Two people sharing a Lemonade Cake slice at a window table in The Welder tend to go quiet at the same moment, somewhere around the second forkful, when the lemon syrup in the sponge meets the custard and one of them reaches for a pen to cross a line off the shower list. Most baby shower cake ideas start with a colour scheme and work back to the flavour, and we'd suggest going the other way round, at a table, with whoever is hosting alongside you.
Taste it first, with the co-host
A baby shower usually has two organisers who have quietly split the jobs, and the cake is the one decision worth making together in person. Come in one afternoon, order a Lemonade Cake slice and one other from our cake slices, $12 each, and put a pot of Zealong between you while the open kitchen works beyond the plants, a palette knife scraping white chocolate ganache flat across a cake on the bench. The second opinion is already sitting across from you, and everything in the cabinet is made from scratch, so a slice is the quickest honest test of our cakes in Christchurch before you commit to a whole one.
The Lemonade Cake, sized for the room
The Lemonade Cake is a vanilla sponge in four layers, brushed with lemon syrup, filled with lemon custard and wrapped in white chocolate ganache, and the knife goes down through it with a soft give at each band of custard before it meets the board. Servings run larger than people expect: the 15cm at $95 serves 12 to 15, the 20cm at $120 serves 20 to 25, and the 25cm at $165 serves 30 to 35. The finish is ganache and chocolate with no fondant and no colourings, chosen from the designs Dhi already makes, so a pale cake with clean edges suits a shower planned in sage, cream or soft yellow, and our baby shower cakes gather the chocolate and coconut layer cakes on one page.
Pink, from raspberry
When pink is half the brief, the Pink Lemonade Mini Cake does the job on its own: a tangy lemon sponge finished in raspberry ganache, one serving each, at $9, or $48 for a tray of 6 and $84 for a tray of 12. Line twelve down a table and the colour arrives before the guests do, while the sour edge of the lemon cuts through the cream of the ganache so nobody stalls after one. The cabinet also holds the two-layer Pink Lemonade, $85 for a 20cm cake of vanilla sponge, lemon curd and raspberry whipped ganache under meringue; check its product page for servings against your guest list.
Petit fours for the grazing end of the table
Showers run long, so a tray of petit fours, from the French for "small oven", gives everyone something to pick at between gifts. Each tray holds 15 for $60, the minimum order on the website, and three to five per guest covers most afternoons. The Passionfruit Pavlova Petit Four is a hand-piped meringue shell, crisp outside and marshmallowy inside, that breaks onto a sharp passionfruit curd, while the Blueberry Panna Cotta Petit Four sets cool and soft over blueberries. Both are made with no added gluten, though our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur and we can't guarantee either for severe coeliac disease. The full range sits in Mini Cakes & Petit Fours, our catering boxes in Christchurch add savouries such as the Quiche Lorraine if the shower runs over lunch, and our dessert table decor ideas help with styling.
Or bring the whole shower to us
A shower of up to ten can hand over the hosting altogether with our Christchurch high tea, $65 a head for a 90-minute seating of savouries, petit fours and desserts with bottomless organic Zealong tea, booked 48 hours ahead, or a week ahead for a Saturday. Our hens party and bridal shower ideas run on the same thinking, and a first birthday next year belongs with our birthday cakes in Christchurch. On the day, the tables are pushed together so the person being celebrated sits in the middle, the teapot travels hand to hand down the line, and the tissue paper from the first gift is still crackling under somebody's chair when the cheese bread arrives, steam lifting off its split crust.
Collecting the cake for a Saturday shower
Layer cakes and mini cakes need two days' notice and petit fours need seven, and the checkout date picker only offers dates the kitchen can meet for what is in your cart, so you choose the day and pickup time and collect from The Welder, 20–26 Welles Street. Everything is pickup only and we don't deliver, so collect the day before if you can: the cake is handed over assembled in its box and keeps overnight in the fridge in our packaging with no change to taste or texture, and our guide to getting a cake home in one piece covers the drive. We're open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday. Slip a packet of beeswax candles or a gift card for the new parents into the bag, and the box rides out on your forearms with the candles rattling on top.
