Design on a Well-Stretched Penny: How to Make a Cake Stand for Under 10 Bucks

Want to know how to make a super cheap and really nice looking cake stand for a FRACTION of what a new out of the box one would cost you?  Well here you go.

This cake stand cost me 1.00.  And no, I'm not joking.  I said for less than ten dollars in the subject line in the assumption that not all households have JB Weld lying around like mine does.  But, if you do, rock on!

So, here you go folks.  How to make a super simple, nice looking and cheap cake stand.  Gotta love it.

How to Make a Cheap Cake Stand

You will need:

• 1 Plate (go for as flat as you can get and as big as you can get...and as round as you can get.  Keep an eye out at thrift stores and yard sales.  I got the plate for this project at a used store for .50).
• 1 Pillar Candle Holder (you can use pretty much any candle holder you want for this, really, but go for a wide and flat based one.  Remember if you use a candle stick to hold up your cake stand your cake stand might tip over from having the cake be too heavy for the base to hold up.  So go with "wider is better" as a good motto here).  Look at used stores and yard sales.  I got the candle holder for this project for .50 at a yard sale.
• JB Weld or Super Glue (I'd go with a super craft adhesive if you're going to go that route...like Gorilla glue or something).

Now, when it comes to picking a candle stand and a plate, remember that they have to coordinate, so you can do one of two things to make life easier.  One:  Look for a neutral colored candle holder (like white, grey, black, etc.).  Or two:  you can do like I did and get a really gaudy polka dotted looking candle holder, go out in your husband's garage and rummage around until you find a rattle can of black paint and go outside and spray paint the candle holder to look like you want it to :).

Right, so assembly can't be easier.

Turn your plate upside down and find the center of the plate (look for "microwave safe" circles and such to help if you have bad eyeing ability when it comes to these things as those normally get stamped pretty much in the middle of the bottom of plates).  Make that your target point to center your candle holder around.

Once you are pretty sure you have your candle holder centered on the plate, take a dry erase marker and trace around the circle.

Remove the candle holder and apply your JB Weld (just follow the directions on that one). 

Use the circle you drew to help guide you on where to put the candle holder (trust me, you'll appreciate this as you are sitting there quickly trying to adhere one surface to another).  Adhere the candle holder to the bottom of the plate.  Let sit as long as your package directions on your adhesive tell you to (JB Weld says 16 to 24 hours or something like that, so I went with 24).

And voila!  Enjoy your new cake stand.  Now, just to warn you, I would not put this through a dishwasher (do cake stands even fit in dishwashers anyway?) and I wouldn't submerge it in water for too long, but since the most that I'm planning on having to scrub off of this thing is some icing or some crumbs (a cake stand makes a great presentation piece for rolls or waffles in the morning), I'm not too worried about it.  So far, after a couple of months of use, it's working perfectly and I love it.

And all for 1.00.  Gotta love that!

Enjoy all!