I wonder if anyone out there has any ideas on how to get the wood grain effect on a cake. My daughter wants a guitar cake for her birthday (this saturday) and I like the look of the wood grain guitars. Does it have to be done with fondant or can it be buttercream. PLEASE PLEASE help!!
It's very hard, prepare yourself for my cake magic here... 
I iced the cake in the lighter color (kind of a beige-y color) and then used a paint brush to drag some brown Americolor gel in the same direction I wanted the grain. Then, I used my spatula to kind of smooth the icing, dragging the color and icing with it. That's it! Told you it was complicated!
Hope that helps! If you are doing BC, I would do this while the icing is still soft, though...otherwise it might not blend too well.
OR you might be able to water the icing down a little with vanilla extract, and use a larger brush to do it once it's crusted.
Good luck! Be sure to post pics! 
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%