A coworker wants me to make a 3-D palm cake tree that I can not find a picture of. She saw it in a decorator's magazine as part of the kicthen staging. I thought I could bake some small rounds, stack and carve slightly. The wrap with fondant bands around the trunk and add some gumpaste frond spikes at the top of each band and make gum paste fronds for the top. How do I support the cake? It only has to serve 20. So I could make an island base cake so the tree does not have to be huge, but I do want the tree to be cake! I know I need to support the tree with some kind of dowels, but I would like the tree to bend slightly, not have a perfectly straight trunk????

considering you only have 20 to feed..... maybe you should use the coffee can tech. Bake them in the cans so they are thin and tall. Do two so you can get it to go high. You can get the support dowls at micheals. They are 12" plastic tubes. Then you can cut the palms out of fondant and let them dry on a curved surface. When they are dry you can then put together you cake and add palms. I hope this will work.

Thanks aandecake! It would be easier to use coffee cans or mason jars. I still need to figure out how to attached the dowl to a base. I don't think it will stay upright if the trunk is curved!