It's a Pooh cake!

Recently, I had my first order for a character cake. I was super excited when my friend first told me about the cake she was going to order and I started looking for items for it right away to plan out what I was going to do. Originally, she had requested Tigger, but it turned out that the cake was going to be Pooh and friends in general (which does make things a bit easier to find since Tigger items are usually accents to Pooh items). My friend also picked up several of the items to incorporate into the cake so that also made my job easier (as well as saving her a bit on the final cost of the cake). I received for the cake, blankets, toys, bath items, and washcloths. She pretty much provided me with the main things for the cake, I just needed to provide the diapers, decorations, building supplies, and labor. Easy, right?

The diapers the expectant mom wanted were a specific type of chlorine free diapers so I needed to find those at a specific location. After picking those up and gathering decorations, I was set to go. I started building the cake. This cake was done in my newer "spiral" style since these types of cakes seem to be becoming more popular, especially in situations where the diapers are visible. It was extremely difficult to pack all the diapers in that I wanted. This is definitely a limitation on diaper cakes where blankets are used since you are limited by the length of the blanket. After several tries, though, I managed to get them all wrapped and bound. The tiers were stacked and the blankets placed around each tier. There were four blankets in the set of pooh blankets. I selected the two matching ones to place on the top and bottom tiers. The middle tier held the green blanket (I was wanting to use blue ribbons and decorations since the expected baby was a boy) and I was left with a brown blanket. I originally wanted to hide the brown blanket in the middle of the cake, however, with as many diapers as I included in the middle, it just wasn't possible. I opted for a new and different approach to incorporate the blanket by fanning it out under the bottom of the cake. It hid the cake circle and gave a beautiful finished look at the bottom.

I added the washcloths, baby bath items, and toys using some new techniques I hadn't used before. I love the final look it gave the cake. The washcloths, for instance, were paired and tied with ribbon and finished with a bow. Rather than having a front center formed by the bows of the ribbon I wrap around the tiers like I do on most of my cakes, this one had items and decorations all around it since it would be used for a centerpiece. The toys and bath items were added around the cake to give visual appeal from all sides.

One thing I was really excited about with this cake was the additional Pooh decorations I had found. This was the first cake that I had ever done where I incorporated items (aside from the ribbon and crinkle paper) that was specifically for decoration. These items were Pooh figures cut out of board that I placed around the cake (in such a fashion that it did not render any items on the cake unusable. They definitely gave the cake a more finished look and filled in spaces that otherwise may have looked empty. I've only played with the idea of a "decorative cake" (one that does not include baby items, but rather is made with only diapers and decorations like ribbons, silk flowers, etc.) since I love the look, but worried about the value of "unusable decorations," but this cake benefited from the additions. Who knows, in the future, I may do this more often.

The final cake was definitely one that made me proud. I love how it looked in the end. This cake is definitely among my favorites that I have made. I'm glad to have found some new techniques for including items in the cake and I hope to constantly improve my methods. And the best part? Both my friend who ordered the cake and the expectant mom loved it! For what more could I ask?