The Foresty Tree Stump Cake
My youngest turned two! To celebrate her birthday I decided on a foresty themed cake. She adores little animals and in particular owls and birds. So inspired by some cute hair clips sent by my sister-in-law, Debbie Brown's Enchanted Tree cake and a forest themed birthday skirt, I created a tree stump with some little animals. Mummy's Little Dreams was also a great source of inspiration for cute owl related cakes and things once I was absolutely sure I was including an owl in the cake design. My daughter loved the owl- she pulled it off the cake even before I lit the candles! Luckily I was able to reattach it before we sung happy birthday. :-)
The main tree stump cake: The cake consisted of three layers- the top being white chocolate, the middle was milk chocolate and the bottom layer was a dark chocolate cake. The cake was covered with and all the layers were sandwiched with chocolate buttercream made with melted chocolate. I used a chocolate fondant lightened with some white coloured fondant for the tree stump. Zoe's Fancy Cakes' Tree Stump Cake video and Bark Effect video helped me immensely. I had pink sparkler candles which I placed in the centre of the cake as I thought this looked far nicer than the number 2 candle I had bought. In addition to the main cake, my usual (albeit rather messy looking) marshmallow pops (marshmallows encased in candy coating and adorned with miniature sugar butterflies and flowers), cupcakes (white chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream) and jelly cups (natural raspberry flavour) all made an appearance on the cake table. Homemade jam drop and lemon curd butter cookies (dough was rolled and shapes cut with a daisy cutter) were also included.
The little creatures and decorations: The birds, nest, toadstools and hedgehog were modelled using Debbie Brown's instructions in her book. The owl was created using techniques and ideas from Happy Little Baker's U tube video and Cloudy Frog's video. I cut the 'feathers' with a heart cutter. Each heart was expanded with a ball modelling tool and then stuck onto the fondant body. A little shimmer was added to the pink feathers with shimmery petal dust. The flowers were cut either with plunger cutters or shaped using silicone molds. The bunting is made of fondant onto which I had attached a printed icing sheet before cutting. The words were written with a food ink pen. The string is real though and was attached with sugar glue to the tree stump. I have to admit I didn't think sugar glue would hold so well!
The party decorations: A very simple backdrop of crepe paper over a string line (4 different shades of pink were used), tissue paper pompoms and garland, colour coordinating pinwheels (which were given as party favours at the very end), plastic tablecloths and existing woven straw table runners were used.
The main tree stump cake: The cake consisted of three layers- the top being white chocolate, the middle was milk chocolate and the bottom layer was a dark chocolate cake. The cake was covered with and all the layers were sandwiched with chocolate buttercream made with melted chocolate. I used a chocolate fondant lightened with some white coloured fondant for the tree stump. Zoe's Fancy Cakes' Tree Stump Cake video and Bark Effect video helped me immensely. I had pink sparkler candles which I placed in the centre of the cake as I thought this looked far nicer than the number 2 candle I had bought. In addition to the main cake, my usual (albeit rather messy looking) marshmallow pops (marshmallows encased in candy coating and adorned with miniature sugar butterflies and flowers), cupcakes (white chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream) and jelly cups (natural raspberry flavour) all made an appearance on the cake table. Homemade jam drop and lemon curd butter cookies (dough was rolled and shapes cut with a daisy cutter) were also included.
The little creatures and decorations: The birds, nest, toadstools and hedgehog were modelled using Debbie Brown's instructions in her book. The owl was created using techniques and ideas from Happy Little Baker's U tube video and Cloudy Frog's video. I cut the 'feathers' with a heart cutter. Each heart was expanded with a ball modelling tool and then stuck onto the fondant body. A little shimmer was added to the pink feathers with shimmery petal dust. The flowers were cut either with plunger cutters or shaped using silicone molds. The bunting is made of fondant onto which I had attached a printed icing sheet before cutting. The words were written with a food ink pen. The string is real though and was attached with sugar glue to the tree stump. I have to admit I didn't think sugar glue would hold so well!
The party decorations: A very simple backdrop of crepe paper over a string line (4 different shades of pink were used), tissue paper pompoms and garland, colour coordinating pinwheels (which were given as party favours at the very end), plastic tablecloths and existing woven straw table runners were used.