentials and neatly present on a serving plate to your party guests. Here are a few ideas to start you off:

• Pizza – choose a selection of meaty and vegetarian, this one ticks all the boxes.
• Pasta salad and potato salad – ideal on a hot day or if you’re hosting the party outdoors.
• Deli meats, bread and dips – party guests can build their own unique sandwiches.
• Sweet and savoury snacks – from cocktail sausages and savoury eggs to brownie bites, these will tickle everyone’s fancy.
• A selection of crisps – perfect for refuelling between baby shower games.
• Biscuits – because what else goes with a nice cup of tea to round up the celebrations?

Baby shower cake ideas

A cake is just a cake, right? Wrong! The pièce de résistance, a baby shower cake can make a special celebration even more memorable. A perfect table centrepiece, a thought-out cake can really tie your theme together and it makes a great backdrop for all those party snaps of the parents-to-be! We’ve put together some baby shower cake ideas to get you started:

• Little lamb – cover a domed cake in marshmallows and use fondant icing to cut out a ‘sheep’ face, feet and tail.
• Baby blocks – bake four cubed cakes and cover in icing. Add a letter to the sides of each cake, spelling ‘BABY’.
• Bumping along – bake three circular cakes (two small and one large). Arrange the two smaller cakes above the larger one and cover with icing to look like a baby bump.
• Tiny toes - cut out five small pink icing circles and one larger kidney shape. Arrange on top of the cake to look like a baby’s foot.
• Baby cakes – bake a circular cake and cover in fondant icing. With black icing, cut out little eyes and a mouth. Roll a small ball of icing and squash slightly to look like a button nose. Poke two holes for nostrils and arrange the face onto the cake.

Things to consider:

• Themed cakes – does your party theme revolve around the stork? Or elephants? Or teeny, tiny feet? Build your party theme into the cake decorations (even if it just ties in with the colour scheme) to really pull your baby shower together.
• Flavoured cakes - want to go the extra mile? Try using different flavours in the batter to make your cake a little different. A great idea for a gender-neutral cake is a ‘rainbow’ design. This baby shower cake is layered, using different flavours and food colouring to create a ‘rainbow’ of colours when the cake is cut in to. Or if you’d rather keep the flavours separate, try this one on a tiered cake instead. Go on, we know you want to try it!
• Stencil cake decorations - stencils are a great way to decorate your cake if you want the ‘Pinterest’ look, without hours of sculpting icing! Ice the cake in plain, coloured fondant icing (white icing works really well too). Once iced, lay your stencil onto the icing in your desired position. Make sure the stencil is flat to the icing. Mix up some royal icing to a toothpaste-like consistency and add food colouring. Apply the mixture evenly to your stencil (a food-grade cake decorating brush works best) and once dry, remove the stencil from the cake. You can also use your stencil to create shapes with icing sugar, sprinkles or cocoa powder.

Cute baby shower cupcakes

Yummy and less messy than a whole cake, baby shower cupcakes make for cute party favours for your guests. Here are some easy ideas to bring your cupcakes to life:

• Rainbow icing – celebrate new life with multi-coloured cupcakes. Whip up icing and separate into several bowls. Add food colouring to turn the mixtures into different colours. Add a spoonful of each colour into a piping bag – keep going until you’ve got a good amount of each colour. Then ice the cupcakes as normal.
• Baby bunting – cut out triangles of icing to form ‘bunting’ on the cakes. If the baby’s gender is known, write ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ on the bunting with a food art pen. If the gender is a surprise, write ‘baby’ instead.
• Teddy bear picnic – make little teddy bears out of fondant icing and sit on top of the cupcakes. Alternate between bears and picnic blankets made from icing.

Pick up your baby shower food from SPAR

Need tasty baby shower food? We have a range of delicious ready-made foods available in store, perfect for your party platter. Pop into your local SPAR to browse our full range of tempting treats and pick up the ingredients for your baby shower cakes.

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