3 ways to hack your IKEA cake server

When planning my own wedding, there were some things I knew that I 100% wanted. I wanted to include a special song in the ceremony, I wanted to dance a LOT, and I wanted to cut into a specific flavor of cake. What I was holding when I cut that cake was of little importance to me — I just wanted it to be simple and cheap… and nobody does “simple and cheap” better than the Swedes.

I picked up this set of plain, white, plastic cake servers at IKEA for $5.99 and left it at that. I cut my cake with these bad jacksons and all was well. But almost everything is a blank canvas to a crafter, especially when it's priced affordably, so I've put together three customized serving sets fit for an offbeat celebration. These were all achieved in one evening using materials found at a major craft store.

Vintage Button Server Set

Love the simplicity of the white set but hate the IKEA logo? Hot glue some 1/4″-3/4″ buttons over it. Mine are fun, mismatched vintage buttons (a la Princess Lasertron) which were part of my grandmother's giant collection.

If you don't have your own crazy grandmother's vintage button hoard on-hand, find some cool items at your local craft or fabric store.

Banded Raffia Server Set

Wind heavy-duty, red-backed scrapbooking tape around the server handles, making it look like a candy cane.

Start wrapping raffia by sticking one tail directly onto the back of the server, making contact with tape. Then wrap slowly and tightly, lining strands up consecutively instead of overlapping, so as to make as much contact with the tape as possible. Unwrap red backing from the tape as you wrap the raffia to cut down on mess and knots, and to preserve the tack.

When you get to a point where you want to switch colors to achieve the banded effect, end one color and begin the new one in the same fashion as you started the whole thing.

To finish, simply tape the end to the back of the serving piece.

Medieval Serving Set

Full disclosure: I'm obsessed with the George R.R. Martin's “Song Of Ice and Fire” series of books (aka Game of Thrones). Since the first two serving sets are customizable and simplistic, I thought I'd go whole hog and pay homage to the Starks of Winterfell with a little fur and leather. All you fantasy-lovers, renaissance faire-goers, and Vikings at heart can make these servers with hot glue, suede cord, and faux fur. Don't give up if you don't find the perfect faux fur at your local fabric store — I had to skin an innocent stuffed rabbit to get the fur I wanted.

Cut rectangles of fur to fit each serving piece, and quickly apply hot glue to the back of the faux fur following the application pattern on the picture above. Then immediately wrap around the server's handle. Allow at least three minutes to dry, then tightly wrap the suede cord around the fur and finish by tying a single, tight knot.

What else would you creative Offbeat Bride folks do with these blank slates?