Diaper Cakes Offer Moms-To-Be All They Need

Zaneville Times Recorder.com:

Lyndsey Bates has created a new business based on giving a unique gift to a mother-to-be - the diaper cakes.

While not the edible kind, diaper cakes provide what any future mom would need. They are created with numerous rolled up diapers wrapped with receiving blankets, onesies and wash clothes, and topped off with pacifiers, small toys and baby toiletries. Once put together, the items form the shape of tier layer cakes.

Bates of Zanesville started Simply Sweet Diaper Cakes - an online store -earlier this year after searching the Internet for a unique gift for a baby shower.

“I was just Googling, and found the idea,” said Bates, who made her first diaper cake and took it as a gift for a friend’s shower. “Everyone was looking at it like ‘wow’!”

The cake was such a hit that friends advised her to begin an at-home business.

Bates, a 24-year-old mother of three, began selling her cakes on MySpace. She received so much interest that she quickly decided to expand her business.

“It just took off, and I decided to start a Web site. It has been awesome. So far, I have gotten three to four thousand hits,” she said.

Bates said that her products range in price from $5 to $150, depending on what each customer prefers and needs. The three-tier cake is a popular design that includes 60-65 diapers, though other designs are available.

“I can also do a four-tier or a two-tier cake,” she said.

She also creates cupcakes and bath-time candies which can be part of a cake or bought separately. Bates added that diaper cakes can be made in any requested color or theme, including themes to match a nursery or sports teams. They can also be shipped.

As a stay-at-home-mom, Bates is happy about the opportunity to have a business that allows her to spend time with her children.