Funky Polkadot Giraffe: Teacher Appreciation: School Supply Cake Tutorial

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Teacher Appreciation: School Supply Cake Tutorial

The last theme for Teacher Appreciation week in JT's class was "school supplies".

I had seen cute school supply cakes - much like the famed diaper cakes - around

the world of crafty bloggers and decided to try my hand at one.

The first thing I had to decide on

was what I was going to use as my foundation to build the cake around.

I've seen other craft ladies use nesting boxes, plastic containers, and wrapping paper tubes

as the base. While perusing the dollar store for school supplies I saw pool noodles and thought

it might back the perfect item to build the school supply cake around.

It worked perfectly. I wrapped some tissue paper around it,
just to add a little bulk and so you didn't see the pool noodle peeking out.
Then, I used a rubber band to add my first item - colored pencils.

Then I keep adding items that fit best and kept the shape of the cake.

It was a trial and error process and there were several items that didn't quite work,

so I would take them off and try another item.

For instance, I tried plain white scratch pads, but they were too bulky for the top,

so I switched them out for some mini composition notebooks and they fit perfectly.

After I had everything just like I wanted,
I used some grosgrain ribbon to cute it up and hide the rubber bands.

I loved the little bunting topper that one of the cakes I had seen used,
so I added one to my cake using skewers, baker's twine, and colored paper.

It was just the right touch and added the perfect punch to the cute cake.
You can use whatever cheap school supplies you can find and make them
work for the size of cake you want to build.

I originally thought I was going to give his teacher the cake on top
of a favorite book as the "cake plate", but then I remember the cute paper
trays I found at the Target Dollar Spot during the summer and decided to use that instead.