Bridal Shower Cake: Autumn Tree and Cupcakes

Sorry it's been so long. I haven't been idle but I've gotten myself very into crafting lately and have let it completely take over my free time.

Prior to my latest crafting obsession, I was asked to make a cake for a friend's bridal shower. The hostesses of said shower wanted an autumn leafy theme and decided that they wanted a small round cake with cupcakes underneath. Totally do-able. Then they told me the rest. They wanted me to build a tree to sit on top of the cake with a few leaves attached to it and then have leaves all over the cupcakes as if they had fallen off the tree and landed on the cupcakes.

I read somewhere that you should never say you can't do something. Say yes, accept the job and then figure out how to do it later. I don't know if this is an acceptable motto if one wants to live a stress-free life but I followed the advice anyhow.

For the tree, I decided that cereal treats and fondant would probably be the best but it needed something to make it sturdy. So I took a small dowel and wrapped it in wire to make each branch off of the tree and the roots at the bottom. Then I wrapped the whole thing in copious amounts of aluminum foil and made sure that it stood up on its own.

About a month before the shower, I made a trial tree. It took me a few hours from start to finish but basically went without a hitch. Therefore, I concluded that everything would go swimmingly. 

The day before the shower, I packed up all my baking stuff and headed to Mama's for the use of the huge kitchen. First I made all the cupcakes; 24 chocolate (recipe here) and 24 cannoli cream (recipe to come in following post) and then the cake. That was completed quickly enough and without any issues. On to the tree...

Unfortunately, the tree refused to cooperate. This time the cereal treats would not stick to the foil no matter what I did. The stupid tree was made and re-made at least four times and I was very close to angrily throwing the entire thing into my mother's pond. Here it should be noted that my mother should get a medal for most problem-solving patient mother. Without her, that tree would have been in the pond.

Her idea was to wrap the tree in paper towel which we sealed with melted chocolate and corn syrup and then wrap it with the cereal treats. The cereal treats stuck to the paper towel and then we wrapped the whole thing in fondant. Appetizing it is not but it worked! **insert deep sigh of relief**

When the tree was finally finished, we placed it carefully on a plate, wrapped it in plastic wrap and packed it very carefully in a large plastic bin surrounded by crumpled newspaper. With the bin and six containers of unfrosted cupcakes, I headed to the site of the shower. Fortunately, I was able to leave all the cake and assembly necessities at the shower site the night before.

The day of the shower, I assembled the whole cake tower. Tree placed on top of cake ... hold breath while letting go... and, blessed relief, it stayed standing!! Then onto the decorating, which is the most fun part of anything. Some frosting grass and flowers added to it made it really feel like a tree in a meadow.

Oh, I forgot, I also discovered the joys of working with gum paste. Gum paste is like edible clay. It is so much fun to work with. Using gum paste, tinted with food colouring, I made autumn leaves, flowers and two little lovebirds in a nest for the top of the tree.

The quarter is for size comparison. It did not go on the cake.

Nesting birdies

And Voila!

I am very glad that I said yes to this project and that my friends gave me such a challenge. Without their challenging me, I don't know if I would have ever thought of doing this. Thanks to them... and Mama of course.

* I have to just say that the tree was supposed to have six branches, three major branches and three small ones off of the major ones. I forgot to add the three small branches and I cannot tell you how irritating that is to me every time I look at a picture of the tree. Just for me, so I can sleep at night, try to imagine it with six branches. Thanks