A friend of mine is buying her SIL her wedding cake but the mother of the bride is making all the decisions about decorations (yes, I know, this could be crazy but the lines of communication are open between all parties and I have no problem laying down the law if needed!)

Small casual wedding at MIL house. MIL wants 9"/6" round, stacked, iced in buttercream. She wants the top decorated like a package with a bow topper - I'm fine with that.

She wants the bottom to match the Christmas decorations in her house: red/green colors, woodsy and lots of traditional greenery, like you would put on your fireplace mantle.

Any ideas?

Anyone?

Have you thought of some pine cones & pine needles made out of chocolate? You could do the top tier with pine cone print wrapping paper, so it blends with the bottom tier.

Sounds perfect! Now, how do I make the pine cones/needles??

Okay, so your gonna use modleing chocolate for the pine cones. Get your 5 rose petal cutter (not neccessary, but makes it easier), roll chocolate thick, but not to think, (think of a pine cone ), then make a circle of the large one and so on to the top using the smaller petals, attaching with melted chocolate. I hope I make sense. Pine needles, much easier, melt some chocolate, put it in a parchment bag, cut the tip, draw stright lines of chocolate that all meet at the same point. They will be delicate, but sooo pretty. I'm bad at explaining things, but I hope this makes sense.

Oh yeah, the pointed part of the petals meet in the middle.

I've seen pinecones made out of sliced almonds and then dipped in melted chocolate. I think they use marzipan for the base, and then stick the almonds into to build the pinecone. Use real pine needles (washed and dried) for the needles.

Thanks, your description is great! I would have never thought of that on my own.

Have you done the pine needles before? I've done a little chocolate work but I would be afraid all of these would break. Maybe I can try using fondant instead?

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaBellaFlor

Okay, so your gonna use modleing chocolate for the pine cones. Get your 5 rose petal cutter (not neccessary, but makes it easier), roll chocolate thick, but not to think, (think of a pine cone ), then make a circle of the large one and so on to the top using the smaller petals, attaching with melted chocolate. I hope I make sense. Pine needles, much easier, melt some chocolate, put it in a parchment bag, cut the tip, draw stright lines of chocolate that all meet at the same point. They will be delicate, but sooo pretty. I'm bad at explaining things, but I hope this makes sense.

Here are the directions for the marzipan/almond pinecones:
http://www.candylandcrafts.com/marzipanrecipes.htm
I think I might make these, thanks!

I just used tip 233 (grass tip) to make the greenery stuff - it worked out fine for me.

Here is a pic (be kind, it was a couple of years ago!) but you can see what I mean on how I used it.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=91768

(and BTW - I LOVE that almond trick for the pinecones.....will be usuing that one - thanks!)

I don't see why you can't use fondant with a little tylose to get them solid. I only say chocolate, cause you can get the lines very thin like a pine needle. If your careful & pipe on parchment paper, you should be fine. Some will break of course, but they just look so pretty and delicate with the chocolate. You can also place them up against the cake.

An alternative way to link the theme of the two tiers:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_109201.html

And a beauty from KoryAK:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_389273.html