How to host a baby shower

11 Aug 2021

Getting ready to plan a baby shower for you or a friend? We're here to help make your baby shower as memorable and special as possible with some super creative ideas from Pamela! 

Whether you're looking for top tips to keep plans stress-free, colourful DIY decorations, yummy party food recipes, exciting Mum-to-be gift ideas, fun baby shower games, or the best gender reveals, we've got you covered. 

Hi Pamela, please can you tell us a bit about you?  

Hello!  I am originally from Germany and am now living in beautiful SW London with my husband and two kids. My daughter Victoria is almost 4 years old and my son Maximilian is 15 months. I am also currently 25 weeks pregnant with baby number three which we are all very excited about. Ever since I was a little girl, I loved crafting and baking and carried over this passion into adult life, although once I started working, I didn’t have much time left for this. When my daughter was born I started my Instagram account @latteandlullabies as a creative outlet and in the first lockdown last year I properly re-ignited my passion for crafting and baking to keep my daughter entertained using mainly supplies that we already had in the house (cardboard for example is such an amazing material!) and I am sharing our creations on my Instagram account to hopefully inspire my followers to get creative too. It’s my creative outlet that allows me to completely switch off and it makes me so happy to see that my daughter seems to have inherited this passion as well.

 

How did you celebrate your previous two pregnancies/births?  

With my first born I didn’t actually have a baby shower. I am from Germany where baby showers are not really a thing and my closest friends here in the UK are German too. We did however go on a lovely baby moon to Spain and when my daughter was just over one week old, we had a naming ceremony with family and close friends. This is a tradition that comes from my husband’s Nigerian background and it’s the day where we officially introduced our baby and announced her name. Every person at the party was also asked to give the baby a name which my husband has all written down for her. We had a special cake made with her name on it and a cute little bunny and had a buffet of Nigerian food.

My son was a proper lockdown baby, born in May 2020, so unfortunately we couldn’t go ahead with the baby shower my friend was planning for me which was a real shame. But we did a virtual naming ceremony for him when he was one week old.

This time round my friends are planning a pamper day for a baby shower which I am super excited about.

What would be your 3 top tips to someone planning a baby shower:

1. Pick a theme – this will help tie things together nicely. Decide on a main colour and stick to your chosen theme. We went for “stars” but there are endless other things you could go for e.g. a cute little animal like bears or sheep, a bab book etc.
2.  Keep it simple – you want to be able to enjoy the day and not be completely stressed out by the preparations, especially not when you’re pregnant. Why not ask your friends to contribute one thing each to the buffet? This also applies to the decorations.
3. Don’t leave it too late! Try planning the baby shower somewhere around the 30-35 weeks mark of pregnancy so the mum-to-be isn’t too uncomfortable and tired and can fully enjoy the day.

 

We love your arts and crafts!  Are there any quick and simple baby shower decorations that we could make?

Oh, thank you! Yes, absolutely! I am a big fan of upcycling and using materials that I already have in the house. This little upcycling DIY is really quick and easy to make but looks super cute and is so versatile! Just spray paint some empty cans in pink and/or blue or grey, wrap some raffia around them and glue on some stars cut out from glittery paper (or whatever other decoration you fancy…little footprints, hearts, a dummy shape etc could be cute too). You can then use these as little vases, as containers to store cutlery or to present snacks like breadsticks, cake pops, lollipops etc on your buffet.

I also added a photo of other star shaped snacks (but people could of course use other shapes as well like a heart etc). All you need is a cookie cutter and you can cut cute sandwiches, cucumber, babybel, melon etc.

 

What’s one of your favourite party food recipes for a baby shower?

I have a really sweet tooth and one of my favourite foods to make for parties are little decorated biscuits. For a baby shower I love these star biscuits which are super easy to make.  

Star Biscuit Recipe 

These sleepy eye star biscuits are fairly easy (although a bit quite time-consuming) to make and make a perfect addition to a baby shower party buffet.

Ingredients:

• 250gr unsalted butter (soft)
• 250gr sugar
• 4 eggs
• 500g plain flour

For the icing:

• White and pink ready to roll fondant. Black cake pen

Method:

Mix all ingredients together and kneed well until you get a smooth dough. Form into a ball, cover and pop into the fridge over night or at least for a couple of hours.

Roll the dough to ½ cm thickness (you might need to dust your rolling pin with a bit of flour to prevent the dough from sticking) and cut out your star shapes.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees for 12-16 minutes until golden (depending on oven).

Once the biscuits are completely cooled down roll out your white fondant quite thinly, then use the star cookie cutter to cut out start shapes. Brush some water on the back of the fondant and pop it onto the cooled down biscuits. Then from the pink fondant, form little balls, flatten, brush the back with water and stick on the starts for the cheek. With a black cake pen carefully draw on the eyes. That’s it.

Cake Pops Recipe 

Another favourite party food of mine are cake pops! They look super cute and are bite-sized which means you don’t need plates to serve them which is always a win.

You can use any type of dry cake / sponge cake as a base. If you wanted to be cheeky you could also just buy a ready-made sponge cake to use as your base, or you make your own.

Lemon drizzle cake ingredients:

• 225g unsalted butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 225g self-rising flour
• Zest of 1 finely grated lemon

For the  “drizzle”:

• 85g caster sugar
• Juice of 1.5 lemons

For the cake pop mixture:

• Cream cheese
• Lollipop sticks
•  Dark chocolate
• Sprinkles to taste

Method:

Mix all cake ingredients together and pour into your baking tin.

Bake at 180 degrees in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes.

Once the cake is cooled down, mix the caster sugar and lemon juice, prick the top of your cake with a kebab skewer gently pour the mixture over the cake.

Next crumbled up lemon drizzle cake mixed with cream cheese and icing sugar. You’ll need to try for yourself how much cream cheese you need to make a mixture that isn’t too wet or to dry. Just keep adding on slowly to get the perfect consistency. Form some balls, pop them on a plate/tray and put in the fridge for at least an hour. This is key otherwise the lollipop stick will not stick to the mixture. Melt some dark chocolate and dip the lollipop sticks into the chocolate first and then straight into your cake balls. Let set for 15 minutes and then dip the balls into the melted chocolate, decorate with some sprinkles (I used little star sprinkles but simple pink and/or blue sprinkles could be really cute too) and then leave the cake pops to dry. I had some Styrofoam lying around from a previous delivery so I used that to stick the cake pops in to dry but you could also use egg cartons or cups. 

What baby shower gift would you recommend getting for a friend? 

In terms of baby shower gifts I think you can never go wrong with cute sleep suits. You underestimate how many you will need and how quickly they grow into bigger sizes. Another lovely idea is a TotsBots Trial Kit. I received one for the new baby and I absolutely love it. It’s got everything in there to get you started and is a great way to introduce people to cloth nappies! I’ve got the bee print which is so cute!

Or, instead of getting something for the baby, you could get something for the mum-to-be, for example a voucher for a massage.

For more TotsBots Mum-to-be gifts check out our Muslins, Reusable wipes, Nappy Bags and Happy Mats!

Thank you Pamela for sharing your fab baby shower ideas with us!  For more inspiration check out our free TotsBots downloadable baby shower games and gender reveal ideas below...

 

Click to download some fun baby shower games including, baby predictions, guess the gender, and baby names from A-Z!

TotsBots Top Gender Reveal Ideas

1. Treasure hunt - Build the suspense for your family and create some clues for them to follow, with the end treasure being an item that reveals your little peanuts gender
2. Time to party - There's no better excuse than to host a string or paint party...will the colour be blue or pink?! 3,2,1 spray!   
3. Clouds of colour - For a dramatic photo or video, grab some confetti or smoke cannons and reveal! 
4. Say it with Food - Follow Pamela's Pop Cake recipe and add in some blue or pink food colour to the mixture and get ready to enjoy
5. Subtle but effective - If you've planned a family get-together, why not take a family photo and sneakily hold a pair of blue or pink booties....send to your family messenger and see who spots it first!