Royal Icing Palm Trees?

Decorating By Britterfly Updated 9 Sep 2011 , 11:36pm by BakedAlaska

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Britterfly Posted 8 Sep 2011 , 3:23pm
post #1 of 8

I'm trying to find an easy way to make a palm tree for a Hawaiian cake. I was browsing the Wilton site & came across these...

http://www.wilton.com/idea/Lava-ble-Dinosaurs

Instead of using gum paste for the leaves, they just piped them using tip 366.

My question is... How do you get the tree to dry?

Do you pipe in some leaves on wax paper then attach the pretzel rod to the center with royal icing.... let it dry overnight then peel it off the paper & stick it in the cake?

Wouldn't the pretzel fall over while drying?

How should I do this?

7 replies
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Cargal Posted 9 Sep 2011 , 2:19am
post #2 of 8

What if you assemble the trees right before putting in cake. Let the cake be the pretzel holder. I made trees like this one time using fondant leaves and I think that's what we did. Good luck!

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molly_36 Posted 9 Sep 2011 , 2:48am
post #3 of 8

I know this may sound crazy but I used rolls of toilet tissue to hold the pretzel rods upright while they dried. I shoved some crumpled up tissue inside the role so the leaves were well above the tissue while drying.
Sometimes you just have to use what you have on hand... thumbs_up.gif

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sweetcakes75 Posted 9 Sep 2011 , 4:54pm
post #4 of 8

I had the same problem and looked everywhere for an answer. In the end I used 50/50 gumpaste and fondant as I wanted a curved palm tree. I stuck a wooden skewer in it and let it set over nite. I had the leaves sent on a round bowl placed upside down to get the curved shape. I couldnt figure out how to get the trunk ridge effect.
hope this helps.

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CupcakeQT82 Posted 9 Sep 2011 , 10:33pm
post #5 of 8

I made palm trees for a cake for a jungle-themed baby shower. I used just fondant with a tiny bit of gumpaste added and then let the leaves dry on a rolling pin so they had a curve. Then I put brown fondant around the pretzel rod with brown royal icing and put the leaves on top of the pretzel rod with a ball of fondant and green royal icing. Here's how they looked:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1952873

Had I known though they would have curved so much I would have put them in the inside of a bowl to dry so they stuck out a little more.

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DianneandBrad Posted 9 Sep 2011 , 11:21pm
post #6 of 8

I used royal icing and a leaf tip 67 for the palm trees. I put a dollup of royal icing on top of pretzel and pressed each of the 3 leaves into the icing and let dry. I added yellow candies that looked like bananas the same way. My picture is in my photos on the bottom row on the right. Good luck!

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DianneandBrad Posted 9 Sep 2011 , 11:22pm
post #7 of 8

Sorry, now it's the only one on the bottom.

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BakedAlaska Posted 9 Sep 2011 , 11:36pm
post #8 of 8

I always make palm trees using a giant tootsie roll for the trunk (cut in half, to make two trunks). I poke a skewer in it about half way up and stick the protruding end into a piece of styrofoam. This lets me add the trees to the cake easily. It also lets me add a gentle bend to the trunk.

For the fronds, I use candy clay which I let dry over rolling foil for a day or so before adhering to the tootsie roll trunk with a dab of candy melt.

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