DIY Cake Drum

 Cake drums are often confused with and called cake boards. They are not the same. A cake board is thin, grease proof and used as a support for a cake while decorating and then used as a separator when stacking tiered cakes. It is a hidden key piece of a cakes structure and important to use, but here I am focusing on how to teach you to make your own cake drum.

A cake drum is thick and sturdy. It serves two main purposes, it needs to carry the entire weight of your finished structure and give an elegant/finished touch to your cake. A lot of decorators prefer to save time by purchasing premade drums like these. 

and others prefer to make their own as they can be customized by shape and colors. 

DIY Cake Drum

Supplies:

Hot glue gun and clear tape

Premade cake boards or corrugated cardboard pieces

Fancy foil  in coordinating color

Scissors and a box knife (if cutting your own cardboard)

Non-slip furniture pads (completely optional)

Ribbon (completely optional) in coordinating color

Once you have gathered all your supplies, the next step is to determine what size and shape your cake will be. You will want your drum to have a minimum of 1 inch clearance on all sides. For tutorials purposes, I will be referring to a basic 10 inch, 2 layer round cake. I like to keep this simple rule in mind when making my cake drums. 

10 inch round, 2 layers and below- cake drum thickness will be 1/4 inch. For any thing larger, I make the cake drums 1/2 inch thick.

For a 10 inch round cake, your cake drum will need to have a circumference of 12 inches and a thickness of at least 1/4 inch.

Step 1:

Get 2-3 cake boards or if using cardboard (cut out your circle). Most cardboard is thick enough to use one piece, so the next step pertains to using premade cake boards.

Step 2:

Carefully stack each cake board on top of each other. You can use a piece of tape on one side to hold them together as sometimes it makes it easier. 

Next you stack and secure them all using a few small spots of hot glue making sure each is pushed together flat and centered with the one below. I have not found that it matters which way they face (white side up or brown side up) just as long as they are centered and the edges are aligned as they will be covered. 

Step 3:

Now that all your boards are stacked and you have one thick board, you want to work on a clean surface. Roll out your foil face down (decorative side facing table) and center the board on top. 

Cut the foil out in a circle around the board leaving a minimum of 2 inches. 

You can use a small dot of hot glue to hold the boards in the center. 

Next you want the cut strips all the way around the circle. This will help create a nice edge to your cake drum as when wrapping circles you don't get a good straight line like you do with squares and rectangles.

Once you have cut all the way around, you will start folding the flaps over and securing to the bottom. You can use dots of hot glue here or clear tape. When you get the last strip secured gently turn the drum on its side and roll on your table to help smooth/push in any remaining little points.

At this point you can use it like it is or do any of the following added steps. These are all simple additions for looks and none have to do with the strength of your cake drum.

Add On Options

Ribbon:

   Simply wrap a ribbon around the edge securing along the way with small hot glue dots and overlapping and securing in the back with hot glue.

You can use ribbed or satin ribbon, but if you use satin you will only secure it in the back as the hot glue will show through.

Non-slip Furniture Pads:

   Using these will give your drum a non-slip base and a little elevation. You will need six per drum. Simply flip the drum over and place evenly spaced on the bottom like in the photo.

If this tutorial was helpful, please leave me a comment as I would love to hear how making your own cake drum went.