Hi everyone,
I was trying to figure out how the white branches surrounding this cake was done. If you notice, the branches are attached to the base of the cake. I would like to incorporate this into a cake I have coming up and and trying to decide what medium would be most sturdy. i already tried royal icing, and it crumbled. Chocolate, dried sugarpaste, etc., not sure which route to go. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone, Jackie

http://www.hey-cookie.com/blog/43-blog-category/98-ice-skating-cake

If you want them edible you could go with modelling chocolate or candy clay, but they'll be fragile and subject to slumping if they get too warm. To avoid that you could use a wire structure to hold your modelling chocolate. A wire would also allow you to stick them into the base to stand upright. If you use wire, however, they become inedible anyway so you may as well go with gumpaste or pastillage on a wire support which would probably be a good deal cheaper than modelling chocolate or candy clay. Then again, if they're not going to be edible anyway, you could go with white floral tape over a wire support. I'd go with the floral tape as the easiest, and probably least expensive, method since whatever you do is likely to wind up being inedible anyway.

Cakeyouverymuch,
Thanks for the tips. Those were some great ideas. I think I will go with the wire structures covered in fondant/sugarpaste. I thought that might be the technique used, but wasnt sure if there was another edible method I wasnt thinking of. I appreciate your advice.

Gumpaste and wire....since gumpaste dries like concrete...