How to Make a Tree Stump Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tree stump cakes are interesting cakes with endless possibilities. They can be embellished in various ways through the addition of toppers, grooves, tunnels, etc, depending on the theme you are going for. In this tutorial, I will be showing you how I make my tree trunk cakes. The amazing thing about this method is that you can never go wrong as there are no rules involved. To see more of my tree stump cakes, click this link for the Halloween Tree Stump Cake and this link for the Party on a Tree Stump Cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOOLS AND EDIBLE COMPONENTS

(1) A Frosted Round Cake

(2) Ivory and Brown Color Paste

(3) Water

(4) Vodka

(5) Fondant

(6) Pizza Cutter

(7) Fondant Wheel

(8) A Covered Cake Board

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROCEDURE:

(1) Bake and frost your cake. The frosting need not be very smooth as the tree has a rough surface. A crumb coat will do.

(2) Place the frosted cake on your covered cake board.

(3) Make the top of the tree. Color your fondant ivory, roll it out and use the base of the cake pan you used to bake the cake to cut out a circle. A pizza cutter will give you clean edges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) Using a fondant wheel, make broken circular and straight lines on the fondant. The lines should start from the center of the tree top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5) Brush the top of the cake with some water and place the tree top on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6) Add some more ivory color to the leftover fondant to make it darker.

(7) Roll out the fondant and cut it into rectangles. The height of each rectangle should be the same height as the cake.

(8) Working with one rectangle at a time, brush the cake with some water and stick the rectangle on the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(9) Use your fondant wheel to make random broken vertical grooves on the fondant. There is no method to doing this. The lines should be as random as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(10) When you are done with one rectangle, stick the next rectangle to the cake. Each rectangle should be as close to the one before it as possible. Repeat the process as with the first rectangle. Try to blend the spot where both rectangles meet as much as possible using the fondant wheel. Continue the above process until the side of the cake has been completely covered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(11) To make roots at the base of the stump, shape fondant into rough tubes and stick them to the base of the stump. Use  a fondant wheel to make grooves on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(12) Paint the side of the cake. Depending on how dark you want the tree trunk to be, mix some brown or ivory color paste with some vodka and brush the sides of the cake. Brown will give you a darker tree trunk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(13) Now that you are done with the main structure of the cake, you can choose to add other elements to it. For instance, you can make holes on the base of the truck and show rodents popping out of them. To do this, use a circular cookie cutter and make a hole at the base, removing the cut out fondant. Roll some black fondant of the same size and stuff the hole with it. Finally cut your molded rodent in half and stick it to the hole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(14) You can also make deep grooves on top of the tree stump with a sharp knife. Use some brown color paste or dust to color the inside of the groove to make it appear deeper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BONUS LINKS

(1) A tutorial on how to make the hedgehogs used in one of the cakes above can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) A pictorial on how to make the elephant can be found here.