Diaper Cakes: step-by-step tutorial

I when I posted "Baby Shower Bonanza" showing off my diaper cakes, they were pinned on to Pinterest a thousand times, so I thought I would come back with a step by step tutorial, and some pictures of the three most recent cakes I've made.

So this step-by-step is from the cake that I made my amazing cousin Sheila, who coincidentally gave birth to a beautiful little boy yesterday.

So for the base of the cake, you need: Diapers, a skinny dowel rod, rubber bands and ribbon, and then you can choose add ins as well.

Notice Zoey creeping into the picture, hoping that Mom has new toys for her

She's so cute though :)

So basically the first step is to roll and rubber band all of the diapers. For me this is the most tedious part, and also the part that takes the longest.

The first step is to lay the diaper out, which the folded side away from you.

You're then going to roll the diaper away from you toward the folded end.

Once rolled it should somewhat resemble a swiss cake roll

secure with rubber band

At that point I would go ahead and roll all the diaper in your package. Next its time to start banding them together.

"Hey Mom! Those diapers look like toys to me!"

I band the diapers together in groups of 4. Pushing the ends toward the center makes for a cleaner look.

You'll need to start forming cake layers and banding them together. Within the rubber bands you'll be able to shift the diapers around to form a circle. You'll use one rubber band to band the whole layer together.

Stack the 3 layers and put a down rod down the middle to keep them together

 Next you get to add in the fun stuff. For this I used baby wash cloths, a rattle (the topper), a teething ring, a Johnson&Johnson travel kit and a baby nail care kit (not pictured).

Usually the color of the washcloths I find basically inspire the look of the cake. I was really excited to find these color schemes because usually I find typical, pink for girls and blue for boys. 

You're going to want to roll the washcloths just like the diapers, I secure them with a piece of clear tape. Some brands come pre-rolled.

I love this pattern set. I believe the package came with 2 of each pattern.

Next you really just start placing the accessories around the cake until you get the look you want. I try to evenly space out the washcloth patterns, and get the ones I like best close to the front.

Along with the washcloths stick the other accessories in the cake. I open the J&J kit and stick each piece in the cake.

Once all the accessories are in it's time to finish the cake off with ribbon.

It's really only necessary to do one layer of ribbon, but I like to do a smaller layer as decoration.

I found this cute "It's a Boy" ribbon on sale!

I top cake off with some homemade bows for decoration!

Moms always tell me that the appreciate these, because they can tell I've put a lot of thought into their gift :)

Here is a cake I make for a co-worker having a boy:

And I made this one for a co-worker having a girl:

The great thing about this cake is that it has the exact same "ingredients" [except for a pink and not blue teether] as the cake I made my cousin Becky, just with different colored ribbon!

Switching out the teal and pink ribbon, makes it look like a completely different cake!