Let your creative juices flow with this cake design perfect for baby showers. Decorate the top of the bag with as many objects of baby paraphernalia as you can think of or the customer wants.
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Cut a sheet cake into quarters and stack it. Trim the edges to achieve a diaper bag shape. The bag should be about 6 ins. by 11 ins., and 6 ins. high. Cover the cake with pink fondant, and place on a cake board overlaid with brown fondant, trimmed with ribbon and bordered with fondant bottle cutouts. Use a 1 1/2-in. square cutter, turned sideways, to imprint diamonds on the pink fondant.
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Form three bottles out of fondant and set aside. To make the bottle holder for the side of the bag, cut two pieces of cardboard the size of a bottle and tape them into a curved shape. Then, sheet a piece of pink fondant and imprint diamonds on it. Drape the fondant over the curved pieces of cardboard, and allow it to dry.
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For a large pocket on the other side of the bag, sheet a piece of pink fondant slightly smaller the cake. Again, imprint it with diamonds. Place it over folded cardboard until dry, creating a pocket shape.
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To attach the pockets, lightly trace their outlines on the sides of the cake. Then, tint white chocolate with pink color. For the bottle holder, first attach two of the bottles to the side of the cake using the chocolate and dowels to support the weight. Attach the pockets with the tinted chocolate; hold them in place with toothpicks along the bottom until the chocolate is dry and the pockets are firmly adhered to the cake.
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Cut thin strips of pink fondant, about 1/2 in. wide to trim the edges of the cake, pockets and top of the bag. Use water to attach the strips to the cake, and use a ball tool to make indentations in the strips of fondant. Create the bag's handles by cutting 2-in. strips of pink fondant. Attach the straps to the cake using the tinted chocolate and dowels to anchor them. Again, use the ball tool to make indentations along each side of the straps. Remove the dowels once the chocolate is dry.
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Form a teddy bear's head and arm out of brown fondant. Attach the head to the top of the cake using a wooden dowel. Place the arm under the head, adhering it with water. Cut strips of white fondant to form a ribbon under the bear's head.
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With a cutter, punch out four brown fondant flowers, and place one at the end of each of the bag's straps. Indent the center with a ball tool. Roll small balls of pink fondant, and place them in the center of the brown flowers. Create a small indentation in the pink centers.
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To decorate the top of the diaper bag, make a pink blanket by using an embossed rolling pin to texturize the fondant. Use a wooden dowel to hold the third fondant bottle upright on the cake. Create a bib using white and brown fondant, and use a cut paper tube to pipe a pink “Baby” across it. Add pink fondant hearts on the bottles and bib. Form a pacifier out of fondant, and place it on a brown disc of fondant on top of the cake.
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To finish the design, use a cut paper tube to pipe pink dots on the teddy bear's white bow. Use the same tube to pipe “BABY” between the bottle cutouts on the cake board.
Tamara Montesinos, decorator for Central Continental Bakery in Mt. Prospect, Ill., began working in the bakery while in high school. After attending Kendall College, Chicago, she returned to Central Continental. Montesinos began entering decorating competitions in 2005, when she placed second in the Chicago Area Retail Bakers Association's regional competition. In 2006 in 2009, she competed in the Retail Bakers of America's national Creative Decorating Competition, finishing second overall in 2009.
