Owl Tell You All About It

This cake was a hoot! Ok, maybe not a hoot, but I had to get in the owl jokes somehow. This cake was extremely fun though. If you haven't guessed, my next requested cake was an owl cake. I was thrilled beyond belief for two reasons. First, I loved the challenge. Owls are crazy popular these days and it's fun to jump right in there and see what I can do. Second, a close friend of mine was expecting a baby and I was hoping to do an owl theme for her shower, so this let me try things out a bit as a sort of practice cake to see what I could come up with that might be incorporated in my friends diaper cake as well.

Final owl concept with ear tufts and belly patch

Early owl concept, no ear tufts

I was determined to find something that would work for this cake, but I had one big snag. The color scheme was hot pink and lime. While owls aren't terribly difficult to find in baby items, finding them in those colors proved to be a bit tricky. I had to pull out all the stops and see how I could get this done. Fortunately, because I had  obtained hot pink wash cloths for my "About to Pop" cake, I knew I could incorporate those. What I wanted to do was make some washcloth owls, but had no idea how. Fortunately, after playing around a bit and trying to find instructions (which didn't exist, except for a paid pattern) I came up with my own design for creating some adorable little owls. It seemed the more the I worked on them, the cuter they got. The best part of all is that they are completely usable after they are disassembled. I was so excited to find another washcloth creation that could be added to a diaper cake, facilitate a theme, and provide a new mom with a usable baby item. Multi-tasking decorations. As if all of that wasn't enough, these owls can be made out of washcloths of any color meaning that there is more variety in color schemes for the same basic decoration. The creation of these little owls inspired me to create a new album on Facebook that highlighted the different things I can make with washcloths. These little "washcloth creations" can be used as extra accents and decorations on diaper cakes or other gifts and some can even be stand-alone gifts. Its wonderful!

With the owls made, my cake was pretty much done. This cake was a "naked" cake, so with the diapers stacked, ribbon secured, and the owls applied, only a few more accents were needed. I added some socks and no-scratch mittens to the middle tier as the owls were placed on the top and bottom tiers. To finish off the cake, I made a crocheted plush owl in the chosen colors and used it to adorn the top of the cake. This owl could be an adorable keepsake from the shower or be given to the baby as a play toy. Some paper shred finished off this cake.

I was beyond thrilled with the outcome of this cake. It definitely added to my repertoire, adding variety and more customization that could be done to future cakes. It also gave me a launch point for ideas for my friend's cake. Of course, my customer loved the outcome which is better than me being happy about it. I look forward to more owl cakes and more opportunities to test my creativity.