You don’t need to be a professional baker to have professional looking cakes. Presentation is just as important as the actually baking. Cakes and cupcakes always look better when served on a stand instead of on a plate or tray. People will be too impressed with your elegant display to even notice any lopsided cakes or smeared frosting.

There is no need to go out and buy an expensive dessert stand when you can make one yourself for next to nothing. Dessert stands are cheap and easy enough to make that you can even make a new one to color coordinate with each baking adventure.

The materials needed can be found at a baking supply store, party store, and sometimes craft stores. You will need 3 cake drums, sizes 1x8”, 1x10”, and 1x12”, 2” high Polystyrene columns, 2 each of 2x5” and 2x6”, satin ribbon, and thick paper or sugar paste/fondant. If you can’t find cake drums you can also use cake boards. You will also need school glue, metal pins, scissors and a pencil.

The first step is to glue the columns together. Do this first so they will have time to dry before you assembly the stand. Glue the 2 2x5” columns together and also the 2 2x6”. Once they are dry wrap them completely with ribbon, slightly overlapping it all the way around. You can either glue it on, or pin it, depending on whether you will want to reuse the columns later with different ribbon.

Now take your cake drums and trace them onto the paper you have chosen to line them with. Cut the circle out and glue it down onto the top of the drum. Next, to attach ribbon to the side, first cover the sides in glue. Then, pin the ribbon in place and wrap it around the edge. When you get back to the pin, take it out and overlap the ribbon a little, and glue it in place.

You can use sugar paste or fondant instead of paper.

Stack the columns and cake drums on top of each other and your dessert stand is complete. You can glue them together for extra stability, or if you used iced cake drums you can use royal icing to hold everything in place.

Once the dessert stand is assembled and cakes or cupcakes are placed on it, try not to move it around too much in case something goes wrong and it falls over.