When you create the perfect cake, why would you even consider presenting it with a boring old cake stand or worse — a plate? You might think selecting the right stand is a simple, utilitarian task. This isn’t the case anymore. There are a wide variety of styles available now, and finding just the right way to display your masterpiece can make all the difference.
Display Your Creation In Style
As wedding planners and party managers will attest, unique cake stands or cake plateaus can play a pivotal role in the presentation and arrangement of any ceremony. This piece should compliment the event and match its accompanying decorations. At some point in the event, the cake will become the centerpiece of the ceremony or reception. And at that critical point in time, the cake pedestal and the way it compliments the cake and the ambiance of the occasion will take center stage.
This site will discuss a variety of cake stands, platters and risers including how they are used. I am sure many of you will have arrived at Cake Stands Online to research and select elegant cake stands for wedding cakes. However, I will also show you how cake stands can turn birthday parties and even office parties into far more festive endeavors.
Cake Stand Styles and Structures
The modern cake stand provides a wide range of styles and layouts. The modern taste tends to be more clean and refined, with a shorter, simpler approach considered the most tasteful. But all the tastes and styles of previous generations aggregate into a broad selection of cake stands for your consideration.
Not only are cake stands used to provide an attractive way to present your cake, they can also be used to help enhance the cake decorating process. Pedestal cake stands and especially rotating cake stands make creating clean borders and creating a variety of other decorations much easier.
The five standard wedding cake stands I will discuss here are Grouped Arrangement, Traditional Three Tier, The Floating, Pillar and the Tower Stands. In addition, I will provide you some basics on the simple Pedestal Style Cake Stand.
Traditional Three Tier Cake Stands
The three tier cake stand exists as the most traditional and common of designs. These displays will be either square or round (with round being more common) and simply provide three levels for each layer of cake. Depending on the design of the stand, it may employ either glass plates or China platters.
Tiered cake stands come in a wide variety of styles and structures. You’ll most often find this style of display in one of two formats, the Pillar or Tower Cake Stand.
Pillar Cake Stands
Pillared stands divide each layer with a stem and a system of pillars. This is likely the most traditional of wedding cake stands. Pillar cake stands provide ample opportunity for either simple, modern or ornate designs. They can be used to create designs that flow together from one pillar to the next whether using them for cakes or other types of desserts. For example you can use them to create a scene design using the varying layers for different parts of the scene.
Tower Cake Stands
Tower Cake Stands
Tower stands feature a single, stable column rising within the center of each cake tier. Tower cake stands usually put a much greater emphasis on the cake’s design itself. Rather than have the view of the cake obstructed by the pillars of a pillared stand, the tower stays in the center and puts the focus on the cake. If you have a spectacular tiered cake, you may prefer to emphasize its design over your stand’s design. This is where a tower stand works best.
The Floating Cake Stand
Floating cake stands employ a similar approach to the tower cake stand but keep the stabilizing stem behind the cake. This places the focus more on the delicious and beautiful cake itself rather than on the stand, and can create a sense of the individual tiers floating in space. Generally speaking, if you present a cake on a floating stand, you may need to present it from a position where guests won’t move behind the cake. In most cases, you won’t want to place a cake on a floating stand on a table in the center of the ceremony.
Grouped Arrangement Displays
Grouped Arrangement Display
The grouped arrangement provides a more modern and creative approach to displaying a cake. It spreads the cake out horizontally on the table, with each stem holding a different cake or different portion of the cake and a different sized portion. This allows for dramatic, asymmetrical presentations. It also conforms well to presenting multiple cakes rather than a single cake tiered.
Grouped arrangement cake stands can be really flexible, as the individual parts may be positioned and arranged independently to conform to your overall table and ceremony design.
The Traditional Pedestal Cake Stand
Pedestal Cake Stands
Pedestal cake stands are the most common cake stand you’ll find in bakeries and coffee shops as well as grocery and department stores all around the world. It too may come in pillared, towered or floated designs, but the concept remains the same: a simple stem lifts the cake before you on a glass plate or ceramic platter. They are sometimes referred to as pedestal cake plates and in general they dovetail with pie stands and cheesecake stands.
Pedestal cake stands usually elevate your cake between 6 inches and 9 inches high with a diameter ranging between 6 inches and 12 inches. It isn’t uncommon to have glass covers for a pedestal cake stand.
Common Materials Used For These Displays
Beyond the structure and design of the stand, you may also find cake stands available in a wide variety of materials. The most common are glass, porcelain, ceramic, good China and silver. Silver cake stands are often used for weddings, but glass plates, glass cake stands and porcelain platters are common as well. Finding antique cake stands will reward you with both history and elegance.
I hope this provides you with a strong foundation of understanding for the world of cake stands.