I'm doing an "over the hill" cake for my boss which is due Friday. One side of the cake is going to be green and vibrant. I would like to make a nice oak tree coming out of the cake which stands approx. 2"-3" high and is wide enough for me to carve some initials into it. How would I do that? I'm really struggling on coming up with a way to make the branches stick to the base and then how to add the leaves. Any ideas? I decorate from home, so I have access to very basic tools.
Thanks.
You can build the branches with wires doubled over, around a dowel center base, then cover the whole thing in modeling chocolate.
I'm not a pro at all but I did a cherry blossom tree standing about the height you want a few weeks ago. I used modeling chocolate and I did not use any kind of support in it. I first made the base of the tree, let it dry and them attach the branchs one by one around it, waiting for each one to firm up a bit before going to the next branch. Was time consuming! I then proceed to attach each small flower using royal icing. Maybe you can try this, but again, it worked for me but I'm not a pro! I have a picture of the tree in my photo if you want to see the result.
Good luck!
Is there a way to do this with fondant or gumpaste? I don't have modeling chocolate.
There is a picture tutorial here on cc, not sure what they are using around the wires, you might be able to pm the person to find out here is the link http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1732968.html
If you only need it that small, you could probably pipe it from royal icing, but it would have to be done in stages
trunk
large branches
smaller branches
twigs
And I wouldn't go any higher than a 1 tip for the twigs.
Theresa 
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