Tea Party Cupcake Toppers Tutorial: Part 3, Plates and Cake Stands

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Learn how to make miniature gum paste plates, saucers, and cake stands with this cake decorating tutorial.  Use these darling miniature plates and cake stands (along with the other tutorials in the series) to make utterly charming tea party cupcake toppers.

Halloween themed tea party cupcake topper.

I love cake stands.  I love miniature things.  And I really, really love the miniature cake stands I made for the halloween tea party cupcake toppers.  

Today I'm going to show you how to make the cake stands and the plates for the tea party cupcake toppers.

How to Make Miniature Gum Paste Cake Stands:

Icing tips being used to cut small circles of gum paste.

The first step is to cut out the top of the cake stands.  I don't have a set of circle cutters that's as small as I needed, but I do have quite a collection of icing tips.  And the "wrong" side of the icing tips make fabulous tiny circle cutters.

three icing tips in front of a blue background.

They come in just the right range of sizes.  The largest two make fabulous tops for cake stands, the middle size makes the perfect dinner plate, and the smallest (which is a normal tip size, not a mini one) makes ideal circles for making tea saucers.

Process for making miniature gum paste cake stands for tea party cupcakes.

To make the tiny gumpaste cake stands, cut out the gumpaste circles and let dry for several hours.  Once they've hardened, form the cake stand base (any shape you want, really, but I like mine to be wider at the bottom to give the stands more stability) and use a bit of vodka to glue the gumpaste disc on top of the cake stand base.  Let dry, and paint to fit your theme.

Here are some miniature gum paste cake stands I made as part of a cake topper for the Fall Gnome Birthday Party.

Tea party cupcakes featuring miniature gum paste tea sets.

And of course, the very first ones I ever made for my daughter's Under the Sea Tea Party birthday (before I even started blogging).

How to Make Miniature Gum Paste Plates and Saucers

Making the plates and saucers for tea party cupcakes starts the exact same way as making the gum paste cake stands: cutting small circles out of gumpaste.

Miniature gum paste plates being made for tea party cupcakes.

I've used a variety of items to make an indent to make the gumpaste circles look more plate-like.  A coupler was used here.

Miniature gum paste plates being made using icing tips to cut small circles.

Or sometimes one of the icing tips is just the right size.  Look around at what you have.  I've used marker lids and toys before to make just the right impression.

Foam and icing tips being used to make miniature gum paste plates for tea party cupcake toppers.

If you make the indentation in the gumpaste while it's sitting on a bit of foam (I just use the basic Wilton gum paste shaping foam), you'll even get a nice, lifted edge to the rim of the plate.  

Miniature gum paste plates and saucers on a blue background.

Let dry, and decorate.  Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect.  Once you put some tiny cookies and forks and spoons on the plates, it'll look great.

Christmas cupcake decorated with a gum paste tea set, including a miniature cake plate with cookies.

Other Tutorials in the Tea Party Cupcakes Series You might Like:

Navigational image leading reader to tutorial for making miniature gum paste tea pots for tea party cupcakes.

Navigational image leading reader to tutorial for making miniature gum paste forks and spoons for tea party cupcakes.

Navigational image leading reader to tutorial for making miniature gum paste chocolate chip cookies for tea party cupcakes.

Navigational image leading reader to tutorial for making miniature gum paste tea cups for tea party cupcakes.

Navigational image leading reader to tutorial for making miniature cupcake topper tables for tea party cupcakes.

Nicole Wills, creator of Tikkido

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