DIY Cake/Cupcake Stand Project

My own grandmother turned 80 on Dec. 1st. However, with the holidays, planning a party in December was out of the question - too many other holiday parties, and plans going on. So January 16th of the new year was settled on as the official party date. Although my mom and her sisters were mainly in charge of the event logistics, I offered to do two things - create the photo/music DVD and take responsibility of the cake for 60 people.

It seemed pretty simple at the time. If all else failed I could always just go to Sams Club in Timonium and get a very large sheet cake. And at a pretty fair price too.

But if you know me, I somehow decide to make it a bigger project than it needs to be. Maybe I was subconsciously longing for a new project. Or maybe I was really craving cupcakes. But I searched local bakeries, friends of friends, grocery stores, and realized that the prices were even more ridiculous than I expected (for a birthday I was still being charged $4 a slice for Plan A- a simple, non-decorated 2-3 tier cake), or they didn't have my Plan B - cupcakes along with a small 8" or 6" cake to stack myself. Seems like a simple request right?

The past week and a half has been packed full of planning, shopping, building, creating, and baking this monstrous project. But I'm really happy to be sharing it with you, as maybe some of you new brides-to-be could use the encouragement to create your own.

You'd be amazed at all the planning I did to make sure I rememebered every little thing I had to buy and due, and the schedule I created to make sure I did it on time. So be fore-warned that you should you NEED to plan ahead. I created everything in a simple and printable Word document. (A 7 page Word document to be exact. What can I say? I'm a detailed and organized person. So sue me.)

I first made sure I had a back-up plan. Sams Club only needed 24 hours notice for a cake. So I knew come Thursday night that if I wasn't well on my way to creating this confectionary delight, I could always just go the simple route and order a sheet cake Friday morning. Make sure you have a backup plan too in case something (inevitably) goes wrong.

After preparing all my plans and schedule I used a quite handy coupon at Michael's (20% off entire order) and bought $80 worth of cake supplies for around $60. (I will say I think there was a few other items in my basket not cake related, but I can't help it. I want to own everything in there.) This included the wooden numbers, glitter and regular craft paint, cake food coloring (the gels), cake boards (essentially round cardboard pieces), a cake leveler, a 6" cake pan (I had an 8" from a few years ago), a 15" spatula, piping tips and disposable bags (and most of them came in this cute little cupcake set with a filling attachment included), butter, almond, and clear vanilla flavors (which I didn't even touch the butter and almond), meringue powder, decorating turntable, and a cake comb (that I didn't use). I found black cupcake liners online (which I luckily got in time), I bought wooden dowels from Lowes and cut them down by hand at home, had wax paper on hand, and borrowed a LOVELY Kitchen Aid mixer from a friend. Thanks Jess!

(*As a side note, I've been wanting a Kitchen Aid beauty for a while, but can't justify bringing myself to get one. However, after using it multiple times last week I must say that I not only want one, but NEED one. I never want to mix anything by hand ever again.)

I also had to purchase a few things for the cake stand as well: three 3/8 inch 2x2 plywood (with oak top) for the levels, a 3 ft metal threaded rod, 3 wooden knobs for feet, and black wrapping paper. I am lucky enough to have a full workshop at work and some supplies there, so for the 3 cylinders I used high-density foam, but you can either use styrafoam, or cut wood. They don't have to be circles. And with some T-nuts, and sandpaper I was ready to go.

A few other things I purchased was 2 cooling racks (I can't believe I survived so long without having any), found some cardboard box lids (the kind reams of paper are packaged in), bouquets of flowers from Wegmans (although the plan was originally Sams Club - but Wegmans was closer, and I was almost out of
time) and all the ingredients for the cakes and icing. Whew - that makes me tired just typing that all out.

My schedule went somewhat like this (I edited it to what it turned out to be... not what I exactly planned on doing):

Monday:
- Start building cake tower
- Cut to size and wrap cardboard cake rounds (9” bottom cake, and just over 6” for smaller cake)
- Find official recipes to be used
- Pick up mixer from Jess

Tuesday:
- Finish building cupcake tower
- Find transportation for cupcakes; cardboard boxes together (60 cupcakes/8”x10” cake); 3 boxes of 20, and two smaller
- Royal icing decorations; put in container
- Finish pictures for slideshow video

Wednesday:
- Buy screws for feet of cupcake tower - #10, 3/4 inch, flat head screw
- Wrap cupcake tower and cardboard rounds in black paper (Target)
- Shop for ingredients at grocery store
- Add music (and words) to slideshow, and try to burn video.

Thursday:
- Make icings and pack away
- Shred carrot
- Start baking cake

Friday:
- Finish icing
- Baking cakes and cupcakes

Saturday:
- Finish cupcakes/cake
- Color icings
- Ice cupcakes/cake
- Place dowels in large cake
- Pack tiered cakes in boxes
- Pack up cupcakes
- Pack-up numbers, dismantled cake stand in car, flowers, scissors, squiggles decoration, etc.

For the record I made vanilla 2-tier cake and cupcakes, carrot cupcakes, and chocolate cupcakes. Also, a amazing buttercream icing, and creamcheese icing for carrot cake and vanilla cupakes.

For quick DIY instructions of my cake stand:

- Measure out a 20", 16", 12" and a 9" circle on the boards (the 12" and 9" can be cut out on on board); If you want to do square, cut squares in those sizes.
- Cut them out using a band saw (a handy jigsaw can do the trick). Sand the edges a bit.
- I had to cut cylinders out of foam, then sanded them, but if you want to do square you can use pieces of wood too. Cut them to the desired height. Mine were 7" tall.
- Drill holes just the size of the metal threaded rod through the centers of the wood pieces and the foam. Put T-nut the size of the dowel on largest (bottom) and smallest (top) pieces of wood.
- Glue or countersink and screw 3 knobs on under side of bottom piece. I put them in 1.5 inches so that you can't really see them but they are still stable.
-Thread the rod through the bottom piece, then stack a cylinder on, then wood piece, and switch until it's build. Screw the top circle on tight and you have a stand.

Aagin, these are very vague and simple directions. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions about any details. I'll be happy to answer!

Overall, the cake turned out a little different than what I originally expected, but definitely SO great. I'm really proud of myself. And it went up without a hitch at the party. Took 2 minutes to put the stand together, and the hardest part was making sure the royal icing decorations (yellow squiggles) didn't break while putting them on the cupcakes. Hope you enjoy the pictures. (I think I'm already booked for Katie's future wedding... whenever that will be. ) :)

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