Teacher Appreciation Week is here! It’s time to send some love (and a cute gift) to our teachers.

This year I wanted to send a cake (or two). But, these cakes are a little different. They are made entirely out of school supplies. It’s a fun craft and an incredibly useful gift. Teachers usually end up spending some of their own money on school supplies for their classroom. Imagine how happy your teacher will be to see your useful, creative, zero calorie cake!

The first rule in creating this cake is to realize that there are no rules. You only need your creativity and a few supplies. I’ll give you some pointers below. These cakes can be a great group gift idea too. School supply costs can start to add up, especially if you want to make the grand 3-tier cake version. So, share your idea with other parents and get their help to offset the costs.

1 – Decide on your inside base and size. I recommend getting paper mache hat boxes. They come in all different sizes. For my 3-teir version I purchased small, medium and large boxes. For my standard cake, I used only a large box. This is totally up to you. Just consider the amount of school supplies that you want to provide. I have seen some versions of these cakes that used Kleenex boxes, paper towel rolls or Lysol wipe containers as the base.

2 – Think about your specific classroom and their needs. Then you want to start purchasing your school supplies. The idea is to get enough to line around your boxes. Option – You can also fill up the boxes with even more supplies, gift cards or maybe just sweet notes from the students.

Here are some recommendations for supplies: pencils, markers, rubber bands, index cards, sticky notes, colored pencils, #2 pencils, dry erase markers, liquid paper, paper clips, scissors, glue sticks and crayons. You can even add hand sanitizer and other useful items. Additional items needed (some optional): decorative tape or ribbon, sticky tack and chalkboard paint. I did not hot glue the supplies together as I wanted easy access/removal of supplies. NOTE – Keep all receipts, just in case you need to return extra supplies not used.

3 – Start to layer your school supplies. Don’t attach anything just yet. Start to get a visual as you line up your supplies. My suggestion is once everything is in place as you want them to be, start to secure with sticky tack (or tape) behind the supplies and then a rubber band around the front of the supplies. Then you can add either a decorative tape or ribbon. That should hold everything into place snugly. I decided to open the smallest box on top of the cake and add the colored pencils. I think it gives it a look of candles on top.

3 Tier Example –

9.5 inch box needs 11 boxes of 24 crayons to cover

6.5 inch box needs 4 packs of 10 washable markers

3 inch box needs 5 containers of 4 oz school glue

Topped with 36 colored pencils

4 – Place your cake on a cake stand for the finishing touch. This can be a real cake stand, a charger, a large plate/platter or simply a sturdy piece of cardboard covered with craft paper. Depending on the weight/size of the cake and the size of your child, you might want to assist bringing this cake into the classroom.

You can make this DIY project as easy or as detailed as you want. Just have fun with it and let the kiddos help. No matter how simple or detailed, you will have one happy teacher.