I have an order for a beach themed wedding cake in July, and one part of the design has me stumped. Has anyone ever made "beach fencing", you know like the kind you see at the shore, wood held together with wire? I'm going to try gumpaste and thin wire, and bought some balsa wood pieces from the craft store to try that, too. Just not sure which way to go. Any advice would be appreciated!

There is a really cute cake in the gallery that is a beach retirement cake... I think if you type in "beach chair" it comes up. It has beach-style fencing that looks like the decorator used gum paste and floral wire. I'll see if I can find it for you.

Here it is. You could PM her to find out her method...
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http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=524083[/url]

Those look like the slats from the Wilton picket fence that was done in color flow (old course 2). You could use that pattern as a template to cut them out of gumpaste.

Theresa

I don't know how non-edible you want to get, but I got fence pieces at walmart that are pre-made wood with wire. I needed to paint mine white so I did but you could lave them wood colored or distress them to make them look authentic. If you want to see what they look like its the cake in my pics with the watering can and the fence is around the cake plate that is holding the cupcakes.

I also got the fencing I used in my beach cake from Walmart. It's in the craft section where the craft/popsicle sticks are and costs less than $2.00. I thought I was going to have to make mine from scratch too, and was relieved to find it at the store. It saved me a lot of time!

Thank you everyone for the info! I am going to look at WalMart this week, had tried all of the other craft stores in the area. Last resort will be gumpaste like the beach picture in the link.

I recently made a beach cake with a fence exactly how you are thinking. It is in my pictures. I made it out of a mix of fondant and gumpaste. Made a rectangle 3 1/2" and cut the posts the width of a popsicle stick. Took a toothpick and made wood grain lines then took my stippling tool and punched two holes in the top and bottom 1/4 inch from edge. Let them dry about a week and used tiger eye jewelry wire and tied them together. Tiger eye wasn't a brand but the type. Not quite a silver but looked just like fence wire. I also made the same fence in 2" height originally to go across the smaller cake but in the end didn't care for it on there so I didn't use it. Mine was white because I had done some testers where I painted it in ivory and brown and didn't care for the painted ones so I left it white.