RJ's cousin, Nikki, was having a tropical sea theme for her baby shower, and RJ's mom Jamey mentioned that there were some toys on the baby registry that would be great on a diaper cake. So RJ brought me to the baby store where I educated him on registries, baby bath items, diapers, and babies in general. Needless to say, he was overwhelmed just trying to get a printout of the registry.
There wasn't a lot of plush toys on the registry, but a reference to bath toys sounded promising, so we headed down that isle and found a package of about 8 super adorable squishy underwater animals like fish, crabs, dolphins and turtles. They were a bit small, so we hit the list again, looking for something to use as a topper for the cake.
We found it in the shape of a octopus-shaped toy, the kind that has a clip that you attach to the baby carrier, stroller, or crib. After picking up a box of diapers, we went home so I could figure out how to make everything work together and what I would use for the ribbon and floral aspects.
When I looked at the toys together, I realized that they were uber colorful, almost too much so. They created a rainbow of really bright colors that I wasn't used to working with. I wanted to use everything, but I also didn't want the cake looking like it was vomited from a clown car.
There was only one pink toy and using orange or red flowers would be too distracting and compete with the multi-colored toys and octopus. To tone down the brightness, I decided that I would stick to natural colored greenery and not use flowers that would match the warmer colored toys, like I normally would. I immediately thought seaweed and went to the craft store to procure some.
The seaweed I found easily, and then headed toward the isle with natural decorations like moss sheets and ribbons made of tree bark. I hoped that something different and interesting would jump out at me, maybe some kind of netting. And I found the perfect ribbon. It was a nice earthy color and full of irregular holes... it looked like something in between a vintage fishing net and the organic styling of a leaf skeleton.
The only problem was that the large holes would show so much of the diapers and bring the bright colors back into the forefront. I needed something to lay behind the netting and remembered that I had a lot of teal tulle at home... just the right shade to invoke the beautiful shades of water on a Caribbean beach. And I could fold the tulle and create variations in the color just like you'd see in real water. Excited by what I was picturing in my head, I was ready to put this cake together.
The netting and the tulle worked out beautifully. Figuring out how to attach the odd shaped toys to the cake took a little time. Luckily I had some thick twine that looked like rope you would see in ship rigging and tied each toy onto the rope and weaved it up and around the cake so it looked like they were caught up in the netting.
The seaweed also looked great against the ribbon and tulle, and I happened to have some teal and aqua colored flowers and orchids that worked with the water and netting. Unlike previous cakes, the floral elements and ribbon trim worked more as a background for the toys rather than being the focal points of the cake.
It wasn't a typical girly cake, which I loved, and pulling it off despite some rather extreme challenges was extremely satisfying. Nikki loved the cake and it got many compliments from everyone at the shower.
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