Pumpkin Elegance

It's been a minute. Or a number of years. Life has kept me busy, for better or for worse and I haven't given any background insights on my diaper cakes in an extremely long time. No worries, I have pictures to let me know what comes next so here we go.

When the request came for the next custom diaper cake, it was once again, something new and different. I don't know how this kept happening, but it did and as always, I'm glad for the challenge. I love the opportunity to take someone's idea and create something beautiful with it. This go-round, the request was pastel pumpkin themed, but they wanted something elegant, rather than cutsie like so many diaper cakes have a tendency to be. They also wanted minimal, so that's what we went with.

This diaper cake was going to be something that incorporated floral decor rather than baby items. Several years prior, I had switched from creating a distinct front on the cakes and decorating all around. This time, I was going for an entirely new look with a cascade of decorations.

I given that this cake was created in October, I was able to find some Halloween and fall decor including light colored pumpkins and leaves. This was my first time working with floral decor so it was a bit of a task to pull the pieces apart and deciding which aspects I was going to use. Certainly, some of the colors were too dark so I had to pull out only the lighter colors.

This cake was a large one - 4 tiers. Since I wanted the decor to cascade, I needed to come up with a way to have ribbon around the cake without detracting from the decorations. When I build the cakes, I have some ribbon holding the middle of the tiers together. This ribbon is then covered by the larger decorative ribbon in normal diaper cakes, but for this one, I needed to still hide the structural ribbon while keeping the cake as clean as possible. I selected a slightly off-white floral ribbon to place around each tier. While visible, it sort of melts into the cake since it's dull, relatively speaking so when viewing the cake as a whole, it's barely noticed.

I then began adding the various leaves and pumpkins, tucking them into the tiers. I created two spirals that began at the top of the cake and angled downward to the bottom on opposite sides of the cake. This created a beautiful cascade with visual interest on all sides of the cake. For the topper, I used one of the larger artificial pumpkins I found.

This cake was so beautiful. It was the first time I created something with no additional baby items other than the diapers that made up the cake. It created an upscale elegant centerpiece for the baby shower while still being useful at it's core. 

What do you think? Do you prefer diaper cakes with more usable baby items or do you like the elegance and simplicity of this style?

Purple Carriage

I love getting new challenges! One of the great things about diaper cakes is that they are such a great visual and decoration in addition to being practical and useful. A lot of times they are incorporated into baby shower decorations. One thing I'm really trying to break into is complete baby shower sets. Sort of a complete done for you, baby shower in a box, so to speak. Several years ago, I had a customer send me a diaper cake request to coordinate with some digital invitations she had used for the shower she was planning. I loved that idea. Coordinating a baby shower top to bottom is definitely in my wheelhouse. At the time, including invitations was not something I had developed the skills for, but these days, it's all part of what I can offer.

I love a cohesive baby shower - one where the invitations, decorations, food, and thank you cards all coordinate. It takes planning, but it makes everything so nice and shows the expectant mama how special she is to those hosting the shower. I love to create these complete sets and had the opportunity to really explore it further as time went on, but when this cake was created, I was still new to it.

The chosen design was an adorable grey and purple carriage invitation. At the time, it was actually quite difficult to find purple baby items. Since baby items, colors, and themes change over time, it occasionally can be a challenge to find exactly what I need. If you've been following my blog though, you know I love a good challenge and I try not to limit myself with nay-saying, I stick with it and so far, I've figured out a way to make it all work.

This cake was another big one. 4-tiers tall. It looks rather lavish in my opinion, but it was actually quite simple. The base was, of course, my standard spiral design. To avoid clashing patterns from the invitation, I kept it simple with a "naked" cake and reflected the invitation patterns (grey chevron and purple with white dots) in the ribbons I used. At the top of the invitation, a vintage baby carriage was featured, so I added carriage die cuts to various locations on the cake. By request, I also personalized the cake with a badge reflecting the baby's name. Multiple baby items were included which I finally was able to find in varying shades of purple. I got a bit creative using socks as a topper which turned out adorable. Finally, I added a homemade crochet beanie to finish it out.

I absolutely love the way this cake turned out. I love comparing it with the invitation and seeing how well they work together. It was well received by my customer who was so excited at how closely I was able to incorporate the details on the invitation with the diaper cake. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity. Even though now I have the skills to create invitations myself, I'm so happy to see that I can create a diaper cake to coordinate with a theme that someone may have found elsewhere and I can offer additional decorations to match if the individual that created the invitation doesn't offer diaper cakes and other shower decorations. Very exciting prospects to say the least!

In the Jungle...

I can't believe it's been over a year since posting a blog about the creation of one of my diaper cakes. Time gets away from us so fast! I'm going to try to get caught up again on my blog posts and give my awesome fans some more behind the scenes looks at my creations.

I was thrilled when I received a request for a Lion King set. There are so many adorable Lion King baby items and some great possibilities when it comes to accents that when I received the order request, I instantly started having ideas. I was even more excited that this order was the largest one to date. My customer not only wanted a large 4-tier cake, but she also wanted a coordinating buggy. I was pumped!

One of the pitfalls to doing licensed items on baby gifts is balancing costs. While these themes are so fun to work with, the costs can add up quickly. Like the previous LSU cake I had done, I had to consider the budget I was working with and make sure to include enough accents to ensure a uniform and identifiable theme while keeping costs down with coordinating, but not necessarily licensed baby items.

For this cake, I opted to create a more neutral base that was reminiscent of the Lion King baby items that were widely available. I kept with browns and greens and used these awesome blankets that had leaf patterns on them. They worked great with the leaf accents seen so frequently on Lion King paraphernalia. I also incorporated some giraffe ribbon which again was a common print seen with Lion King baby products.

Of course, I included plenty of Lion King officially licensed goodies including teethers, pacifiers, a soft book, and of course an adorable plush Simba for the cake topper. I also included a few additional washcloths, just to match the colors.

As final accents for the cake, I added some additional Lion King badges and leaf die cuts.

For the buggy which was made to coordinate, I used a matching blanket and the same ribbons I used on the cake. I included color coordinated washcloths as well. My favorite part was an adorable Simba lovey, that when positioned just right, made it look as though Simba was tucked into the buggy. I loved the effect it had! I also finished the buggy off with the same Simba badges and leaf die cuts so the two pieces were a complete unit.

Just like all my other gifts, this set became my new favorite. I love the opportunity to make the larger cakes because there is so much to work with. This cake had tons of items and visual appeal without going overboard and costing a fortune. My customer loved it, which is, as always, the best part of what I do.

Naked Cake!

One of the things I always prided myself in when making my cakes was the number of baby items I included in the cakes. I always used blankets or towels (or something similar) and added toys, wash cloths, utensils, etc. to accent and decorate the cake. I loved providing a beautiful cake where my customer could appreciate the value included. I never considered making a cake with no blankets. I figured I could if someone asked, but my default was to always have a covering for the diapers. And then I got that request.

My customer wanted a cake that was simple and clean. She wanted baby blue accents but nothing flashy or too showy, so a "naked" cake was just the thing she needed. We had some discussions back and forth and she had a picture of a cake she liked.

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous. After all, to have the diapers exposed meant that special care was needed. The diapers selected needed to be white, or at least the color on them needed to be easily concealed. When building the cake, I needed to be sure the spacing of the diapers was even - this is a lot harder than it sounds. In my opinion, a spiral style cake looks great for a "naked" cake, so that's the style I did (although, regardless of this, I'm moving more toward that style in most cases anyway). For this cake, I also wanted to go big, so I opted for a 4-tier cake. The nice thing about not having a large quantity of baby items, blankets, and accents is that price-wise, you can often trade up for a bigger cake. I found some baby blue ribbon and accents including wash cloths, baby spoons, and baby powder to complete the cake. I finished it off with a large looped bow on the top and several smaller bows applied to the ribbon around the cake. A previous cake I had done included lettering of the baby's name which my customer loved and wanted incorporated into this cake as well. Finding the letters that coordinated was no small task, but I made it work.

In the end, I actually love the final look of the cake. I have to admit, I've always been slightly prejudice against "naked" cakes, but I find that this one quickly became one of my favorites. There is a lot to be said for the simplicity and clean look of the cake. It certainly is one I'm proud to brag about and it definitely raises my confidence in my ability to create a cake that I feel is so exposed (as in, you can't hide and defects in "craftsmanship"). Of course though, and most importantly, my customer loved the cake, and that is what I feel truly makes it a successful venture.

4 Tiers!

I am so excited to present my first 4-tier cake! This cake was a custom order with a request for a nautical theme. I was super excited about this project since new themes are always fun for me. It turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated and I ended up going in a slightly different direction than I thought.

When I first started considering nautical ideas, I thought I might do a red and blue cake. I had seen a number of baby items in those colors and that is what I prepared for. This was apparently not to be. When I actually went in search of nautical items, it turns out that green and blue were the favored colors. Fortunately, I was able to work with that just as easily.

The "center" of the cake decorations was an adorable nautical crib sheet that I found. The rest of the cake was inspired by this. Three receiving blankets were matched with this in various blue, green, and white designs. The sheet and the blankets became the decorations for the tiers. I added a sailboat teether and some sailboat bodysuits along with color coordinated washcloths. This cake also had a few new features. The first new item was some sailboat "decals" which were added strategically around the cake. I also added the name of the expected baby "Terry" on the front of the cake and "ahoy" on the back of the cake in foam lettering. Incorporating the name was a request of my customer.

The cake came out wonderfully with clean lines and a unified theme. Best of all, of course, my customer was pleased with the cake. That's always my goal.