can anyone tell me how to make a tree? Not a pine tree like maybe a maple or willow tree. My DD wants a farm cake for her birthday and I wanted to put some trees in the design but I dont know what the best way to make a maple or willow.
Any help would be great!!
Thanks to all you great people on CC

I made a tree for a Father's day cake. I used drinking straws with one dowel in the middle, wrapped with floral tape and stuck on a piece of foam core board, with the dowel sticking through the board so I could put it in the cake. I covered the whole thing with marshmallow fondant, made grooves and rings in the fondant, and then painted it with brown color so it would be darker in the grooves. The branches were made out of wire and straws, also covered with fondant.

It sounds complicated but it wasn't. Here's the picture: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1233770 It would have looked better with more leaves but my 3 year old kept eating them as fast as I could make them.

I made some corn stalks for a cake, it was just gumpaste on a lollipop stick, I"m sure you could do the same for a tree..........how big do you want it??

I'm going to try to explain this. Look in my pics at my jungle cake. I took a skewer and some floral wire. The skewer was the "trunk" and the wire was used to make the branches. I just made 2 branches but you could make as many as you want to. Then I used brown fondant, I would either add tylose powder or do a 50 50 combo with gumpaste and fondant so that it will dry better than mine did. Roll the fondant into a long rope and sort of flatten it a little bit. Then I started at the bottom and just started wrapping it around, overlapping just a little bit so there weren't any spaces. It looks much more textured this way I think. Just continue up the trunk and the branches. You don't need to worry about the seams where the branches and trunk meet because you can cover anything that you don't like with leaves. I used a small metal leaf cutter and made lots of leaves out of 2 different colors of green. I used my exacto knife to cut the leaves in half so that they were even smaller. They don't have to be symmetric b/c when you get them glued to the branches they sort of overlap a little so the fact that they aren't perfect I think looks better. When I put the leaves on I started on the underneath most layer and glued, then added the next and next until I liked how it looked. I would wait just a little bit and let the first layer of leaves rest and dry somewhat before adding the next layer. I didn't do this and lost a few in the process. So sorry this is soooo long and I hope it isn't too confusing....

Texas_Rose! That tree is awesome!!! Love your cake too but I really love the tree!!! Great job! The theme made me laugh!

texas_rose your tree is great. thank you for the info. and I totally understand about the 3 year olds this cake is for mine who will be 4. LOL
KHalstead I dont what to make a huge tree just a full one in the shape of a maple or willow.
Michelle 104 your tree is great also. I will have to try that one and see what i can come up with, and no its not to confusing its great thanks.
I was thinking about the floral wire and covering that in fondant for the branches and pulling some down to look like leaves. Do you all think that is way off base?
Thanks to all of you for your input you have given me alot to think about.