This weekend my melon-loving bosom buddy Carol had a shower to celebrate the impending arrival of her little Coog Baby Boy. This is the first time I've chronicled how I make these things... hopefully it will help anyone who is looking to do the same for a pregnant gal pal!
What you need:
- A pizza pan or large round plate - absolutely essential for transportation.
- Diapers - I like to mix sizes to increase the longevity of the gift and give the mom options. For Carol's cake I used 76 size 1 and 50 size 2 of the brand listed on her registry.
- Tulle - found in the wedding section of Hobby Lobby or any craft store. Stretchy and just the right size for wrapping around the tiers of the cake.
- Decorations - I went off Carol's registry to purchase coordinating items: two snack cups, a teether and a bunch of little bath toys. Pacifiers also work great.
- Ribbon - the fabric kind, to coordinate with the rest of the decorations.
- Curling ribbon - like what you use for wrapping presents, better for tying on the decorations.
- A stuffed animal - 6-8 inches tall is plenty. The one I used was 15 inches and a bit overwhelming, but it worked!
- Scotch tape or double sided tape
- Scissors
- Straight pins
- A buttload of rubber bands
Step 1 - Diaper rolling
Unwrap the diapers and rubber bands and get to rolling. Leave the diaper folded in half and roll either from the top or the bottom, like a tortilla, and secure with a rubber band. I used the size 2 diapers for the bottom layer of the cake and all 50 filled the pizza pan.
Step 2 - Diaper grouping
Stand the diapers up on their sides in the pizza pan. This may take a bit, but they should stand up just fine on their own. There's no right or wrong place to start - from the outside in or the inside out. Just however they best cooperate to fill the pan.
Step 3 - Diaper wrapping
Get your tulle and wrap it around the first layer of diapers. Turn the pizza pan and hold the tulle tightly - it goes much faster that way. Bonus if you have a Lazy Susan. Since the tulle is a bit transparent I wrapped it several times. Do whatever you feel is best. When you're happy with it, snip the end of the tulle and simply tuck it into itself. If there is room for more diapers to make a more compact layer, fill in as needed.
Step 4 - Repeat for the next 2 layers
Repeat the rolling, grouping and wrapping for the next 2 layers, building each directly on top of the previous layer. As a guide, I made my second layer a roll and a half smaller in diameter than the first, and the top layer was a roll smaller in diameter than the second. Make sure you leave enough room for your decorations.
Since you're not grouping them on a flat surface, these will not stand up quite as well. Just be patient with them - once they're wrapped in tulle they aren't going anywhere. I used 38 size 1 diapers for the top two layers, and that was with a lot of extra stuffing after I wrapped the tulle around.
Step 5 - Ribbonize
Get your decorative fabric ribbon and measure a length around each of the layers to create a cute ribbon effect. I cut it a little longer to give myself room to fold it down for a clean edge at the back. Use your tape to secure it as much as you need to (on the underside of course) and a stick pin in the back to fasten it. Careful not to stick the pin into the diapers - just pin the ribbon tightly to itself.
Step 6 - Decorate and you're done!
I wish I had taken more pictures of this step as I changed my mind about positioning of the items frequently as I went. My original plan was to have the monkey seated at the top of the cake, but as he was almost the same size as the cake itself I had to rethink things! I ended up using the extra tulle to fashion a bow, and used the blue and orange curling ribbons to fill in the top. The teether (lion) and bath toys (sea creatures) I stuck in where they would fit and filled in with more curling ribbon. I tied the two snack cups with curling ribbon so they look like they're cascading down from the top of the cake. Mr. Monkey served to cover the seams in the back of the cake and I simply tucked his hands and legs as tightly as I could in between the layers without using any pins or tying him up.
If you're really fancy and skilled, you can use all kinds of floral wire to secure the toys and decorations instead of the ribbon, but you must take care not to puncture the diapers since this is a gift meant to be dissembled and used by the mom-to-be. Stuffing the ribbon down between the rolled diapers is a much easier way of going about it, in my opinion, and it makes for less work later for mom-to-be too.
After you're done, you're going to want to wash your hands about 45 times before attempting to eat any finger foods. Between the rubber bands and the diapers, there will be a distinct smell and taste to your fingers, and trust me, you don't want that extra flavor with your sandwich.
Variations of the decorations include adding shredded paper to the top of the layers to cover the diapers and using receiving blankets instead of tulle to wrap the layers. I was also going to make little flowers out of washcloths and add them to Carol's cake, but there was no room! The extra diapers and washcloths went to her anyway of course!
There we have it - enjoy experimenting with your own diaper cake! I'm off to get my arm poked 4 times and drink some nasty flat Sunkist at my gestational diabetes test, yay!
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