I trying to do a tree going up a tier cake any suggestion on how to do this

I recently did a cake in the shape of a tree trunk, I used brown fondant and then used a knife to roughly cut lines up it, it wasn't as rough as I would have liked though because the knife blade was thin and the fondant was too thin to pull apart anymore. I saw someone suggest buttercream for a tree bark, and you can mark it with a fork and basically the worse it looks the better it looks if you know what I mean. I think if you're using fondant and it is thick enough you could probably get a better effect with a knife or something Sharp but thicker just have a play around with it before you do it on the cake and see what works for you. Maybe a cocktail stick/toothpick might work too...

Hi,
I did a yule log cake this past Christmas and made bark out of chocolate for it. You melt chocolate in the microwave and spread it to about 1/8" thick on wax paper or foil that is on a tray. Refrigerate for about 5 minutes, until the chocolate is hard. Remove from the refrigerator. Hold the paper or foil in your hands and gently bang it back and forth on a surface, splintering the chocolate into long slivers. Press the slivers onto the icing to create a barklike effect. It really looked great! I hope this is what you were looking for.

http://cakecentral.com//gallery/2053305 Here is the look i am trying to acheive I did pm the designer also

any suggestion how this was done.. effects, colors, etc

No suggestions, but it does look amazing! I hope you find out!!

Yes I know it does ? anyone?

The other suggestions are really good I would do the same but make fondant "snakes" then use a knife or any other pointed tool and score lines into the surface. As for the coloring you can use colored chalk or "dry" brush gel food coloring over the surface that's how we did the Tiki on this cake http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1922611 HTH!

Looks to me that it is logs of fondant that are scored with a boning or veining tool. Then you would paint it with a darker brown gel mixed with a bit of vodka. That also gives it the shine.

That is an awesome cake. I have added it to my wish list of cakes to cake.
LOL If I were to do that I would use fondant, rolled out and cut the varying shapes of the trunk and branches I would need with a sharp knife or pizza cutter. Then I would roll them by hand to get the shape, thickness and roundness of the trunk and branches. Using a wooded skewer I would drag it through the fondant to create the texture of the branch like they have done. Once shaped, textured, branches glued, and dried, I would use a dark brown to paint the textured grooves to give it depth. That being said, it looks like they have used a tan/medium warm brown coloured fondant and painted the grooves dark brown for depth and then washed the whole trunk/branch with brown colour to blend and create a finished look. Then of course apply to cake. Now that I've written this and looked at the cake again I see that the branches are bent over the edge of the tier so it must have been applied while flexible then painted or measured to fit the size of cake before drying.......just my thoughts. I think if you wanted a more "crinkled" look to your bark you might be able to use a ball of crinkled tin foil to make the indentations/texture but I like the look on your inspiration cake

thanks everyone

Thanks for all the nice things you all said about my cake. This was one of those cake I did in a rush and was not very happy with it. It was a very hot day and it was for my husbands family reunion. The day of the reunion I was asked to have it ready 3 hours earlier then expected! Ughh! so hearing those nice comments makes me feel much better about it, especially from fellow cakers.

Thanks again, Darlene