A Touch of Spring in Winter

 I love that my family supports me in my crafts. Not only that, they respect the time and investment that creating diaper cakes entails. I have had several requests from family members for diaper cakes, so it was no surprise that one of my sisters was interested in ordering one.

What was surprising was the request itself. My sister had seen my previous cake made a few months before with it's elegant minimalist style (you can check out the pastel pumpkin cake here) and she wanted something similar. She threw me for a loop, however, when she requested a spring floral theme for a December baby shower. That was the plan for the shower - spring flowers.

Inspired by my previous cake, this one was essentially a repeat, however, instead of pumpkins and fall leaves, I selected spring flowers. I also decided to incorporate some butterfly decorations to compliment the flowers and add visual interest. Having one cake under my belt where I incorporated floral decor, I was relatively simple to repeat the design and put this one together.

This 3-tier cake started out a lot like the previous cake with the spiraled tiers in my standard size for a 3-tier cake. The middle tier was made up of cloth diapers as the mom wanted to try them out. Having created an entire diaper cake with cloth diapers, I was able to fold them in such a way that unless you looked closely, they were almost indistinguishable from the disposable diapers that made up the other tiers. Again, I used the off-white floral ribbon to hide the structural ribbon for each of the tiers. artificial flowers were cascaded down the sides in a spiral beginning at the top and worked down to the bottom. The butterflies were then affixed and a bouquet added to the top to finish it off.

This cake turned out as beautiful as the last one with it's elegant simplicity. I love how this cake can add to a baby shower theme and truly look so chic while at the same time keeping overall costs down by excluding extra baby supplies. Incorporating floral elements means that a great amount of visual appeal can still be had.

My sister loved the cake, I'm happy to say, and it brought a bit of warmth to a cold winter month.

Owls All Over (Part I)

If you've read my recent posts, you saw that I made an adorable owl cake for a friend and customer with some super cute owls made of completely usable washcloths. You probably also noted that I mentioned I was using that cake as practice for a shower I was throwing for a close friend of mine who loves owls. This diaper cake was epic. I have to say that it's one of my favorites (but I also have to be honest that most of my cakes become favorites) and I think I really achieved something I've never seen before in the diaper cake world: a cloth diaper diaper cake that rivals traditional diaper cakes. This cake left nothing to be desired when it comes to diaper cakes. I'm certainly proud to have it in my gallery of works.

My friend had registered for prefold diapers (these are the ones most people think of when they hear about cloth diapering and they are more often than not used as burp cloths these days) so that is what I used to form the cake. With careful folding, the diapers were formed into spiraled tiers that have become my standard style for diaper cakes. After the cake was built, I commenced with decorating. I had chosen turquoise, orange, and brown for the shower colors. Using those colors and some owl print and striped ribbons, I decorated the cake. The cake was also adorned with the washcloth owls in coordinating colors. A few pairs of socks and a handmade crocheted plush owl were added as accents. One more detail added to the cake was several owl "badges" that coordinated with the shower invitation and other decorations for the shower. A few more decorative additions and the cake was finished.

This cake thrilled me to no end. It looked so far gone from the other cloth diaper diaper cakes I had made for practice, and in my opinion, blew them out of the water. At first glance, it's almost difficult to tell that this cake was made with cloth diapers instead of disposable. It certainly proves that just because a mom chooses to cloth diaper, she doesn't have to miss out on a diaper cake at her shower. My friend adored the cake, but I'll be honest, I didn't really have any doubts.


 Please check back for the follow-up post that will show you all the shower decorations and accents that coordinated with this cake! I'm hoping to make various decorations available on future orders so customers can have a truly cohesive shower.

New and Improved Cloth Diaper Diaper Cake

I've once again ventured into the world of the rarely seen cloth diaper diaper cake. Not many people have explored this "green" option, but since I cloth diaper myself and know many other moms that cloth diaper as well, I see the need for this option. This time, I wanted to use flat fold diapers which proved to be easier than other types I have used in the past for cakes.

A flat fold diaper, or more colloquially known as a "flat" ("flats" for plural) is a diaper that is basically a large piece of absorbent fabric. They can be made with various materials and are folded for use (using one of many configurations) and secured with pins or other commercially available items for holding it in place. Because of their ease of care, they are very popular among cloth diapering moms, but for those that are unfamiliar with cloth diapering, they may be a cause for uncertainty or fear. They do however, come together quite nicely for a diaper cake.

I opted to create a boy diaper cake this time. Once again, this cake was purely for experimentation purposes. I selected 12 flat diapers (which I actually use a burp cloths) and got to work. This cake was built very similarly to how a towel cake might be built (another project I'd like to try my hand at some time). I created two tiers for this cake and was actually surprised at how small the cake was. It was about the same dimensions as my 2-tier mini cakes that I make which typically contain about 24 diapers and it fit on an 8" round cake board. I decorated the cake for pictures including spoons and socks and adding crinkle paper and ribbon.

The main idea for this cake was to see how it would come together using flats. It worked great and I'm glad to have made one so I have it under my belt should one ever be requested. I would much rather commit to doing something I've already done and make sure my customer is confident in my ability and on my part, I can create something that I'm proud to put my name on and sell.

Cloth Diaper Diaper Cakes Reaching New Heights

I've done it again. While participating in the discussion on the diaper cake forum I joined recently, some participants were musing about the multiple tiered diaper cakes made with cloth diapers. Before realizing what I was saying, I added that, "Of course it's possible." After posting the response, I realized that I probably should "put my money where my mouth is" and stop acting like I knew what I was talking about without any proof. I didn't doubt that it could be done, but I wanted to make sure that my assessment of the ease and the final outcome would be not only doable, but also something that potential customers were actually interested in.

The biggest challenge was making the diaper cake with non-prefold diapers. The previous cloth diaper diaper cakes I had made were formed with prefolds which rolled as easily as disposables (maybe a bit less compact) or  could be formed in a spiral as neatly as disposables. I felt I needed to see how it would look over all if cloth diapers were used to make a multiple tier cake and see how it would come together if an alternate variety of diapers was used. Of course, part of me was also challenged and I had to see if I could do it.

Because the cost of cloth diapers can be quite an investment - when not using prefolds or flat fold diapers, that is - I wasn't bold enough to order new diapers for my experiment, but being a cloth diapering mom myself, I decided that for experimentation purposes, I could use my own diapers to see how it all would look. I use fitted diapers which are shaped like a regular diaper and are stretchy so the can be worn close to the body. My diapers are also one-size diapers which can be folded and snapped down for use on the baby early on and can be unfolded and used at different snap settings for older/larger babies. For the diaper cake, I also included the additional liners that can be used with the diapers for extra absorption. I used 12 diapers and 6 liners which is the amount that is found in one of the package deals from the company. I formed the diapers into a spiral configuration for this cake. Although rolling the diapers would have made the diapers more "solid" giving additional stability to the overall cake, many diaper cake makers are making spiral cakes, preferring them over the rolled variety, so I used that style for my experiment. 7 diapers made the main part of the bottom tier with one liner filling in the middle. 5 diapers were used for the middle tier and the remaining 5 liners were used to form the top tier. I secured the tiers with scrap ribbon and added decorative ribbon and crinkle paper to emulate the final presentation one might see in a cake for purchase.

A cake like this might benefit from stabilizers added to it. Also a firmer ribbon or wrapping around the tiers would hold the diapers in a bit better and keep them tighter. Of course, most of my diaper cakes use blankets or similar baby items around the tiers which would add more structure if used. Because the diapers are cloth, there is significant weight with each of the tiers that is not seen with disposable diapers. In a cake built for a customer, I'd most likely add baby items as decorations. Also, in the case of fitted diapers like these or contours, prefolds, or flats I'd also likely add diaper covers either as decorations or integrated in the structure as they would be required for use of those types of diapers.

The biggest drawback to a cake like this is the cost. A smaller cake with fewer diapers (maybe two narrower tiers) could be made to help with this issue or alternately more basic diapers like prefolds, for example, are always an option.  Certainly, a cloth diaper diaper cake would require some extra planning to ensure the diapers are the kind the parents-to-be want to use, as they have much more of a permanent presence than disposables have. In any case, I'm happy to have made this type of cake so I have a better idea of tweaks that may need to be employed in the event that a cake like this is ordered.

Going Green

Quite some time ago (last June, I think) I was asked if it was possible to make a diaper cake with cloth diapers. I happen to be in a mom group where a number of the moms cloth diaper (including myself). As environmentally conscious moms, they were curious if the craft could be applied in a manner using cloth diapers for other mamas that planned to "go green." Without thinking about it much, I figured it shouldn't be much of a challenge and proceeded to go home and experiment.

I don't use prefold diapers - but I had several that I use for burp cloths - and I figured these would work best for making a cake. I folded and rolled the prefold diapers as I did the disposables and built them into a cake. A burp cloth  was then used to wrap around the cake. I tied it with a decorative bow and added teethers and a squeaky duck as accents. Since I had a limited number of diapers, the cake was only a 1-tier cake, but it gives an idea of what a cloth diaper diaper cake would look like. A larger multi-tier cake can certainly be made. Likely in that case, I'd use different sizes for each tier and possibly place something in the center of the larger tiers if the diapers weren't bulky enough since the number of diapers in a cloth diaper diaper cake doesn't need to be as extensive as you'd need with disposable. This cake was just a display/test cake. I wanted to make sure that my initial thought that it was possible was correct. The cake came out really cute. Although, despite the fact that I had people asking about it, I still have yet to have someone order one. Like I mentioned, that was last June (and I can't believe I hadn't blogged about it yet...).

More recently on the diaper cake forum I joined, the discussion again presented itself. Are cloth diaper diaper cakes possible? Had anyone made them? So, of course, I responded with info about mine and suggestions like making sure to use the right kind of prefolds (assuming the new mom wanted to use prefolds) and recommending using different sizes. One of the people asked about making the cloth diaper diaper cake in a spiral style and questioning the stability of such a cake and if such a thing was possible. Me and my big mouth replied that of course it was possible. I couldn't see why it wouldn't be feasible. This, of course, gave me another project. I should put my money where my mouth is and actually make one before I start telling everyone it can be done. So, again, I gather my prefold diapers and fold them up and wrap them in a spiral configuration. I was right, it was possible. For this cake, I went completely simple. I spiraled the single tier cake and decorated it with ribbon and crinkle paper. I had to make sure that the diapers were visible in the spiral form so the forum members could see it put together. In practice, I might use more baby items to finish off the cake, but for demonstration purposes, this was enough.

I'm definitely happy to have these under my belt in the off chance that someone wants to order one. The down-side to such a project is a significant cost increase for such a cake because of the cost of diapers. I'm also not sure how many diapers would be needed in a cake like this if it was multiple tiers. These small cakes had 7 and 8 diapers respectively and were made with newborn diapers. It'd be an adventure to make one, and I'd be excited for the project. I probably will experiment with my other diapers at some point since I have more of them to see how that would work. I'm excited about the possibilities with these cakes especially considering it's a very specific market that I can be a part of.