Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I've posted.. Im looking to make a stacked cake.. 10 inch and 7 inch... and to have a tree on top. As realistic looking as possible. Like an Oak tree.. between 10 and 14 inches high. I imagine I will do the trunk out of cereal treats, but its the branches and leaves especially that is stumping me. I definitely don't want to do a few fondant leaves here and there because I want the tree to have fullness.. but how do I create that look without gluing on a million individual branches and leaves?

Any ideas?

You make both the trunk and branches out of wire covered with fondant and royal icing. Figure out how you will attache the leaves--I'm not going to describe taht here.

Work from a winter picture of an oak tree. Make the main branches first of of full 24" lengths of wire. Twist in some smaller wire branches. The twist together the main branches and keep twisting the extra wire that will become the trunk. Twist the ends of some of the wires out at the bottom for roots to help balance the tree upright.

Then cover the roots and trunk with fondant thinning it down to the lower main branches. Let it dry. Then make up some dark grey royal icing and streak the piping bag with painted vertical lines of black paste colour. Add a #14 tip and your grey icing. Work around each branch to cover it with a thin textured layer of royal icing. You can insert wired leaves into the wet royal icing after you cut each fine wire to length.

Anyone else?

Here's one possibility:
Take a big bunch of grapes; remove the grapes; the stem is the basis of the tree. Take bits of aluminum foil to arrange the "branches" of your future tree the way you want them or lightly wire them while the "tree" is still flexible. Reinforce the trunk with more wire if desired to make it longer or sturdier. Let it dry. Then dip the whole thing in chocolate or paint with chocolate until you get the look you want.

Make many oak leave with something like this:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/69794380/oak-leaf-fl112-flexible-silicone-mold?ref=sr_gallery_2&ga_search_query=oak+leaf+mold&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade.

Use melted chocolate to attach the leaves to the tree.

Someone else on CC first mentioned the grape-stem tree. I wish I knew who it was so I could give credit.

Great Idea with the grapes! Ill check it out!

I wouls do it differently. An oak tree has one trunk and a large top. It's very massive compared to something like a dogwood. There isn;t really need for a lot of branches from the trunk as it balls out on top forming a full ball of green.
I have done 2 very different trees that could work. Each had a wooden dowel trunk covered in fondant/tylose. One has a 'ball' top that was covered in fondant and then had leaves attached to the fondant ball. The other (4 seasons tree) had rather thick wire b ranches covered in fondant/tylose stuck into predrilled holes in the trunk/dowel. Both were extremely sturdy. I have attached a picture to help you get what I'm trying to say.