Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Create Your Own Cake Pop Stand

Cake pops are pretty popular these days especially during the holidays.  For those of you who do not know what a cake pop is, it is a mixture of baked cake combined with a binder such as frosting to make a dough the consistency of play dough.  Dough is scooped (I use a small cookie scoop) and rolled into little balls.  You then take a lollipop stick and dip just a small part of one end into melted chocolate and then press it into the cake balls and set aside to set up.  Once these have hardened, dip the balls into smooth melted chocolate (using almond bark or candy melts).  You need to have the melted chocolate quite liquidy and smooth.  There are so many tutorials on YouTube on how this process is done as well as many blogs.  One of my favorite tutorials is Candy Quik on how to make cake pops.  My other favorite tutorial is Hungry Happenings tutorial on chocolate  By giving you this information from my peers, I can go into making a lovely display for your cake pops or anything on a lollipop stick.
 
I was looking at my cat's cat scratcher refills for the Turbo Scratcher and thought, I bet that would work as a cake pop stand.  Voila!  It worked!  Then, trying to figure out how to put a display together and this is what I came up with. 

First of all you need to get your supplies:
 
Turbo Scratcher 2 Pack Refill (Amazon link provided below)
Cookie tin (You might even have one stashed in a closet or drawer)  I got mine at Goodwill $1
Other items could be needed depending on your tin and embellishments
 
Depending on the size of tin you have, I had to put a spacer on the bottom of mine and just went to the Dollar Tree and got a Styrofoam ring and a sheet of foamboard to prevent the lollipop sticks from sinking to the bottom. 
 
I was lucky when I found this particular tin as there was no printing on the outside and it is a nice gold tone.  If you want to use a printed tin, you can always spray paint it, just make sure you follow the paint directions and allow for proper drying time.  If you are making a stand for a formal event and are spray painting the tins, also consider a light coat over the cardboard to dress it up a bit.
 
For this project, I knew I needed a spacer ring so I had to take the sheet of foamboard and trace the tin and cut out inside the lines so it would fit inside properly.  I placed the spacer ring in the bottom (it doesn't have to fill out the whole bottom, just mostly as you can see in the picture) and place the foamboard circle inside on top of the spacer.  At this point you want to take one of the cardboard scratcher pads (remember, there are two per package) and place on top of the tin.  My tin was too small so just peel off enough of the outer layer of cardboard to fit firmly inside the tin.  I lucked out on this project because everything fell into place with very little effort needed to have the cardboard up to the top of the tin and the tin being plain and in good condition. 
 
After I got to this point, I decided that I would like to it be a little more elevated.  I took the lid and inverted it and placed mounting tape all around it and removed all of the tin contents and pressed the two pieces together and really liked the look.  This is completely up to your taste whether or not you do this step.
 
Also, I wanted to dress it up a little bit and had this gold tone wired ribbon that I previously purchase from The Dollar Tree and stuck double stick tape all around the tin and wrapped the ribbon around it.  For right now, this is ok, but I suggest to make the ribbon permanent, use a glue gun.
 
Total cost to make the reusable cake pop stand in this tutorial even with the spacer and foamboard, less than $10.  And, for the cost of another tin and possibly another spacer, I am looking at making another display stand  for just a few dollars more.  If I have to spray paint, that will be additional (but I also have a variety of spray paint used for other projects available).

Cookie tin, styrofoam spacer, foamboard, and cardboard cat scratcher

Trace outside of tin onto the foamboard and cut out inside of the lines to fit inside the tin.

Notice that the spacer does not fill the whole bottom, it is just needed to fill the void.

Place cut out foamboard on top of the spacer inside the tin.

Cardboard pad is too large for this tin.

Peel just enough of the outter edge and when it fits firmly, trim off excess.

Cardboard now fits firmly into tin

I decided to use the lid as a base.  And use metalic ribbon to embellish.

Stick several small strips of mounting tape onto the top of the tin lid and remove the protective top strips of the tape.

Press firmly onto the bottom of the tin.

This is the tin with the lid now attached to the base.  Placing strips of double stick tape around the tin.

Attached decorative ribbon around the tin and trim off excess.  Notice that I started and ended at the seam.

Here it is!  The double stick tape does not hold very well.  I might consider hot glue if I want it to be permanent.

Finished stand with lollipop sticks.  Sorry, didn't have any cakepops to throw in there.  Next time I make them, I will update the picture to show exactly what it looks like with the cake pops.
 
 
I am not sure exactly how many cake pops this stand will hold, but should be able to get about three dozenish and that will also depend of whether or not the pops are individually wrapped.  You can maximize space on your stand by combining the long and short lollipop sticks.  For a beautiful display for a party or reception, you could also use the buffet stands like this for different tier heights.
 
If you are interested in the world of cake popping or are already into it and would like to interact with others doing this as well, join my Facebook group Cake Pops Info and Resource Page
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link back to my tutorial :) Great idea, so resourceful!

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  2. I love this idea. Thanks for sharing at Marvelous Mondays Linky party

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  3. Hey Tami, I love this idea. Way to be creative! Thanks for linking this up!

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  4. Thanks for sharing! I'm your 19th GFC follower. Come and check out my blog anytime ;) ( GYB linky )

    http://ellecrafts.blogspot.com

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  5. This is an amazing idea for creating own cake pop stand. I will like to try it next month for my nephew’s birthday. Trying to find wonderful lofty spaces currently as my sister asked to help her out in finding an awesome venue.

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  6. I thank you for the information and articles you provided

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  7. Die Technologie entwickelt sich schneller denn je und schneller als Sie denken. Diese aufkommende Technologie wird unsere Lebensweise verändern

    ReplyDelete