How to Make a Towel Wedding Cake

You can enhance the stability of your "cake" by buying cardboard rounds in the cake section of your local crafts store.

If you click on each picture, you can see a larger picture of the same thing

Start with the two bath towels.

Lay out one towel lengthwise, and fold the towel into thirds along its length.  Make sure the folds are even throughout the length of the towel.  Make sure the ends are even as well.

Fold the towel that is now in thirds in half, again along its length, right over the previous folds.  Make sure that the ends are even throughout the length of the towel; the neater the folds, the better your wedding cake will look.

Repeat the same folds with the second bath towel.  If you have folded carefully, the ends should be the same.  Pin one end of each of the folded bath towels together with two safety pins.  Your two towels should now be end to end.

Joining edges of the bath towels

Starting at one end, carefully roll the towels in one long roll as shown on the left.  Try to roll as tightly as possible.

Top of the rolled bath towel

Notice that the top of your finished roll has a right and a wrong side.  The edges of the towel show on the wrong side; the edges don't show on the right side.  Place the finished roll so that the right side is up as shown in the left picture.  Make sure that the top of the roll is relatively flat.  If it is not flat, the next layer won't lay nicely on the top, and you have not taken enough care in folding and rolling your towel.

Rolled bath towel

To fasten, either tie a satin or organza ribbon closely around the roll, or use regular or decorative straight pins to fasten the ends.  If you are using straight pins, make sure to use at least three long pins, and put them firmly in place.

Unrolled hand towel--

fold differently than bath towel

Repeat with the hand towels and the washcloths, except use three hand towels, and only fold to between 1/2 way and 3/4 to the opposite edge as shown.  You are roughly trying to match the height of your base--the bath towels.

Place the roll of hand towels on top of the roll with the bath towels, again remembering that there is a right side and a wrong side, and place the roll with the washcloths at the very top.  You're almost done!

Finished towel wedding cake!

Here comes the fun part!  Take your ribbon and wrap all three layers to keep them together.  Tie a decorative bow at the top.  You can also use straight pins to fasten appliqués, other bows, and even "tuck" things in the top and sides of your "cake."  Kitchen utensils and small baby items for baby showers fit beautifully!

The second cake, a seaside cake, has one bath towel, one hand towel, one wash cloth, a pack of homemade lavender bath salts and two lavender scented candles.

Denise Cassell's mother already made embroidered towels in the UK, but her colleague wanted to give an unusual present, so she created this towel cake!  Well done, Dee!