I've seen the woodgrain look on a lot of cakes. I am trying to make a fence from gumpaste, and would like to have the woodgrain effect. Do I need a special tool?? If so, is there any other way to do it? I wont have time to order anything... Thanks so much!!

I use a chip brush and brown airbrush color. You could also use brown gel color diluted with water. I brush using the side of the brush rather than the wide stroke side. I wish I knew how to explain that better. Here's a picture of a hockey bench where I used that technique. The fondant underneath is white.

Hmm..that looks nice!! I dont know that I'm that artistic though! I was thinking of like, the textured wood grain....

And i'm really sorry, but what is a chip brush? LOL.. I should probly know, huh?

I like your painted look better, but I dont know how well I could do all those different shades...

I'm no artist either. That's the beauty of this method. You don't have to do anything. Just drag the paintbrush and your woodgrain magically appears! Make short strokes and that's how you get the variation in color. Believe me, there is absolutely nothing artistic about this. I actually discovered it by accident. LOL

You can get a chip brush at any home improvement store. It's just a cheap paintbrush. I use a 2-inch wide brush, but I use it sideways.

As long as you're in the paint department at the home improvement store, you can usually find a woodgrain tool. It's really wide, though. It's more trouble than it's worth, I think.

I know you don't have time to order anything, but there are woodgrain rollers (rolling pins) available for fondant, for future reference. Still, I think the paint looks better!

Okay! I think I'll give it a try!! I'm suppose to use gel food coloring?? What if the fence is two sided? How long will I have to wait to flip it over and do the other side?? Is it going to dry firm enough? I've painted with food coloring before, but if I touch it, it smears...

GP will dry relatively quick....like if it is thin it can dry in a matter (fully) in just a few hours..I got the wood grain look on my banjo cake using the brown gel and grain alcohol with a paper towell...I like Dianes much better though...but at the time I didn't have a brush

if using grain alcohol it will actually dry REALLY fast so you can flip in no time...I use everclear

I haven't tried mixing gel colors with alcohol. I don't think it would help because the gel is still liquid even after the alcohol evaporates.

I usually use airbrush color because I have it. Gel or paste color diluted with water will be essentially the same thing. Make sure you test the color on a piece of paper or scrap piece of gumpaste before brushing it onto your fence.

You'll probably have to let the fence dry overnight before painting the other side. Be careful when brushing on the color, not to go over the same area too much, or the liquid paint will soften and breakdown the gumpaste. Just a stroke or two - maybe three - will give you the effect you want.

Hope this helps!

if you take the end of a skewer or toothpick and just make scratches going in one direction on the gumpaste and then make some that loop over like a rainbow kinda like you see in wood it will look pretty realistic that's all I did on my treasure chest cake and pirate ship

You did THAT with a toothpick?!?!? WOWIE!! That looks GREAT!! I'm assuming you have to do that when the gumpaste is still soft...I already cut my pieces out for the fence. Looks like you painted yours too!! Maybe next time I can use both Diane's and KHalstead's!! I bet that would look Neato! I love both ideas! Thank you so much!!!

yep, all done with either a toothpick or skewer (which I guess is just a long toothpick lol).......I airbrushed the tree and the boat but the treasure chest was just brown fondant that I scratched the woodgrain into!

Okay, so I painted all the fence pieces...what a huge time consumer!! LOL.. I think they looked pretty good, what do you think??

Looks like wood to me. Great job.

What an adorable cake! So much detail! It's really great! I love the woodgrain fenceposts. They turned out perfectly!

the fence looks fantastic! great job!

Great job on the fence! The pigs are soooo cute!

Sanks everyone!! I was very happy with them!! Thank you soooo much DianeLM!! The kids went CRAZY over the cake!!! And the woodgrain on the fence was mentioned a couple times by adults. Thank you Thankyou Thank you!!