Are you stumped for baby shower games? Tantrum Creative Network member Emma from Ladyland has a few, plus the best baby shower cakes you can imagine...

A few months ago Ladyland welcomed a new little guy into the Ladyland family. Obviously before he arrived we held a baby shower because we believe in throwing a party when there's even the hint of an excuse. Apart from managing to eat eight tonnes of cake and a whole lot of prosecco, here is how we did it...

PLAY THE BABY SHOWER MR & MRS GAME

Hold the episiotomy horror stories. No one wants to hear of their impending incontinence while they’re plump and emotional. Keep it all about the mum-to-be.

One way to make the baby shower personal is to include the dad as well (he might even be there if it’s a co-ed affair). Play a baby version of the old hen-do staple Mr & Mrs. Ask the dad a bunch of questions about mum and her pregnancy, and get the mum to guess his answers. Even better if you can video his responses to play on the day. And if he is there, you can reverse all the questions below.

Some starter questions…

Where was the baby conceived?
What has her craziest pregnancy request been so far?
What do you hope your baby gets from your partner?
Would you rather your baby became a porn star or BNP leader… that sort of thing…
Add in a bit at the end for him to write something lovely.

MAKE THE 'DAY THREE' JAR

The day your baby is born you feel like a mother warrior goddess with the most perfect baby the world has ever seen. Three days later, you're a leaky, emotional wreck wondering who actually put you in charge for this little thing's survival…

… so this is for Day Three.

Get a fancy jar and get everyone to fill it with notes of encouragement. Give her some advice on breastfeeding, sleeping, healing, anything. Or if you don’t have kids yet, just tell her why you love her, it will make her day.

MAKE CUPCAKES THAT LOOK LIKE BOOBS

Much like a penis straw at a hen-do, the boob cupcake should be a staple at any baby shower. Here’s my recipe for fabulous boob cakes. And because even immature baked goods should be ethnically diverse, there’s a chocolate and vanilla version.

VANILLA CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

110g butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
110g caster sugar
2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g self-raising flour
1-2 tbsp milk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale (you may need to soften the butter in the microwave a smidge). Beat in the eggs a little at a time and stir in the vanilla extract.
Add the flour and a little milk until the mixture is smooth and batter-like. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top. Test by sticking a skewer into one of the cakes and see if it comes out clean. Cool the cakes on a wire rack.

CREAM CHEESE ICING

Ingredients:

300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese, cold

Pink boobies: Red gel food colouring
Brown boobies: cocoa powder

Method:

Beat the icing sugar and butter together with an electric mixer on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed (if it doesn’t come together add some more melty butter or a dash on milk).
Add the cold cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed.
Now add either a tiny bit of red colouring to make it a pink boob, or a few teaspoons of cocoa powder for a brown boob.
Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy. Do not overbeat, if it starts to look floppy, stop beating it (good advice for life non?).
When the cake is completely cold, spoon the cream cheese frosting between the layers and around the whole cake… and eat the rest with a spoon in your pyjamas.

NIPPLES

Ingredients:

I’ve made these a few times with varying ingredients for the nipples.

For strawberry nipples: strawberries and red or orange jelly tots

For chocolate nipples: Milk chocolate buttons, black jelly tots

Slice a strawberry into thin circular slices. Try to find the roundest one in the punnet.
Get a packet of Jelly Tots, pour them into a glass with some red food dye. Swish them around a bit then leave them on a sheet of paper towel to dry out.
Pop the jelly tot on top of the strawberry slice. You could use a bit of the frosting to stick it on if need be.
Stick the chocolate chip to the button with a dab of icing. Voila! Boobies!

PLAY 'THE PREGNANCY TEST'

Having a kid is the perfect theme for a pub quiz. There’s so much general knowledge to draw from. Everything from the science of childbirth to naming the members of Paw Patrol. Make sure you mix up the teams so you have parents and non-parents on each team.

You can download the quiz I made here and update it according to your friends and/or the whims of celebrity… Questions include:

By the time a mother gives birth her uterus would have expanded to how many times it’s original size?
What is the best cure for conjunctivitis in a baby?
Which of these options IS a character from In The Night Garden...

PLAY THE 'GRANNY KNOWS BEST' GAME

This is a great one to involve the family of the parents-to-be, and it gives everyone an insight into What the new parents have to look forward to.

Ask the grannies and grandpas to be (or other relatives of that generation) for some funny stories about the mum-and-dad-to-be when they were kids. 'My child once… got a raisin stuck in their nose / wanted to be an estate agent / got so drunk I had to pick them up from a Tescos car park….' etc.

Then take these statements and read them out to the guests who have to guess which parent-to-be committed these acts. Cue laughter and embarrassing anecdotes.

Have fun + let us know how it went!

:: Photography & styling: Emma Scott-Child of Ladyland

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