I'm making a haunted house cake for my daughter's birthday in october and I'm trying to decide the best way to make spooky trees. I've seen ideas about shredding tops of licorice and fanning it out, but that would not be realistic.

Anyone have any better ideas? I'm afraid if I make them out of fondant it won't harden in the right form and might be too top heavy to stand up properly.

Any suggesstions welcome!

bump...

Make the shapes out of dowels and wire, covered with floral tape. Then put fondant over the floral tape and use a veiner or toothpick to make lines like wood.

I did this tree that way: http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1233770 I'm sure it's bigger than you need, but the idea would work on a smaller scale. You could also use straws instead of dowels since they're bendable.

OH great idea, thank you so much!!

You could try some tylose powder mixed with fondant. I recently made some trees (lawn cake in my pic's) this way and they dried hard. It didn't take very long to dry, an hour or less.

Use grape stems, they're awesomely spooky!

Piped chocolate is so versatile...and it'd be a tasty tree too!