"Bun in the oven"
"Burgers on the grill"
O. M. G.
You guys!!!! When my friend asked me to make this for her daughter I was so excited!!! I had never heard of this theme before and frankly was a little upset that I didn't think of it first!! They have since changed the BBQ to a drive by shower (Thanks COVID!) but are sticking with this theme, which is great! I just think it's SUPER DUPER cute!!!
With a global pandemic, shopping was a little challenging for this one! I had to go to 7 different stores in about the last 2 months to find everything I needed. Dollar tree, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Joann Fabrics, Meijer, Walmart, and Rite Aid! Whew!!! My friend sent me a photo example of what she had in mind, knowing, I'm sure, that I would make it my own. I'm SO glad she trusts me because this turned out super cute, I think!
First we had to start with a base. I looked EVERYWHERE for cake rounds. You know, the little cardboard circles you use to put your cake on? I finally found the round, silver, floral ones at Walmart. That was gonna have to do! I think I paid a little over $2 for a pack of 5!
In order to have something to keep the layers of the cake lined up, we needed put something in the center and adhere it to the cake round. My go-to for this is usually the cardboard inserts in rolls of wrapping paper. I rifled through my Christmas wrap and found one! I'm hoping that paper holds up until I need it for wrapping gifts at Christmas! Ha ha!
In true Sambo style I did not measure and instead eye-balled the center of the cake round. I used my hot glue gun to secure the roll.
I rolled a box of 100, size 3 diapers and secured them with ouchless hair ties from Rite Aid. Box of 200 for around $2. Can't go wrong with that! I put two ties on each diaper to keep it from losing form. I've noticed in the past that the diaper will slide around a little and lose shape if you only use one. Either way, I knew once the cake was assembled I'd be covering up that part of the diaper so the ties, however many I used, would not be visible.
Building the cake was probably the most time consuming part. But fun and very interesting! In hindsight I probably should've bought a bigger box of diapers! When I got to the top and final layer I realized I was a little short on diapers so I had to improvise! I decided to take a couple paper towel rolls I had and cut them into toilet paper sized rolls. I used those as make-shift diapers to take up space in the center of the top layer, which I knew I would be covering with a big flower on top. I put the remaining diapers around the outside, essentially hiding all the rolls I had just used. Not ideal, but it worked in a pinch! lol
Now it was time to add the embellishments!! First, I measured the burlap by winging it, you know, Sambo style! Ha ha! Look. I just feel like most of the time, measuring takes too long and I'm never too far off with my eyeballs so it works for me. If you feel better using a measuring tape, go for it! The burlap I had was a little too thick for the height of each layer so I had to cut it lengthwise to make it thinner. I didn't want to cover the whole diaper! After wrapping each layer with the burlap I secured it with hot glue, placing a little piece of cardstock behind the seam so the glue wouldn't stick to the diapers. Hot glue has a way of seeping and I was, after all, using burlap, which is porous! lol After securing the burlap, I put a piece of lace ribbon and a thin red check ribbon on the top layer and a piece of lace ribbon and a thick red check ribbon on the bottom layer. Time to line up those seams so I could prepare the bows!
I made the sign on my computer using Microsoft Word. I printed it out on cardstock and didn't really know what I was going to do with it from there. That was weeks ago! lol I found a cute set of napkins and decided to experiment! The napkins are two ply so I separated the layers. I glued the napkin, design side up of course, to a piece of white cardstock. I then glued the sign I made and had already cut out at this point on top of the napkin. I cut around the sign, leaving a border with the napkin. I glued that to the black cardstock, cutting around the border once again to leave a frame. I placed the sign on the middle layer of the cake, gluing it at the seam where I had secured that little piece of paper so as not to get glue on the diapers.
The bows were the really fun part!! I went with a smaller bow on the top layer. This layer is the smallest so it only made sense! Right!? I decided to put a little white flower in the center of that bow. I made a larger bow with the larger red check ribbon for the bottom. I left the ends pretty long because I had this brilliant idea that I wanted it to look like the ribbon was flowing around the cake. I like doing that when I bake cakes and use fondant as well. I don't know what my fascination is, I just like it. A lot.
The flowers took a little more time than I thought but only because deciding on placement was so difficult. I had an idea in my head but when I had the flowers in my hand, they had different plans entirely! I used the big flower for the center. I cut it to the height of the cake, inserted it into the center paper roll and glued around the top of the roll to adhere it to the underside of the flower head. Then, I placed smaller red flowers around and sort of under the petals of the big flower to give the appearance of a bigger flower or bouquet of flowers, but also to hide those rolls a little better!! The sunflowers were so cute and I had far too few!! I wanted them to sort of cascade around the cake. I finally had them all situated where I wanted them and even added a couple more little white flowers, just for accents.
There were a few hiccups along the way but nothing major and the Baby-Q cake was a success!! I am so pleased with the way this turned out and I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.
Hop on over to my Facebook Page to watch the video!! If you like it, please let me know and share with your friends who might love it as well! I really appreciate you all so much and can't wait to get started on the next crafty adventure!!!
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