Oh wow, it’s been a while! I’m so glad to be back and am super excited about the upcoming holiday season. Are you feeling the Christmas baking itch yet?
For now, just sharing a wedding cake I made with a team of helpers, for a friend… You may have noticed I don’t do many cakes (cookies and cupcakes are more my thing), so I was happy to have the help of my cake maker friend Lori-Anne with putting the cake together, and so grateful to Maureen, the art teacher at our school, who was the artist behind the birch bark look.
For inspiration, I collected my favorite photos of birch bark cakes on Pinterest (you can see that here), which led me to this amazing birch bark stencil, a perfect base for the fondant birch which went around each cake. Maureen painted the fondant with brown food paste coloring and brown petal dust as well. If you’re interested in more details on how the cake was made, please feel free to drop me a line in the comment section below.
See you soon with some holiday sweets!
xo,
Marian
Andrea says
Beautiful wedding cake. Welcome back we missed your inspirational ideas
Maria Theresia says
Hi…Beautiful wedding cake. Gorgeous work! Love the flower’s. Lucky couple to have you as a friend. Looking forward to your future posts.
ML
Toni says
Hi Marian! Such a beautiful cake…….a perfect Spring wedding idea. And yes, if you would share how the cake was made, that would be lovely. Thank you very much!
Marian (Sweetopia) says
Thanks for the comments everyone!
I’ll share more on how this cake was made, and please feel free to ask more questions if I haven’t covered a detail you’re interested in.
So, the top two tiers are styrofoam dummies underneath and the bottom tier is pumpkin cake with buttercream icing and a cream cheese filling. I made a real cake of the top tier as well, but kept it in a separate box so the couple can freeze it until their 1st anniversary.
The top two tiers could be done ahead, which was helpful time-wise.
The tier sizes were 6 inch, 9 inch and 12 inch.
To cover the cakes we cut out the top circles out of fondant first (I just used round cake boards to trace the template), using a pizza cutter. Maureen dusted the circles with various shades of brown, yellow and beige edible dusts, and then painted the brown edges and cracks with brown Wilton food paste.
To make the bark, I rolled and cut long strips of fondant (long enough to wrap around the cake), making sure the strips were the height of the cake (4 inches) plus a little extra… About 5 – 6 inches wide. I worked with only one strip at a time and needed to work quickly as my fondant would dry out if I fiddled with decorating too long. (I used Satin Ice fondant which I love the taste of). Once the strip was cut, I used the stencil mentioned in the post above, and dark brown royal icing (brown gel mixed with a little black gel), to start the base of the birch look. Please watch the video which goes along with the stencil.. it’s very helpful.
I used the technique shown in the video to roll the fondant onto the sides of the cake. It helps to have more than one person, especially for the larger sized cake.
Next, Maureen dusted brown, yellow and beige edible dusts lightly onto the fondant, and painted brown lines to imitate a bark look. We pressed a bark impression mould onto the sides of the cake as well, to give it a rougher look.
The top of the bark we ripped a bit, leaving a bit of an edge as well.
Once all three tiers were assembled, we added in gumpaste flowers which I bought from Petra International in Toronto. Some came pre-dusted and some I dusted to match the brides’ bouquet.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions or have any tips for others on making this cake!
Marilyn says
Beautiful wedding cake Marian! Looking forward to your holiday sweets posts.
Judi says
WOW!that cake is fabulous!
tya nelson says
Beautifully done! I love the whole thing! if you dont mind, I would love the details on the cake as well! thank you so much!
Donna says
Gorgeous. Love it.
Like you, I decorate more cookies and cupcakes rather than birthday cakes etc. Would love more detail on how this cake was made.
Pam says
Beautiful – I also would love to know more detail on how it was done.
Susan says
Please share the details! The cake is beautiful.
Holly says
That’s a stunner. Count me amongst the eager followers who’s love more details.
niner @ninerbakes.com says
Ohhhhh Marian,
when I saw the heart and A+K, I smiiiiled, what a cute cake that is!!
Looks so so real too! 🙂
Like Holly in the comments mentioned: That’s a stunner! I totally agree <3
Thanks for sharing this beautiful cake with us. You ladies were a great team on this one, it's perfect.
Love and xoxo,
niner
marian says
Thanks for the comments! xo
Sue {Munchkin Munchies} says
Absolutely stunning!
Can says
Hi Marian! I love your work and have a question on royal icing that I will put here in the hopes that you will be able to see it! Hope you dont mind that its not too relevant to your lovely wedding cake post 🙂
Im planning on doing some Christmas cookies where the red and white royal icing will be next to each other. I saw on your old posts that you suggest adding one colour and letting them dry for 24hours before adding the next colour to prevent bleeding. I’m wondering if this will cause the cookie to go stale? Especially since only a small part of the cookies surface will be covered during the drying period as the other colours have not yet been added.
Thank you so much!
marian says
Hi Can,
If it’s not too humid where you live it won’t be as much of an issue, especially if it’s a small area you’re decorating. Maybe in this case I would suggest maybe letting that first section dry for at least an hour before doing the rest. Also check out the notes at the bottom of this post for a few suggestions about white and red icing beside one another.
xo
Sweet Cake Fetish says
Beautiful! Thank you for the instructions!!
Deb says
Are those real flowers?
Michelle says
My granddaughter wants me to make this for her wedding. Beautiful! Thank you for your helpful tips!
Joanna Melcher says
Do you have instructions or a tutorial on the birch cake?
Tammi Machia says
Hi. I am coming upon making my first wedding cake for a friend of mine. Your cake comes closest to what I’m looking for. I would appreciate any help you could give me. I am doing cupcakes besides but the bride still wants a 3 tier cake to go with it. Thank you in advance for any help.
Reina Tavarez says
Hi can you please give me details how this cake was made?
Penny Emerson says
I would love your details for this birch tree cake please!