Stand For Decorating The Sides Of Your Cake?
Decorating By butternut Updated 17 Jul 2006 , 3:28pm by loves2bake
Hi everyone. Hope you all are having a wonderful week-end. I've got a question for anyone who wouldn't mind answering. What do you use as a stand to put your cake on while decorating the sides? I've been using this makeshift platform consisting of two bowls, one on top of each other to make it high enough. As you can imagine, it isn't very stable and while I was decorating the second tier of my last cake, the top bowl slid off and my cake went flying off with it. I caught it but not before damage was done. 
I had no one to blame but myself. So, can anyone help me with a suggestion on what I can use to avoid this from happening again? I know there's got to be something just perfect for this. Thanks everyone!!!!!
Margie
Wilton makes a tilting turntable, it's a pricey at 60 dollars, but it tilts to give you a better angle to get at the sides of the cake. I sit down when I do most of my decorating, so I put the cake on my kitchen counter and use my office chair that goes up and down so I can get to the right height. If I need a better angle, I put my cheap-o $7 turntable on a 3-ring hard shell notebook to elevate one side. just make sure to put no-slip stuff on it so the turntable doesn't slide off.
Just a few suggestions, hopefully that helps!
~Diana
A good use for all of those old phone books that never seem to make it to recycling!
I have the $59. one from Wilton and I love, love, love it. I also used a coupon so it didn't cost me $59. Best of luck to you!
I have the Wilton tilting turntable, too. Sometimes I like it, other times I don't. As on another post, many people have noticed that it is a bit wobbly, not as sturdy as you might think a $60 stand would be. I don't trust it enough to use tilted, but maybe that is just me... I pull a low stool up to my table or counter to get eye-level with my cake when I decorate the sides. However, if you do decide to buy the Wilton tiliting turntable, please do not spend the full $60...find a coupon or wait for the half-off sale!
Oh, alright. So, a lot of you guys decorate while sitting down. Well, that makes sense. I always decorate the cakes while standing up. That's why I'm having such a time getting the cake high enough to decorate the sides. I just can't imagine decorating while sitting down. Hmmmm, well, you can be sure that I'm gonna give it a try. I think I just feel more in control if I stand up. Hmmmm, interesting. Thanks so much everyone. I appreciate your help so much.
I always put the icing on and smooth it while standing up in the kitchen. Then I bring everything to the coffee table in the living room - in front of the TV - and decorate there. I have a beach towel spread over the table, my icing bags all in a row in a pyrex 9X13 baking dish and I am usually on the floor. I use old phone books under my turntable if I need to add more height.
I always stand to flat ice my cakes and to do most of my decorating. If I need to do some detailed work on the sides, I pull a kitchen chair up to the counter and work that way. I also have the cheap Wilton turn table and if I do need a little more height (if I'm at the kitchen table) I just turn over a big cooking pot and put my turn table on it. I've never had any problems with it to date (knock on wood).
My kitchen is small, so I ice and decorate sitting at the dining room table (covered with a wipable table cloth). I also use the small Wilton turntable. I have a very large stainless steel bowl and I put a large cookie sheet over it to bring my cakes up high when I need to (for basket weave, etc). It is very sturdy. I bet if you keep looking around the house, you'll find somethin sturdier than 2 bowls stacked on top of one another.
I have to stand. I find when I sit, my kids use that as an inviatation to try to sit on Mommy. I use the old Telephone book trick. I stack two of them up and it seems to be the right height for me. Extremely detailed work I do sit for. (When the kids are asleep!)
Gread thread.....I was wondering about those tilting turntables and now I will not be buying one and instead investing into a larger surface metal turntable that a bakery sells in MS. I found that If I am doing a cake larger than 10" I notice that the cake is under stress trying to balance on the stand. I leave my cake on the turn table the entire time I am decorating with a piece of no-slip mat the same size of the turn table covering the turn table.
I stand at the kitchen counter while icing the cake and smoothing, doing borders and writing. I have a photographers stool (I use to do photography) that moves up and down so I can get at the right height I need and I sit on the stool to decorate the sides, make roses, etc. I am also 6' so the stool comes in handy or my back would be killing me!
bj 
If I am doing a sheet cake on the turntable I use one of my little girls old wooden puzzles to put under my cake board for support (you know, the kind with the wooden frame that all of the wooden pieces fit in - they are flat pieces, not the ones with the knob on each piece).
I stand while doing my cakes. When I decorate, I put a stool on top of the counter so that the cake is at shoulder level. Cheap, but it works. 
My dear sweet hubby brought home from work one of those "reels" that hold electrical wiring. It is just a little bit wider than my turntable, and he even painted it for me. So now I put that on the bar, with some of the non-slip shelving liner on top, and put my turntable on top of that. It works great! It is just the right height for me to stand while decorating the sides of my cakes. I thought it was so sweet of him! 
I also have the cheap-o Wilton one and it works fine at my bar. I love the notebook trick and will have to try it! Also I heard/read(?) that you could set it on top of a big coffee can but am not sure about this 
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