How to turn a cheap candlestick into an amazing cake stand

I am super excited about this gift idea!  I love to decorate with cute cake stands.  They’re not only great for cakes (obviously!), they’re also fantastic for holding stacks of books, framed photos, seashells, pinecones, candles, pretty much anything.

I’ve seen several upcycled cake stand ideas, but I’ve never seen one quite like this one.  I am so happy with how beautiful this little cake stand turned out.  And even better, it was pretty inexpensive and easy to make… but you’d never know it just by looking at it!

This post contains affiliate links.  See my full disclosure here.

Materials for Upcycled Cake Stand

Small glass candle holder from dollar store

10 – 12 inch round piece of wood

air dry clay

stamp in the pattern of your choice

ink

rolling pin

strong glue (I like this one for projects like this)

How to make a Clay Cake Stand

I wanted to make sure the cake stand was actually sturdy enough to hold something, so I did not make it entirely out of clay.  The base of the stand is a small glass candleholder from the dollar store.  The top part is a small round piece of wood (you can get these at your local craft supply store).

I started by covering the candle holder with clay to make the base.  I rolled out a piece of the clay using a rolling pin until it was nice and even.  Then I used my stamp and Clearsnap ink to stamp my design over the entire piece of clay.  (You know I had to choose aqua ink right?  Love this color!)

The only tricky part of this entire project was covering the curves of the candle holder smoothly.  I found that the easiest way is to cut the clay into strips and wrap the strips around the different sections of the candle holder.

To make the top of the cake stand, I rolled out another piece of clay with the rolling pin.  This time I rolled the clay into a circle about two inches larger than my wooden circle. I again used my stamp and ink to stamp the entire circle.

I  carefully draped the circle of clay onto the circle of wood.  I pressed the sides of the clay to the sides of the wood circle; this caused the overhang of clay to gently ripple.  Originally, I was planning to cut this overhanging clay off but it was so pretty I had to leave it on!  I did trim around the edges of the clay circle with scissors to make everything nice and neat.

Once all of the clay was completely dry, I simply glued the top to the base.

I love this cake stand as a decorative piece, but you could also use it for displaying cakes and cookies.  Just be sure to seal it with a food safe sealer first.  (Or go the easy route and just put a circle of wax paper between any food and the clay surface.)

Personally, I’m loving it as a centerpiece for candles.

Happy making!