Making miniature towel cakes

Towel cakes are very popular these days. They are fun to make and they are practical gifts when taken apart later. An other brilliant thing about them is you can make the gift as expensive as you like by using more or less towels and they will always look wonderful. Plus they make great decorations at a wedding- or baby shower.

So I felt it was high time to try making this fun gift in mini. I made mine with a baby theme but you can change the theme by using different colors and different decorations.

You will need to adapt the “ ingredients “ a bit for the smaller cakes but they will look just as stunning as the full size ones.

One sided terry toweling is perfect. This has the little loops on one side of the fabric only. It is used for making baby clothes and also for doll making. You can also recycle baby clothes etc for this.

If you cannot find it there are other fabrics that will work very nicely : Fleece fabrics, micro fiber or terry toweling dish cloths from the dollar store.

Towel sizes :

Big towel 5 cm – 11 cm

Towel 4 cm - 9 cm

Washcloth 3 – 3 cm or 4 -4 cm .

But feel free to experiment with other sizes if you prefer.

Other materials you will need :

Tacky glue

Ribbon for wrapping around cake.

Hair elastics. I mean those really small ones that are very stretchy. I found mine at the dollar store

Some pins .

Scissors and ruler for cutting fabric

Your choice of materials to decorate your cake . I used a mini bow and on the other cake there is a matching set of cup, plate and tin plus a baby product in a bottle.

The size of the cake depends on the size of the towels you use and also on how many of them there are in the cake.

Let's make the blue towel cake

Step 1: Place a 4-9 cm towel flat on your work surface.

Step 2: Fold long sides to the middle .

Step 3: Fold the whole thing in half, length wise.

Tip : A real towel cake will be taken apart later but the mini version won't so to make things easier you can cheat and add a little bit of tacky glue to keep everything in place.

Step 4: Have a hair elastic at the ready and start rolling your towel into a cake shape. Try to keep the roll nice and tight. Place elastic around cake. Once again you may use some glue.

Step 5: Cut a piece of ribbon that fits nicely around your cake. Move the elastic to where the ribbon will not completely cover it, but do not remove it yet. Wrap the ribbon around the cake, hold tight or use a pin and remove elastic. Glue ribbon in place. Without the elastic the cake will have a better shape.

Step 6: Decorate your cake. I used a washcloth folded into a bunny and a cup , plate and tin with a bunny pattern. I added a bottled baby product as a final touch.

The big cake 

For this cake you will need to cut two towels size 4- 9 cm . The cake will look bigger because I have used terry toweling for this cake, which is thicker than the other fabric.

Step 1 : the first layer is created in the same way as the blue cake.

Step 2 : For the second layer you need a smaller towel. You can make this by cutting 4 cm off the second towel.

The cut off bit can be used as the washcloth for the top layer. The towel is folded and rolled in the same way as the blue cake.

Step 3: Use the piece you cut off in step 2. Fold in half and then fold in half once more. Roll into cake as before.

Step 4 : Add ribbon to cakes as for the blue cake.

Step 5 : Now it is time to stack the cakes. You can do this in several ways. If you want to do it like a real towel cake you can push a toothpick upwards through the center of the bottom layer and thread the other two on the toothpick to secure. You can also use a pin , but then you have to start at the top so the sharp point is hidden inside your cake.

But of course you can also just glue the layers on top of each other, no one will notice.

Step 6 : Decorate the top of the cake. I added a silk bow .

You can make endless variations on this cake . The white cake was made using two towels for the bottom layer and one for the second layer. White ribbon makes it look really elegant. Some little roses are all it needs for decorations.

For a real big cake use the big towel size or several of them for the first layer and then 1 big one for the second layer and a smaller towel for the top.

Have fun making these cakes .