Trying to figure out how this cake is constructed. Would love any help on this please! I tried searching for whimsical, topsy turvy cake tutorials but they all show up the madhatter style and not this. 

I know there are styrofoam blocks used but how are they inserted to give the look? And the flowers would be inserted into the styro then right?

Also, any tips on the bark look? I was thinking painted fondant? Thank you!!!

Can't remember specifics, but while browsing I saw a system for sale that creates this exact look. You might try searching "cake systems."

If I were doing it, I would tape "lids" to my cake pans to make cake dummies (or use actual cake dummies if I had them), then cut styrofoam wedges to the slants I wanted. Use lots of tape to hold the whole thing in place, then plan the dowel placement. A center one, of course, plus maybe four to six through the bottom three layers, three to five through the top three layers,

The fondant looks like pearl, gold and silver luster dusts. Good luck!
 

Bronwyn Webber designed a cake stand for this called the Caddy Wampus system, if you don't want to purchase a stand, on Craftsy, you can purchase the Richard Ruskell Topsy Turvey class for around $40, if they aren't currently having a sale, I believe he uses styrofoam in between his layers and show how to construct, support, etc. For the cake desing Kaysie Lackey has a DVD called the Woodland Wedding cake that shows how to create this design.

I did a white birch wedding cake for my niece and all i did was once covered in fondant i went around the tiers and scored it with a dresden tool in the pattern I wanted then returned to the score marks and "picked" away at the fondant to open it up, once that was finished I used black gel color + vodka to paint the scored marks and open "sores" black.

For this cake I would do the score marks only and to add the knots I would use some extra fondant, shape it then attach it to the sides of the cakes smoothing out the edges to blend, I would start with a light grey fondant as the base then paint it with silver and pearl lustre dusts and  painting the inside of the knots with gel colours. 

If you are putting the carved heart and initials on the cake just use your dresden tool to carve it into the side of the cake then paint with the black colouring as you did for the score marks.

Hope this helps and here is a pic of my niece's cake

Here is a tutorial that I found that may work for this cake that you could construct yourself. Good luck!

http://sweeteatscakes.blogspot.com/2010/12/topsy-turvy-stand-tutorial.html

AThank you so much! Yeah, I found the system called cakestackers....I think I'll use that instead of the styro, as it seems more sturdy. Thank you!

Awww.caljavaonline.com/cakestudy1.htm

Thank you kazita!! I'll contact them to see if they'll have it back in stock! :)