How I Make a Diaper Cake
A quick search on Pinterest will provide you with hundreds of methods for making a diaper cake. I've read through some that called for empty oatmeal canisters to be placed in the middle to use less diapers. Others have blankets wrapped around the outer rings of each layer, so you can't even see the diapers. There really is no one certain way to make a diaper cake. Here's how I came up with my latest iteration of a diaper cake.
I started out with a pack of 112 diapers size 2 diapers (went with a larger size, so the mama-to-be can leave it together longer). I rolled up 45 of them (starting at the waist end) and secured each one with a small rubber band. In this particular instance, it didn't matter that I had colored rubber bands, because they wouldn't be seen in the end product. After I finished rolling, I started putting the base layer together on top of a silver cake board I got from Hobby Lobby (I think this one was a 14"). I started with four diapers in the center and wrapped a rubber band around them to keep them in place.
Then I started wrapping the center section with another layer of 10 rolled diapers. Usually it's hard to keep them upright if you don't have an extra pair of hands around, so I put a larger rubber band around the center section first and then started sticking the second round of diapers inside that rubber band to better keep them in place.
Then I did a third round of 14 rolled diapers to make it bigger since it is the base layer.
I finished the layer off with unrolled diapers for a more "frosted look."
I repeated the same process for the next two layers of the cake, but only did two rounds of the rolled diapers in the middle layer and just one round for the top layer. When all the layers were done, they looked like this:
I used a long wooden floral stick to keep the layers in place after I stacked them. The extra length that stuck out at the top can be cut off if you don't need it attach a cake topper.
Once I finished putting the layers together, the fun part began, DECORATING. The mama-to-be who I was making the cake for is having a woodland creature themed baby shower. I found some wider rustic ribbon and a cute printed ribbon that had raccoons and deer on it at Hobby Lobby. I used about three yards of each one in this particular cake.
An important thing to remember when attaching the ribbon to the cake is to try not to get the hot glue on the diapers. I measured the length of the ribbon I needed for each layer and then glued the two pieces together before I wrapped the cake. That way, there was only a small amount of glue needed to secure the ends together in the back of the cake. I held my finger between the ribbon and the diapers until it dried, so it wouldn't adhere to the diapers.
I also used some smaller rope-like ribbon to make a few small bows and found a three-pack of pacifiers with little critters on them that sort of matched the printed ribbon. I glued the bows onto cake pop sticks that were cut in half and stuck them in between diapers to keep them in place.
Since I couldn't glue the pacifiers onto the sticks directly, I glued some kite string onto the sticks and then lightly tied the string around the pacifiers just to keep them in place. When I was done arranging the bows and pacifiers, it looked like this:
I really wanted to incorporate a plush Sad Sam basset hound, because the mama-to-be's first fur baby is a basset named Gus. I figured hounds are hunting dogs, so it'd still fit with the theme. The raccoon and bear I found were from Precious Moments and sort of coordinated with Sad Sam, so I added them to the mix, too. And here is the finished product:
Using unrolled diapers to finish off each layer is just one option. I've also made cakes using all rolled diapers (see below) and they looked great, too. Side note, double-sided Scotch tape also works well for sticking toys on the layers. I haven't made one using blankets to wrap each layer, but maybe I'll try that the next time around. Happy crafting, friends!
