Need to make a realistic pirate chest cake for a very special September birthday. How can I make the wood look realistic? Thought about trying to cover floor planks (new) with plastic wrap and pressing fondant. Think that would work? And I have never painted a cake. Any suggestions?

Hi and Welcome to CC, pkinkema.

Decoding CC acronyms:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-2926-.html

Duplicate post, please also see:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-599398-.html

There are several ways to do this. The first is to colour fondant a basic brown in the shade you want, with a tiny black and scoring it wth vertical streaks with the back of a knife or with a fork. The second way is to colour your fondant by adding the colour in verical streaks using three shades of brown, some black kneading the fondant just once or twice and rolling it out. Finaly, you can actually get some impression mats for Global Sugar Art http://www.globalsugarart.com/product.php?id=16677 which you can use on your pre coloured fondant. Hope this helps.

Gee Whiz, Cake Wizz! Those suggestions were just what I needed--thanks. I also looked at the mat and may consider purchasing that. This pirate chest is for a 6-year-old, so I don't know how much I want to invest!!!! Like they care!!!!!

You can also paint white fondant with ivory food color. It is sticky, but looks like real wood grain and it is cheap.

I have a wood graining tool I bought from Lowe's. I use it to make woodgrain on candy clay and fondant. Then when you "paint" the wood it automatically gives it a woodgrain appearance.

Beth in KY

I was taught to use 3 different shades of brown and a shade of yellow. Roll each into a "log" then roll all the logs together to make one big long log or rope. Do not twist the fondant like making a candy cane, try to keep each color straight in a line while rolling. Fold the rope into 1/2 or 1/3 and keep rolling. Each time you fold the rope it will make your tree another year older, creating the rings in the tree. When you have enough folds, roll out the fondant.

If sounds complicated but it isn't. I have done a few things with this method- the base ball bat and the wooden floor of the bassinett - in my pics.

I have a snare drum in my gallery that has "wooden" trim, it is done in fondant that I airbrushed a darkbrown and then went back before it completely dried and wiped it with a paper towel. I then went through and sprayed and orange/yellow combo and again wiped it, and then resprayed with brown diluted with white... all to texture it. I finally used a clear coat of spray on the finish to give it shine...I am sure you can achieve nearly the same thing with a brush, it would just take a while. Good luck!

I personally am not a fan of fondant... actually hate the stuff. I'll only use it for accents so when I had to make a treasure chest for my nephew who was turning 4, I did it in chocolate buttercream and used a fork to make the groves in the icing and I thought it came out really nice and tasted good since I didn't use fondant. It's in my pics if you care to take a look.

I have seen a new product called Designer Prints from a company called Lucks. www.lucks.com. They have wood grain, brick, rock, all sorts of solutions.
PNWBA