The Rise of Nappy Cakes
My youngest
sister recently had her first child for which she naturally had a Baby Shower
before the big day.
She had
carefully set up a registry for everyone to purchase items for the
much-anticipated bundle of joy, ensuring that the items were colour coordinated
and fit for purpose. The trouble was that not many people actually took much
notice of it, which of course upset her.
Turns out
that people buy things that they think are cute or, as I did, handed on valued
items we had kept from our own bundles of joy, thinking that she would love
them as much (but they were the wrong colour palette - wink ).
So when
another sister had her third child, I wondered what would be the most practical
gift for a mother of three and concluded that nappies (or diapers to some)
would be perfect.
 |
| Nappy cake ©EK |
‘What a great
idea?’ I thought and proceeded to purchase nappies and research the
construction of a nappy cake.
This art is
now so completely developed that multiple YouTube videos give detailed
‘recipes’ of a variety of versions.
There is the
square cake, the round cake, the multilayered cake, the decorated cake with
handy baby accessories shaped into flowers and bows. There are also the hot
glue cakes where every nappy is shaped and glued into position in the name of
presentation but, sadly, detracting from the practicality component.
After much
fun looking at ribbons and techniques, I came up with my bare bones ‘as good as
a box of nappies’ version:
Ingredients:
Large box of
nappies with pattern of choice
2 different
sized cake tins
cardboard -
shape and cut a circle the size of the large cake tin or use a round cake base.
This will be the base of your large layer
paper towel
roll
string to
secure
ribbon to
decorate
embellishments
as your imagination sees fit
sticky tape
Recipe:
1. Using different sized cake tins to
shape the two layers of a round cake, arrange nappies in a whirligig shape
inside the biscuit tin (whirlpool shape). Make sure spacing is even for
presentation. I put mine on a Lazy Susan so I could turn it to check.
2. Tie layer with string around middle to
secure nappies then remove biscuit tin before adding ribbon to hide string
around middle.
3. Using sticky tape, attach roll to
centre of base. Gently manouvre paper towel roll through centre of layer from
the underside.
4. Now do smaller layer, same as the
first, then wriggle it over paper towel roll. Now both layers will be attached
as one.
5. Using individual nappies, fold in half
and place piece of ribbon along the length. Roll up into small rose and secure
with string before adding extra ribbon on outside (or extend inner ribbon
around the rose).
6. Using skewers, place rose on one end.
Stand roses in centre of top layer to decorate top layer.
7. Add extra ribbon or embellishments as
desired.
8. Finally, cover base with plastic or wrapping
paper to protect nappies in transit as well as for decoration.
Voila!
Nappy cake complete.
By E.K.Wills
Author of
Mum’s The Word: Secret Diary of a First Time Mother
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