Let them eat cake (or not!)

A little while ago, two of my work colleagues were celebrating their birthdays within days of each other, and another was moving on to another job so we had a joint morning tea celebration. As some of our team have food intolerances we joked about needing a fake cake so we could at least blow out the candles. Lo and behold, when I got home that afternoon I found this link on Pinterest. Wow, what a great idea, but I didn’t have a battery operated tea light, let alone two! Never mind, I worked out a different way to make the cake and made each of them one.

Here is the result. I put their initials on them and made little matching cards as well. They were really cute.

I didn't think to take pictures of the steps or even note exactly what I did to make the cakes, but this is basically it.

• Gathered my supplies:
• scalloped circle punch
• circle punch (that fits within the scalloped circle so that the scallops could be folded over the circle)
• scalloped circle die (larger than the scallop circle punch) to make the base
• four matching patterned papers and cardstock (all scraps)
• a scrap piece from a cardboard box
• some jute.
• I punched the scalloped circle for the cake top first.
• With a matching piece of patterned paper I cut a strip as wide as I wanted the cake tall.
• I then took a scrap piece from a cardboard box and punched several circles with my circle punch. I think I punched seven in all for each cake. I basically punched as many as I needed so that when they were stacked on top of each other they were as tall as the paper I just cut.
• I eyeballed the centre of the circles and marked that spot. I then used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole (the largest one) in the centre of all the cardboard circles and the scalloped top. I did it in two piles for each cake since more than that wouldn't fit through the crop-a-dile. Then I stuck all the circles together.
• I wrapped the strip of paper around the cardboard cake base, cutting off the excess paper and sticking it down. My pile was slightly shorter than the paper was high, so I added a few pieces of foam mounting tape under the bottom cardboard circles.
• I then added the scalloped circle on top of the cake and folded the scallops down over the edge.
• I took another piece of paper about twice as high as the cake. I stuck down a slightly longer piece of jute onto the end of the paper and then rolled it until I had a "candle". I pushed the candle into the hole through all layers of the cake.  It was a bit fiddly as the holes weren't in exactly the same place J.
• I die cut the cardstock base using the larger scallop, then stuck the cake down. To finish, I cut each of their initials using the Cuttlebug Curlz and Swirlz die and added it to the top of their respective cakes.

If I were to do this again, I think I would cut fewer cardboard circles. That way I could punch the centre hole in one go with the crop-a-dile. I would then put foam squares in between each layer to make it tall enough. Hopefully that would mean that the candle would be less fiddly to get all the way through the cake, although it might make no difference at all.

In the end, my cakes were very well received and we had a lovely celebratory morning tea.

Have you ever made a paper cake? If you have, or if you attempt to make his one, I'd love to see what you do. 

Till next time, happy days!

Francine