‘Tis the season for baby showers! For anyone hosting a baby shower soon, they're probably thinking about one of the biggest baby shower trends — having a diaper cake as a centerpiece. And for those who will be attending a baby shower sometime this year, maybe they're trying to figure out what to give as a gift. In either case, why not make a custom diaper cake? They’re stunning to see (sometimes people mistake them for a real cake!), and they’re oh-so practical because every new mom needs tons of diapers.
For those new to diaper cakes, they’re cake-shaped structures made out of diapers. After forming the structure, add decorations like flowers, ribbons, and cute items to make it look like a three- or four-tiered, celebratory cake. Sure, it's possible to order one, but it’s also easy to DIY a diaper cake, and they’re fun to make! Get creative and customize the diaper cake to match the theme of the baby shower or match it to the nursery design of the baby. Besides the obvious diapers, some additional baby items that can be added to the diaper cake (neatly packed into the middle of each layer) include baby wash, baby lotion, all-purpose balm, gentle laundry detergent, and baby wipes.
Here’s how to make a basic diaper cake with some inspiration for custom diaper cakes.
Base Construction Tips
The super creative mom at Leah of the website Love + Lion, has an excellent tutorial on creating a diaper cake. Her four-tier diaper cake construction calls for newborn, size 1 and size 2 diapers for a total of 75 diapers. Other items needed: a cake platter, rubber bands, string, and the chosen decorations for the diaper cake. Her secret weapon though, is a large oatmeal can to keep the shape of the cake base.
Basic Diaper Cake Steps
Buy the diapers after deciding how many layers the diaper cake will have. Look for plain diapers for a more clean look for the diaper cake. Decorated diapers are perfectly great to use, but the colors on them may clash with the desired design. A three-tier cake needs around 56 diapers, with 32 diapers on the bottom layer, 16 diapers for the middle layer, and eight layers for the top of the diaper cake.
- To start, if not using an oatmeal can as the base on a cake platter as Love + Lion suggests, use a piece of round cardboard and tape a paper towel tube to the center.
- Using the largest size diapers, roll up each diaper individually with a rubber band (using colored rubber bands makes the final result look so much better). Place the diapers around the tube in a circular fashion and tie with string.
- Once the bottom layer is done, start with the next layer, making it a smaller ring than the previous layer for that stacked cake look.
- After completing the final layer, tie the layers together so they don’t shift. Tie ribbon around the layers to hide the string and rubber bands keeping the diapers together.
- Decorate the diaper cake!
Diaper Cake Inspiration
There are so many creative ways to make diaper cakes, and we're showing a few that just made our day. Get creative and make a diaper cake that celebrates the baby-to-be. Using things like stuffed animals, clothing items, jewelry, flowers, feathers, and decals, it's possible to make a diaper cake look like food, animals, houses, cars, and anything else that might fit the shower's theme.
Winter White Diaper Cake
This winter white diaper cake by Love + Lion is stunning. It uses all-white diapers and has five layers. It’s accented with white silk ribbon and snowflakes. The wording on the cake says “bundle of joy” on the middle layers. This is definitely centerpiece-worthy.
Sushi Diaper Cake
If the mom-to-be has a thing for sushi, she’ll love this sushi diaper cake. Dirty Diaper Laundry came up with this genius idea that uses sustainable cloth diapers. She used colored cloth diapers, packs of baby wipes, white elastic, black fabric and a decorative plate. Go to Kim Rosas’ site for the adorable tutorial. Don’t forget the chopsticks!
Castle Diaper Cake
This lovely castle diaper cake by DIY expert Tanya Memme is the perfect choice for a baby shower with a royal theme. Make the castle as simple or as elaborate as needed. Besides adding more diapers to add to the castle’s grandeur, use tiny rocks, moss or fake grass, paper cut-outs, flowers, and silver chain.
Minnie or Mickey Mouse Diaper Cake
Here’s the perfect Mouse diaper cake for a Disney-themed baby shower. It’s a sweet diaper cake for the little Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse fan on the way. The black ribbon with the white polka dots really finishes off the look nicely. Sarah at One Savvy Mom shares her set-by-step process and says this mouse diaper cake can be made in less than an hour!
Gender Neutral Diaper Cake
Living Textiles has a bunch of awesome diaper cake inspiration if the parents-to-be are hosting a gender neutral baby shower. This star-themed diaper cake is the sweetest. (We also love their book themed diaper cake and the hot air balloon one). The stars are lit up with string lights and it has a topper that says “Twinkle, twinkle little star.” Besides being the shower theme, this could also be the baby’s nursery theme.
