Sweet Baby Diaper Cakes

I promised I'd share my very first efforts at making a diaper cake and I have to say I'd make this one up again and again.  It takes way less diapers than most I've seen and has a much more practical side to it than most as well.  I love that it gets kinda half covered in cellophane which whilst designed to keep it all clean and intact actually adds to the design.

 

 

I apologise for the quality of the pictures.  My colleague Myra and I took an extended lunch hour to

 make these up at work, the lighting was really poor despite the florescent lighting and as it was in the office I couldn't take it out into my back yard in the daylight and position and pose it.

 

You can just about make out the directions to the left on the desk.  We actually watched a Utube video demo on how to make it and it was advertised as a 2 minute nappy cake.  It might take 2 minutes if you have all the nappies rolled and ready plus everything else cut to size but it took us way longer than we thought it would.

 

 

 

This is the cake pre-cello wrapping.  You place 17 rolled nappies (which we secured with white loom bands) around a Roses or Heroes sweet tin, lid removed of course and then place a package of wipes into the tin, a bag of cotton balls around the back in the tin, a Johnson's baby talc, lotion and bath in the front.  Next you roll up a hooded baby towel and add 10 more nappies around this.  Then you pick this up, flip it over and place it in the tin on top of the wipes so the nappies nestle snuggly on the top of the bottles.

 

Finally you finish it off with a cuddly toy and a few extra die-cut bits or other decorations and ribbons and bows to hide the elastic bands that hold it all in place.

 

 

We used a double layer of cellophane which gets gathered up around the bottom layer and tied in place with curling ribbon and because we could we added a loopy bow.  I've never been very good at making these loopy bows even though I know the basic principles but nobodyhas ever criticised my bows so I just about get away with it I think.

 

These diaper cakes were only two layers, took just 27 nappies in total, were far more practical and full of useful items and were pretty tall making quite a statement and a lovely surprise for our soon to be new mums.

 

Thanks for letting me share and thanks to the gals who gave me my first ever experience of making a diaper cake.  Oh and in case you're interested in watching the video tutorial yourself just google 'two minute nappy cake tutorial'.  She also provides a printable instruction sheet which we found really helpful.

 

 

Oh and I did somehow manage to come home with a bag of pink Smarties that somebody left behind so instead of a cupcake tonight I'm having a bit of chocolate - YUM!

 

Blessings

 

Suezie

Sweet Baby Baking

Well after sharing the sweet baby cupcake pokes here on my blog I thought it only fair that I share pictures of the cupcakes too.

I cheated with a Betty Crocker cake mix.  I have said several times that I am not 'super woman' nor do I pretend or wish to be so I see nothing wrong in making good use of a cake mix.  And if it  happens to be a good quality one like Betty Crocker which are worth every bit of the £2 they cost plus a few extra ingredients thrown in then that suits me just fine.  I still have to mix the ingredients, pour the mix and bake it don't I?

 

I purchased a couple of mixes and decided to go with the chocolate one.  I was sorely tempted to add a bit of chocolate mousse into the centre of each cake but my home-made frosting is alread y pretty light and mousse-like that I worried there would be nothing in the middle to push (and hold) the cupcake poke into.

 

I hoped to do a swirl of two tone frosting but the kitchen was so hot yesterday and this frosting separates if you put it in the refrigerator taht it kinda melded into one despite putting it into the bag in separate spoonfuls.

 

 

Still the look and colour scheme was pink and blue and they turned out pretty good.  This may look a bit 'peachey' coloured but it's actually a lovely shade of pale pink.  There was an odd-ball cream one which I used to test out the sprinkles and see which I liked best.  The blue sugar crystals just weren't big enough or blue enough for me so I abandoned that idea.

 

 

In the end I went with just the bigger pink strawberry glimmer crunch.  There is always a worry that the decorations will be like the old 'candy balls' you used to get (and still can), all hard and a bit OTT to bite into.  Did (does) anyone enjoy them on cakes I wonder?

 

I braved putting the pink sprinkles on before going to bed, uncertain if they'd bleed into the frosting or go real soggy.  As it happens they were softer and just right and didn't bleed or affect the frosting in any way so that was a good call.

 

 

And because I made up 24 cupcakes but only actually needed a baker's dozen I packaged up the extras which I took to work and decorated up with more ribbon and tags, even adding a little plastic bag of baby cupcake pokes to finish them off with and dressed them up with a baby bottle tag.  I gave these to the gals who were expecting so they could take them home and share them with family.  And I even managed to take my single 'guinea pig' blue and pink sprinkled cake all packaged up for the gal at the restaurant (Nicole) who had been so helpful with our booking as a thank you.  She even helped us put up the bunting and decorate the tables.

 

 

This isn't the best picture - I ended up being busy organising the games so didn't get around to taking the all important pictures and this is just the cupcake table she had set aside for us complete with plates, napkins, cupcake stands and even a bit of space for the smaller gifts.  Their diaper cake gifts took up a smaller table all by themselves.

 

I didn't actually get to enjoy one myself but I have one in the kitchen downstairs and I'll enjoy it tomorrow with ice-cream which is the way cake should be eaten in my opinion. LOL!

 

I love an opportunity to bake cupcakes and I especially love when my 'yummiest ever' frosting recipe works out well.  It has been known not to work a time or two and I've had to start all over again but when it works well it's worth the effort.  See that's why I cheat on the cake - so I can spend my time making the frosting from scratch.

 

Enjoy!

 

Suezie

Sweet Baby Crafting

These days I seldom craft as I used to so when the opportunity comes along to get a bit crafty (and especially if I'm feeling inspired) I relish it.

For the past couple of weeks I've tried to set a side time here and there to make up a whole bunch of baby bits and pieces for the baby shower at work but like most projects I undertake; much of it gets done right at the final hour!

Almost my entire day off this week (Wednesday) was spent not doing the usual housework or laundry, not meeting up with my mentor friend for Bible study, not even doing a bit of shopping or lunching with a friend; no it was spent getting all the last minute crafting done so I would be free to bake the following day.  The baby shower and meal took place tonight and since there were two pregnant gals it was also a double whammy!

 

I dragged out some old Sizzix dies that haven't seen the light of day for donkey's years and cut out these baby bottles for tags.  Next up I dragged out some 'never before used' Sizzix dies - some that I seriously considered getting rid of I might add but didn't only because hubby bought them for me back in the early days of die-cutting - and made these cute baby boy/girl cupcake pokes.

As you may have guessed our colour theme was pink & blue.

 

 

Neither gal knew - or wanted to know - what gender baby is gonna be and I had such a hard time finding anything nice in pale yellow or mint green that I opted for both pink and blue.  And so that I didn't lean too heavily on one colour I mixed and matched things up so that if I had a blue element on one bottle then I also added a pink element and vice versa.  The 'sweet' stamp was from the Nordic Baby stamp set from Waltzing Mouse Stamps and the 'bundle of joy' was also WMS from the Frame It set.  And of course I inked up pretty much every edge in sight.  It just wouldn't be me if I didn't.

 

I stuck with the all in one babygrow outfit for these babies which are actually just three elements - the baby body, the outfit and the scalloped oval backdrop.  Time was running out fast and I spent the entire evening baking in the kitchen yesterday so I had to ask hubby to assemble these for me.  He's big ol' hands don't do the smaller work so well but bless him he did them all for me and I soooo appreciate that.

 

I never cease to be amazed at just how much time it takes even die-cutting in multiple layers!  I made about 20 bottles and 24 baby cake pokes and that was to say nothing about the hearts I die-cut and stamped up to sprinkle on the tables or the bits in the diaper cakes or the diaper pins I die-cut and pieced (that I never even used!).  Whew!  I'm glad it's all done and dusted.

 

Several people said 'you should go into business'.  Do you know how many times I've heard that?  I mean it when I say 'I really don't have the time!'  Plus I think I know why my neck's been sore and stiff for the past week or so - it's all that hand cranking with the Big Shot - that's what!!!

 

Hugs

 

Suezie