How to: Make a Tiered Cake Plate

This is a fast and easy (not to mention cheap) way to make your own cake plates/tiered dessert platters.

Here are two that I made to use on a pink and brown baby shower dessert table:

Step 1: Acquire glass pieces

I went to a thrift store and searched around until I found what I needed:

1-2 clear glass plates (as flat as you can find)

1 glass candle holder, fluted cup, or whatever seems like it would make a good base

1 tall, skinny glass candle holder, shot glass, etc. to support the 2nd tier

Here are the pieces I found: clear glass plates, a fluted glass (makes a good base when placed upside down), and a tall, skinny shot glass to support the 2nd tier.

Step 2: Find Center of Plate

After you’ve washed and dried the plates and stands, you need to find the center of the glass plate.

A. I did this by drawing a red plus sign (+) on a piece of paper and placing the plate upside down on top of it.

B. Measure from edge to edge and line up the halfway point on the measuring tape with the red plus sign (+) on the paper. In this case, the diameter of the plate was 10 inches, so I lined up the red plus sign (+) with the 5-in mark on the measuring tape. Do this with both lines of the plus sign (+) to make sure you find the exact (or close to exact) center point.

Step 3: Glue the Stand and Plate

A. In these pictures, you’ll see me using super glue, but I don’t recommend it! I ran out of my first choice, epoxy, but I wanted to finish this in time for the baby shower. I don’t think that super glue is meant to hold glass to glass, and the pieces easily come apart when washed.  So, pretend that I am using epoxy in these pictures.

Cover the base evenly with epoxy. Remember that glass is transparent,  so you don’t want the epoxy to look messy!

B. Place the stand directly on the center of the red plus sign (+), and hold it in place until it’s dry enough that it won’t slide around. (I like to use 2- or 5- minute epoxy)

You can actually stop after this step if you’d like a single stand like the one pictured below. But, if you’d like a second tier, follow two more steps…

Step 4: Add Second Tier

A. Once dried, flip the stand over and visually center it on top of the plus sign (+).

B. Put epoxy on the rim of the shot glass/candle holder/whatever you’ve got, and place it upside down on the center of the plate. Be careful to center it with the bottom stand.

C. Measure the center of the second plate (ummm, I don’t remember how I did that since the paper with the plus sign is in use, but it’s not that complicated, right?)

D. Spread epoxy evenly over the top of the center stand and place the plate on top, being careful to center it. Hold in place until you are sure it won’t slide. Let dry completely according to package instructions.

Step 4: Put Dessert on it and Take it to a Party!

Wrap a ribbon around the center and put yummy treats on it!

Here are a few pictures of the dessert table at a baby shower that we threw for a  friend. The different heights of the dessert stands helped give some more dimension to the whole look of the table, don’t you think?

: )