Birch Bark Tree & Burlap Sugar Roses Wedding Cake

by Ramona Timonere
(Cleveland, Ohio)

Birch Bark Tree Wedding Cake

Birch Bark Tree Wedding Cake

BIRCH BARK TREE WITH BURLAP SUGAR ROSES WEDDING CAKE


I was asked to do a rustic wedding cake. While interviewing the bride during a consult I found that she loves birch bark, roses and burlap. I like to ask a lot of questions so that I can get some kind of idea of what interests the client has so I can incorporate these interests and fully tailor the cake.

Since she likes roses and burlap I was inspired to merge the 2. I made a 2 sided silicone mold using a piece of burlap. Then with gumpaste I cut out the rose petals and instead of veining them with the typical silicone veiner I put them in burlap mold. They were perfect. And the rest of the process is the same as any of your typical sugar flowers.

The fondant is handmade. I make a yummy MMF and then I also make modeling chocolate with bright white Wilton candy melts. I let both sit overnight and then I mix the two together at a 3/1 ratio or 3 parts fondant to 1 part modeling chocolate. I call this my White a Chocolate Fondant and I have many clients that request it often. It holds up well, is NOT greasy, doesn't stretch out of shape and has a beautiful dry texture to it after its on the cake. It's very good to work with and reminds me of FondX.

Now to how I put it all together. First, I made all my tiers 4 inches tall. Each cake was 1" tall and after filling with buttercream inside and then ganashing the outside, this gave
me 4 inches tall exactly. I made a 12", 10", 8", 6" and 4" cake. After the ganash set up, I then put fondant on each tier and let it sit up a couple of hours so as not to put dents or marks ion it while I worked on it. Then I used the small end of a Dresden tool to make the tree mark lines. I used an xacto knife to create the curling effect on some tiers. In an up/down motion, slit line the whole height of cake tier, then using xacto, stick it in that line sideways and about 1/2 inch inside and slowly peel the thin top layer of fondant and curl forward. Then I mixed a drop of Americolor Chocolate Brown soft gel color to a few drops of vodka to make the paint for the tree markings. You can also use lemon extract if you prefer to not use alcohol. Something to note though. Lemon extract and all extracts for that matter, contain alcohol. I prefer vodka or PGA because they work better than the extracts. The alcohol evaporates so you're not really serving a cake with alcohol. I then use a thin paint brush (used only for cakes) to paint the tree mark lines. The tree top swirls I used a small Fan brush from Michael's and held it in one position while I had my turntable spinning. This techniques leaves the perfect tree top lines.

With all cake boards attached this cake was approximately 2 1/2 feet tall.

Thanks you for your interest and if anyone has any questions please email me at mojo721@aol.com

Mona Timonere

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Sep 16, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Gorgeous Birch Wedding Cake
by: Lorelie

Ramona,
Thank you so much for this beautiful and informative post. I so appreciate all of the great tips and advice on how to make a cake like this. I am so sure my visitors will love it too. Wow!

Thank You
Sep 17, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		Birch Bark & Burlap
by: Donna

This is really pretty. Nice clean lines. Love the burlap roses. You should do tutorial on them as well as your technique on your cake. Good job!

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