My Diaper Cake

While scouring the internet for Diaper Shower/Baby Shower, I discovered Diaper Cakes... possibly one of the cutest centerpiece ideas I have ever seen! 

(Click here to see some of my favorite examples, which 

I used as models for my own Diaper Cake)

After browsing various websites, I figured I had enough basic information to try and make my own.  The rest of this post is my attempt to document this Diaper Cake-making procedure. 

Step 1:

Use some kind of tall, cylindrical object to serve as your center stabilizer. Wine bottles are good, but I opted for a more, pregnancy-friendly beverage :)

Place the bottle on a serving tray of some sort. This will enable the Guest of Honor to carry the cake with her, should she choose to do so. In this particular instance, the Mommy just took the diapers that made the tiers of the cake.

Step 2:

The next part was the most interesting. And by interesting I mean aggravating. Seeing the pictures of other cakes online, I knew what the end result needed to look like. The problem was getting the diapers to stand up long enough on their sides to wrap a ribbon around it. If you have an extra set of hands to help you with these next 3 steps, you might want to use them, because I found myself wishing for company when I was working on the first layer.

Since I only had my own 2 hands with which to work, I had to improvize.  After some trial and error, I decided to lay 25 Size 1-2 diapers around the base of the bottle, making sure to stack them so that each one was under the next.

Like so:

Next, I found some string and tied a slipknot to allow the loop to expand and shrink. I expanded the loop of the knot so that it could loosely contain the fan-layered diapers. Slowly, I cinched up the knot-- this brought the diapers to a standing position.


Holding the knot in one hand, my other hand was free to arrange anything that needed some attention. (Sorry I don't have pics of this, as that would have required hand that I did not have to spare!)  Once I knew I was finished arranging the layer, I secured the knot so that it would not expand anymore.

Step 3: 

For the second tier, I used the same slipknot-strategy as I did for the first.  This tier only required 15-17 diapers. 

Step 4: 

Again, the slipknot saved my sanity.  This top tier only took 5-7 diapers. 

Step 5:

Once I had the diapers layered the way I wanted, I trimmed the ends of the string.  Ideally, this next step would involve a wide ribbon.  In the amount of time I gave myself to buy the materials, I couldn't find a ribbon that I liked enough to use... so, I improvized again and used paper streamer instead. 

..and for the price difference, it was worth it...

Step 6:

All cakes need a cute cake topper, and my Diaper Cake was no exception.  My friend is having another little boy, and she LOVES elephants... so this little toy I found from Target was perfect!  There wasn't a good way to secure the elephant to the cake or the bottle, but it stayed atop the cake throughout the shower, so it was not a problem. 

The finished product! 

The response I received from my guests upon seeing this as a centerpiece was exactly what I had hoped it would be.  All thought it was precious, and the Mommy ended up with all the diapers at the end of the Shower.  She almost didn't end up with the topper, however, because I was too attached to its cuteness by then!

Was it time consuming? A little... but I had a some time to kill the day before the shower, and after I had all the materials in my house, I would say the whole project probably took about an hour or so.  Remember, most of that time was spent "trial and error" style, so now that you know have the benefits of my mistakes, you could probably complete this Diaper Cake in less time.

Hopefully this was a useful post for you, and if you try this for yourself, I hope you enjoy the process (and the product) as much as I did.

 

Update:  2nd Diaper Shower Cake

2 weeks later, I hosted another Diaper Shower for my sister-in-law, Joy.  This time, Mr. Man was in the house while I was making the Diaper Cake, and no lie-- it took 15 minutes to make from start to finish.  The extra set of hands (plus the knowledge of having made it once before) definitely expedited the process! 

And here's how this one turned out, using Pampers Swaddlers, Size 1