I am fairly new at cake decorating and I have NEVER made a wedding cake before! I have one for Sat and they want a fall foliage themed cake. So far I have made some pumpkins out of marzipan...very cute too! I am going to be working on leaves next...My question is, Should I use gumpaste, fondant or marzipan for the leaves? I also was wondering abouthow to give the leaves a more natural look, coloring and veins. I would love any advice you could give ...Thanks

Welcome to Cake Central!!! If I were you, I would look through the galleries for fall-themed cakes, then PM the member if you want any advice or info. I just recently made a fall-themed wedding shower cake. It's in my pics if you want to look at it. For the leaves, I used marshmallow fondant. I drew lines on them with a toothpick, and let them dry for a couple of days on crumpled up paper towels. Then I brushed them with gold luster dust. Good luck with your cake!

Go to this link...they talk aqbout the subject..it might help..
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-526093.html

Here's a link to a beautiful fall cake just posted by layersopflove. You could do the same thing with buttercream.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1104543.html

Welcome to CC-you are so lucky-I absolutely LOVE fall themed weddings. I have made leaves in fondant and gumpaste, but have not worked with marzipan. Luster dusts work really well (antique copper is one of my favorites for a fall shimmer) and petal dusts look more natural. The veins can be made with a veiner tool...OR you can use something like an orange peeler or anything that you can press into your fondant.

They also make leaf presses or molds, which would probably look the most natural, but I don't think it's necessary for fall foliage. I can't wait to see it-please post pics when you're done!

I would use chocolate paste, but that's just me. You can make it by melting white chocolate, add some corn syrup, stir together and let sit overnight. To color, add some powdered food color. I would suggest a rust/red, perhaps a little brown/tan (use cocoa powder to color), a yellow/gold/orange. Knead 2 or 3 colors together just enough to swirl the colors, cut out with leaf cookie cutters, and lay out on parchment to dry.

If you twist and turn the leaf edges, put some curve into the leaf shape, you will get a more natural look to them, no matter what method you use.

For veins on this type of leaf, use royal icing or a veiner mold. I think your cake will be very pretty. Post photos so we can drool over it and pat you on the back for support!

HTH,

Odessa

here is a topper that I am working on for a cake this weekend - I just used a toothpick to put veins into my leaves. This is not a pic of the final -I was just trying to lay it out and get a feel for what I will be doing. I just used various color luster dusts - avocado green, gold, brown, pumpkin spice and one that has rouge in the name. I used fondant mixed with tylose. I'm using an ivory background for the icing color.

Good luch with your cake and decorations!