Baby shower cake toppers

A baby shower topper has a problem no other topper has: the guest of honour usually does not have a name yet, and quite often does not have a confirmed anything.

When the name is not settled, the reliable wording is "Oh Baby", "Baby" plus the family surname, or "Welcome Baby". Print it 13 to 15 cm wide for a standard 20 cm cake on 176 to 270 gsm cardstock, and keep the palette to soft neutrals so the topper does not commit to a colour the parents have not chosen.

What to write when there is no name

Ranked by how often they survive contact with the family group chat:

Oh Baby

The safest wording in the category. Short, warm, commits to nothing, and fits comfortably on one line at any cake size.

Baby [Surname]

Personal without needing a first name, and it quietly includes both parents. Works particularly well when the surname is short.

Welcome Baby

Slightly more formal. Better on a cake for a shower held close to the due date.

[Name] is on the way

Only when the first name is genuinely decided and already public. Announcing a name the parents were still arguing about is a specific kind of disaster.

Mum to be / Mom to be

Shifts the subject from the baby to the person actually at the party, which is often the better choice for a shower.

Colour without committing to a colour

A shower cake frequently has to work before anyone knows, or before anyone is telling. These palettes read as "baby" without reading as a declaration.

• Sage and cream. The current default for a reason: it photographs beautifully against white buttercream and reads as neither one thing nor the other.
• Pastel cloud, mixed. Mint, lilac and blush together rather than any one of them alone. The mix is the message.
• Gold or wooden on white. The most neutral of all. Also the most adult, which suits a shower held as an afternoon tea rather than a party.
• Terracotta and eucalyptus. Warmer, and it sits well with the dried-flower styling that goes with a lot of showers now.

Avoid a single saturated pink or blue unless the reveal has already happened and everyone knows. It is an unnecessary way to make a cake awkward.

A gender reveal topper is a different object

A shower topper decorates a party. A reveal topper takes part in one, and that changes what it has to do.

• It must not give it away early. Print the reveal element separately and keep it off the cake until the moment. A topper carrying the answer sitting on a table for an hour is not a reveal.
• "He or She" and "Boy or Girl" toppers go on before. They set the question up, and they are removed and replaced, or left in place while the cut does the revealing.
• Print both versions. You know the answer and nobody else does, but you will not be the one carrying the cake, and having only one version is how it gets seen.
• Keep it smaller than you think. The cake is about to be cut with everyone watching. A large topper is in the way of the shot.

Baby shower designs

Soft palettes that take a surname as easily as a first name.

Bunny Cuddles Nursery Baby Elephant Balloons Little Bee Honey Prince Bear Crown Pastel Teddy Clouds

Matching cupcakes without doubling the work

Showers run to cupcakes more than most events, and a matched set reads as considered rather than expensive. Twelve 5 cm circles fit on one A4 or Letter sheet. Use a single element from the cake topper rather than a shrunk copy of the whole design: the cloud, the star, one leaf. A detailed scene reduced to 5 cm becomes a smudge.

Last updated 25 September 2026