By Elizabeth Seward
New York, NY, USA | Tue Mar 10 15:30:00 GMT 2009
Well, my roommate just got married. It wasn't anything fancy—it was basically a courthouse wedding followed by a reception. But I wanted to make sure the reception was at least partially memorable, so I signed up for the duty of cake-baking. I decided on a cupcake wedding cake, but that, according to all instructional websites I read, required buying a plastic tiered cake stand. And I was against it. Not only do these things have around a $50 starting price (at least the ones in my neighborhood), they're also a terrible eco-purchase. Plastic isn't green, but additionally, these are a onetime use products. (A.K.A=a waste) I boycotted the idea of buying one right away and rummaged through my recycling bin to find materials to make my own instead.
With a good wipe down, a large piece of cardboard, a cardboard box, and a paper towel tube was all I needed aside from a hot glue gun and a pair of scissors. So if you want to arrange a DIY wedding cake too but don't want to buy a pretty worthless plastic stand for it, follow these steps. You'll end up with something totally usable and a new purpose for some of the items in your recycling bin.
Image courtesy of Elizabeth Seward.
Cut squares, or whatever shape you like, from your cardboard. As you'll see in the pictures, I started off with squares, changed that to wavy squares, and finally decided on hearts by the end of my project. Any shape will work though, as long as a hole can be punched through the pieces—which I did with scissors.
Image courtesy of Elizabeth Seward.
Adjust the hole size however much you need to so that your paper towel tube will fit through each piece.
Image courtesy of Elizabeth Seward.
Once you've ensured that all pieces will fit snugly around the paper towel tube, remove the pieces. Starting with the largest piece, the base piece, hot glue each piece to the tube. It's a good idea to do this from the bottom, not the top, so that the glue is not visible in the end nor does it touch the cupcakes. Hot glue is reportedly non-toxic when dried, but to be safe, make sure you keep the glue on the bottoms of the pieces and away from anything you'll be eating. My original base piece, as you can see in the pictures, was just a large piece of cardboard. By the end of my project, however, I decided to make the base an entire box. This proved to be much more sturdy. Allow the glue to completely dry before taking the next step.
Image courtesy of Elizabeth Seward.
Stack your cupcakes carefully on each tier. Tell the friends of the bride and groom to enjoy.
Image courtesy of Elizabeth Seward.
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