How to Make Your Own Diaper Cakes for Baby Girls
When planning a baby girl's shower you can decorate in many ways, but a diaper cake makes a creative centerpiece that the new parents can actually use. It isn't a real cake, but is made out of rolled up baby diapers to form a tiered "cake." Toys or other presents hidden inside the layers of the cake add a festive touch. While you can purchase a diaper cake from crafters on sites like Etsy or eBay, making your own is much cheaper and takes only two or three hours.
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Things You'll Need
- About 60 diapers
- 30 rubber bands
- Platter or cake plate
- Bottle of baby lotion, champagne bottle or other tall object
- A spool of thin ribbon
- A spool of wide ribbon
- Four-ounce baby bottle, if necessary for top layer
- Flowers, toys, pacifiers or other decorations
Instructions
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Place a cake plate or round platter on a flat surface and put a cylindrical object in the center of it. This could be a bottle of baby lotion, a cardboard tube or a bottle of champagne. The object in the center will provide a base around which you can place the diapers.
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Roll about five diapers (use more or less depending on the size of the cylinder) and secure each one tightly with a rubber band. Place the diapers around the center item, then stretch a rubber band around the entire ring of diapers.
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3
Roll about 11 more diapers up, secure them with rubber bands and form a second layer of diapers around the first ring. Secure these with another large rubber band around the whole cake.
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4
Roll about 20 more diapers up and secure each of them with a piece of thin ribbon instead of a rubber band. Use these diapers to form a third ring of the cake. Secure the entire tier with a piece of wide ribbon.
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Create the second tier of the cake in the same manner as the first tier, making an inside ring with about five diapers tied with rubber bands and a second ring with 11 or 12 diapers tied with thin ribbons. Tie the entire second layer with a piece of the wide ribbon.
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Make the third layer using a four-ounce baby bottle if your center object is not tall enough to peek through the top of the cake and serve as an anchor for the diapers. Prepare this layer on a hard surface before placing it on the top of the cake. Roll six diapers up and tie them with thin ribbon, then arrange them around the baby bottle. Secure the diapers around the bottle with a piece of the wide ribbon and place the final layer on top of the diaper cake, pushing the bottle down through the hole in the center of the cake to keep it securely in place.
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Arrange your third layer of diapers around the center object if you don't need the extra height of a baby bottle. Take six diapers, roll them up and tie them with thin ribbon. Place them around the bottle or other object and secure the layer with a piece of wide ribbon. If the top of the center object is still showing, you can cover it up with a large flower or bow.
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Place flowers, a stuffed animal, pacifiers, booties or other small items on the cake for decoration.
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Tips & Warnings
If you'd rather not have the colors or designs on the diapers showing, you can cover each layer with white tissue paper. Purchasing plain white diapers versus ones with printed designs or characters on the waistband also solves this problem.
Hide a onesie, burp cloths or booties inside the cake by wrapping them around the bottle in the center.
Select ribbon in girly colors such as pink and purple, or prints to match the baby shower's theme. You can also purchase three different colors of ribbon and use a different color for each tier.
Place any extra diapers in a gift bag for the expectant mother to use when the baby girl arrives.
Ask the expectant parents or their family or friends if they will be using cloth diapers or disposable diapers, and make your cake using their preference.
References
- Photo Credit Barry Austin/Photodisc/Getty Images
