Im making my daughter a hawiian themed cake for her 9th. My issue is the darn palm trees. I tried a few icing recipes and they just melt. I am using sucker sticks to hold the base shape of the tree. The icing just melts away when i stand it up. Not to mention I haven't even begun attaching the leaves.

i have never used gumpaste, or fondant. I wouldn't know how to begin with those.

Can you help????

I don't know if this will help. Here's a cake I did with palm trees they are done in bc, very stiff. The palm fronds are done with the leaf tip #352.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1065113.html

Jibbies

If you look at my picassa website under childrens birthdays you'll see a jungle themed cake with palm trees. I used pretzel rods as the trunk and piped royal icing leaves. Very sturdy and dries quick. The only thing i would do different is make the leaves a little longer for more impact. The bananas are just candy i found at the bulk food store. HTH

Try making the palm trees out of royal icing and pretzel rods. I made these for my nephew's first birthday cupcakes. Place a flower former curved side up and cover with wax paper ( i taped mine around so that it wouldn't move). Using tip #352 and medium to stiff RI pipe the directly onto the wax paper and let them dry. Be sure they are dry before you remove them for the next step. Once dry, turn them over and attach a pretzel rod using more RI as the glue. Allow to dry.

I have a pic of the cupcakes in my photos.

HTH! Good luck!

I couldn't get the trees to work for me so i gave up and just used my little drink umbrellas. I had high hopes for the cake and it turned out cute but not as good as I wanted. I went easy by buying store decorations. One side crumbled a little so theres a dent, but it works with the theme of it I suppose. Thanks for all the help cakers.