Tuesday, October 6, 2009

My Attempt At Making A Diaper Cake

DIAPER CAKE PROGRESS

I decided to get brave and attempt to make a diaper cake.
My son and daughter in law are having their first child around November 1st and my daughter and I are giving them a baby shower.
They are doing the baby’s room with a farm theme so I used stuffed animals for decorations, and orchid colored ribbon since they are having a girl.
I did a lot of research on the internet before starting. Got a lot of good ideas but also had some ideas of my own so this is an attempt to document my progress as I go along making the diaper cake.
Have fun, experiment, and do what works best for you!

Recipe List Of Items I Used

16 inch round serving tray (for 4 tier cake)
Empty tube from roll of heavy plastic
3 packages of disposable diapers: size 1, 8-14 lbs, 56 diapers per pack
(I used 118)
White yarn
Invisible and / or assorted colors of thread
1-2 rolls of 1 ½ inch wide ribbon, color of your choice
I got a good deal on a 50 yard roll of ribbon so had way more than enough
Scotch tape (optional)
Glue gun (optional)
Large clear plastic bag to put cake in
Assorted Beanie Baby size stuffed animals
(I used 2 cows, a mallard duck, a bull, a chipmunk and a bigger lamb for the top)
Assorted SMALLER baby items
I used pacifiers, a pacifier holder, baby spoons, wrist rattles, travel sized baby shampoo, powder, lotion, etc., baby washcloths, small
packet of Desitin, and baby wipes.
1. Start out by deciding how many “tiers” you want on your cake.
I decided I wanted a big cake, so I went with 4 tiers.





2. Begin rolling up and tying your diapers. The diapers I bought had Clifford The Big Red dog on one end, so I started by rolling him on the inside because I didn’t want him to show and clash with my colors. Open up your diaper (not the sides), roll it up, then tie or rubber band your diaper so it stays rolled up. I used white yarn because I crochet a lot and had yarn on hand.

3. After you have 4 diapers rolled (or 3 if you are only doing 3 tiers) lay them end to end. Lay your empty cardboard tube next to those and mark off the length on your tube. The tube is going to be your center that the diapers will all be tied around and it helps hold all the tiers together. Now cut your tube to that length. I used an old serrated steak knife which worked quite well.


BOTTOM TIER
4. Stand up your tube and surround it with rolled up diapers, how ever many it takes. Mine took 6.
OPTIONAL: You can use your hot glue gun and glue the tube to your serving tray if you feel you want more stability, but do this BEFORE you add any diapers, and make sure it is EXACTLY centered. Let glue cool before adding diapers.
Tie these diapers snuggly around your tube. This is the first row of your bottom tier.
Continue adding rows around and tie each row as you go.
You need as many rows around as the number of tiers you are going to have.
If you will have 4 tiers, make 4 rows, 3 tiers, 3 rows.
My 4 rows for the bottom tier took this many diapers:
Inside row: 6
2nd row: 12
3rd row: 17
4th row: 23
Number of diapers all depends on how tight your roll your diapers, and how tight you tie them together. Also, what you use for your center “post” makes a difference too.

SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, TIERS
5. For the second , just like the first tier EXCEPT, only make 3 rows out if you are making a 4 tier cake, or 2 rows for a 3 tier cake.
Each tier will have one less row around than the tier below it.






DECORATING YOUR CAKE

1. Tie wide ribbon around each tier, on the outside row. Or, you can tape the ends of the ribbon together and add a bow or other decoration where you taped it. DO NOT TAPE TO THE DIAPERS!! Mom will eventually use these diapers and you don’t want the tape tearing the diapers later on. If you tape the ribbon, TAPE IT GOOD! Because otherwise, I found out, when you go to add stuff to the ribbon, it gets a mind of it’s own and keeps wanting to pop lose.

2. Next I started putting the animals on. I decided to tie them on so they would stay put. I started out with some of that invisible thread. Worked great, but my old eyes had a hard time seeing it to tie it, so, I ended up using thread that matched the color of the animal I was tying on. I used a big needle and made a big stitch in the ribbon to run the thread thru to tie the animal directly to the ribbon. Play around and see what works for you. This was the most frustrating part for me.

3. Next add all the baby goodies to the cake. I tied on most of the items, because there just isn’t a lot of room to slide items between the ribbon and the diapers, without the ribbon popping lose. Unless it’s something thin like the Desitin sample thingy I had. I slid the baby washcloths part way under the diapers between the bottom layer and the next one up. If you slide at least half of it in, they stay put. No need to tie them down, lol.
I slid the 2 baby spoons between the ribbon and the outer diapers on the top tier. This gave me something to tie my lamb to and anchor it down sturdily.

4. Put your cake in the plastic bag to cover and protect it, gather the top together, and tie a big old bow around the top.

Woohoo! You are done! And doesn’t it look good??





13 comments:

  1. that is adorable! alot of work went into that! so cute great job !!!!!!!!

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  2. Oh Susie - that is so adorable!!! I sure it will be loved by all! So pretty - you hate to take it apart!

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  3. Thanks for the nice comments! It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun too. Plus it IS for my first grand daughter, and grandma is getting excited!

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  4. Aww thank you I have been searching for the best and easy instructions I will be making one for my daughter who is having my 1st grandbaby in july.
    Thanks lydia

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  5. Can you give an estimate of what this costs to make? I'm just wondering how much my limited budget can take a hit for!

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  7. Thanks for the step by step instructions, I have lots of my own ideas for the decoration but was a little unsure of the basic construction with the nappies. I love what you did. My daughter is expecting her baby girl end Aug, our first grandchild - CAN'T WAIT!!!

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  8. What size bottom try would you use for 3 tier cake?

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  9. Well done looks beautiful enjoy your first Gran child xx

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  10. Well done looks beautiful enjoy your first Gran child xx

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  11. Gorgeous cakes Indeed. One more question pls how dis you Roll thé nappies : lengthor width Sorry I didn't get thzt

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  12. So how many diapers per tier want to make a 4 tier and 5 tier one

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