Saturday, April 19, 2014

Rustic Tree Bark Wedding Cake in Buttercream Icing

I have always seen the cakes that look like trees, and I got the opportunity to help my mom out on one this weekend.

Although, when I say help, I kind of mean that I basically came in and commandeered everything.  Because sometimes that is just kind of how I am.  Commandeered in a nice, polite way of course!

Anyway what I quickly discovered is that a cake like this is a LOT easier than I thought it would be.  For base icing, I made little batches of color by putting white icing in a solo cup and putting a drop or two of liquid brown cake coloring in and stirring  it around so that it was really only halfway mixed in.  Then I used an offset spatula to coat the sides and top of the cake before smoothing it out.

It was an awesome way to get a varied base without having to go to any work.  In fact, I actually went to LESS work because I just halfway mixed icing.  I call that, best cake ever!

To make the knots, I used essentially whatever tip I had on the bag so first a writing tip later a piping tip, it really doesn't make a lot of difference.  All you need to do is just pipe it in a circle and then build it up a few layers high.  Then, using an offset spatula I smeared the sides back down and blended them into the base icing.

I used a writing tip to make the lines.  For the heart, I did the outline with a cookie cutter, and used a toothpick to etch the letters before filling it all in with a writing tip.  If you get your tip down in the line before you start squeezing, it pushes the other icing out a bit and gives it a rough edge, just as if you had carved it.

Then my mom added back in the roses and leaves.  Roses are sadly not my forte, and mine always look sad and wilty.  But tree bark is apparently right up my alley.

The cake was sat on a tree round and it really just topped off the whole look perfectly.  I was very pleasantly surprised with how this cake looked in its entirety and how simple it was to pull off.

Happy crafting! Pin It Now!

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