The adventure begins

"Way back" in June of 2009, I received my first diaper cakes as gifts at a baby shower that was thrown for me by my sisters. I received two cakes, one was a blue and brown 3-tiered cake and the other was a blue and white 3-tiered bath-time cake. I thought these were the cutest, most creative baby gifts I'd ever seen. I was hooked.

It wasn't until I got into making them more and more that I realized how popular they were, after all, I had only been to a handful of showers, but I'm learning that they are super popular now and there is an insane amount of competition when it comes to diaper cakes. There is hardly a shower these days that doesn't include a diaper cake somewhere. But I digress.

In any case, I had learned several months before my shower that my best friend (and the matron of honor at my wedding) was expecting as well. Her baby was due in December. After carefully taking apart the diaper cakes I had received, I figured I knew how to duplicate the process to make them myself. I had high hopes of making them for sale but I figured I'd start out making them as gifts for friends that were expecting to tweak any problems and build up my skills. My best bud would be the first guinea pig.

The first thing I did was check out her registry. After all, I figured that if I could use items on the registry to incorporate into the cake, that would make it all the easier; and, she'd receive things she had picked out. I still use this tactic. When shopping, however, I was a bit disappointed. I found it difficult to find many of the registry items at the stores, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I was at least able to see the pictures on the store websites and I noted that she had selected many items with forest creatures and the color green. She knew she was having a girl and this was the theme she selected for the nursery. Super cute!

I tried to find alternate items that would at least coordinate with her color scheme and theme, selecting some booties, a hat, receiving blankets, and a sleep gown. I then started putting the cake together. I started rolling the diapers and securing them (at the time I used yarn, I've found curling ribbon works better). I used the cake board that I had received one of my cakes on as the base. The cake was stabilized up the center with a receiving blanket and the sleep gown, so unfortunately, those weren't visible on the finished cake. Receiving blankets provided a smooth "decorated" side to the bottom and middle tiers. The top tier held the hat and white satin ribbon was secured around the layers. Finally, the booties were added to finish the project.

I was happy with the end product and my friend seemed to really like the cake which makes it all the better. I've learned a few new tricks since then, but I believe it was a great start to this new endeavor of mine.