How To Make Realistic Leaves And Acorns?
Decorating By BlackFlour Updated 8 Nov 2009 , 2:30pm by cylstrial
I'm making about 150 cupcakes for a party and need a little basket of fondant/gumpaste leaves/acorns for them to be decorated with! How can I make them look realistic? Are there any tutorials? I've searched but nothing comes up in the search. 
I don't have an airbrush machine either... can I use the wilton spray icings? All help is appreciated!! Thanks!
not sure if these are "realistic" or not.........but here are some cupcakes I did that have chocolate leaves and the acorns are made from kraft caramels rolled into the shape and dip the top in melted chocolate and then into brown jimmies
The other pick is of some fondant covered leaf cookies I did, but you could just use gumpaste and color the same way (or fondant with tylose added). I just worked from the outside in with a paintbrush adding americolor gel colors straight out of the bottle and blended each color into the next, let it dry and then went back and added the veining. Simple
Great job!
I used leaf cutters and cut these from fondant. I veined them, let them dry and then brushed them with petal dust. I blended the dust with a dry brush.
I cut my leaves out with cookies cutters and then used Wilton color diluted with Vodka and dabbed the leaves with a cosmetic spogne wedge. I colored the fondant brown, then another batch copper, then another batch red. Then I dabbed each with the same colors diluted. For example I took a brown leaf and dabbed around the edges with copper, then dabbed at the stem with brown, etc. It gives the leaves an almost airbrushed look. then I rolled each leaf over a silk leaf to put the veins into them. I also mixed Wilton's Bronze dust and gold dust and drypainted the leaves. Here's a photo below. Forgot to add, I rolled the fondant out until it was so thin that I could see through it slightly. It works better if you use a 50/50 GP and fondant mixture. If you didn't paint with the dusts it looks very realistic.
These are all so wonderful to look off of! Thank you!!
When i make leaves for rose/flower sprays, i make i use the right cutter, i got some rose leaf cutters the other week, i used ivy green flower paste, dusted them a little and then dipped them in confectioners glaze. They look so realistic its creepy lol! Although, these arent really edible, they look great with out the glaze though, but i think for cupcakes, chocolate may be a better option
I wanted to say thank you for everyone's help, like usual! 
Here are some of the acorns and chocolate leaves i've done so far, and have some gum paste leaves yet to do!
Ok - I have to try these this week for a wedding cake. I am going to airbrush the leaves though - but this post has given me some great ideas, thanks to everyone who posted pics!
Does anyone have an easy way to vein the leaves? (there really isn't a shortcut, I am just hoping for one!) 
Loucinda-
Well....... what I've done (since I didn't want to buy the expensive veiners) is buy silk leaves and pull the plastic veins off the back of the leaves. Then I press those veins into the cut out leaves. Depending on the leaf, I can lift and press it again several times until I get the look I want. Corn husks also work great for veining some leaves.
HTH 
What are the acorns made of?? They look great!
Here is what I came up with - I used gumpaste, I first colored some of the gumpaste yellow and left some of it white. I then cut them out (just used the wilton leaf cutters) and then hand veined them with a boning tool. After they were really dry, I airbrushed them. I love how they turned out - and the acorns are the caramel trick posted on this thread (missdawn??) Thank you for all the inspiration for this cake, I really LOVE how it turned out! (if you look really close at the close up of the leaves you can see a maple leaf hiding that has a big black spot on it - it looked really real!)
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1500879
Anyone made leaves out of modeling chocolate? Would that work?? I've never rolled it -- so I haven't the foggiest if it'll roll thin enough? Does the modeling chocolate dry like fondant or gp (as in enough to handle and give some dimension?)
Suzie...I wish I knew how to attach a photo also. I left a comment on your photo. Just wanted you to know what a beautiful job those leaves are. I made some chocolate rose leaves the same way many years ago and have since forgotten all about it. (One of the many "perks" that come with advancing age!) Now that I am making cakes I am glad to have my memory refreshed. There is nothing like what nature made to make an accurate mold. ( I am just sorry that all my beautiful leaves are all over the ground. They do lack beauty though, when they need raking!) They look really nice.
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