Two New Projects, a Cake, and a Huge Challenge

Of all the challenges I've had in the past, this one takes the cake. No pun intended. Ok, maybe it was. In any case, I thought that I had received some pretty difficult diaper cake concepts, but since the Geek Chic cake, nothing has stumped me this badly. And the difficulty with this one was not at easily overcome as the geek cake. And that wasn't easy.

When I first spoke with my customer and she described the preferences of the expectant mom, I was very excited. She wanted to stay away from the typical baby themes, booties, and cute animals. She preferred more to stick with a pattern in a particular color scheme. The pattern chosen was the inspiration she used for the baby's nursery: argyle with white, blue, and grey. We looked at several diaper cakes discussing things she liked such as, a large letter at the top for the baby's initial, argyle ribbon, plenty of baby items included on the cake, etc. I was set. All I needed to do was collect the baby items and start construction.

That's easier said than done, I discovered as soon as I began my search for argyle baby items. Argyle items were tough to come by on their own. Finding them in the correct color combination was near impossible. Even finding ribbon to coordinate was difficult. I began to stress about whether or not this was possible. Fortunately, I did have some breaks. I was able to find some ribbon, then some baby items that would work.  I still felt like I was struggling, but I began working on the diaper cake. This cake was a 3-tier "naked" cake. It came together nicely after I managed to collect enough items for the cake. Though, I have to admit, construction of this cake took a lot longer than most, simply because I didn't have all the items all at once and I was in constant brainstorm mode on how to complete the cake and what details I needed to add.

As I neared completion, I still felt the cake needed something else. I came up with an idea to make a pacifier tether. I contemplated a simple ribbon one, but I didn't want it to get lost among the ribbons already on the cake. I decided to hand knot one in an argyle pattern. This worked beautifully, though it was time consuming. I may even make more of these in the future.

After the cake was completed, I added extra details such as decorating the cake board. This was a special request of my customer. She wanted something that made the cake board look better than just the white base they typically have. I was unable to find anything decorative, fancy fabric, baby item, etc. As a way to dress up the cake board, I painted it to match the initial "T" on top of the cake and added grey and white diamonds decorated to resemble an argyle pattern. The cake was finally done.

My customer was also interested in a diaper wreath. I was hesitant to make one at first. I don't like how some styles manipulate the diapers and risks the integrity and possible future use of them (when diapers are opened, the inside is more susceptible to moisture in the air which it absorbs and becomes crunchy). That being said, I wanted to help keep uniformity among the diaper decorations for my customer's shower, so I agreed to create my first one. The wreath was far more difficult than I anticipated, but it came together eventually. I used the rolled style that is often seen as opposed to the style where the diapers wrap around the frame. I added ribbon that coordinated with the diaper cake and a "T" initial that was a smaller version of the one that topped the cake. My customer did request a different pair of shoes than the ones I originally had on the wreath, but otherwise, she was thrilled with it.

I have to say, I am very proud that I have once again met the challenge presented me. All projects turned out beautifully and my customer loved them. I am happy to have another impressive challenge under my belt, and I'm ready for the next one that presents itself.