How To: Decorate an Autumnal Wedding Cake

What you will need…

• 2x 250g Renshaw Chocolate Ready to Roll Icing OR 500g Renshaw Golden Marzipan with added Coco Powder
• 250g Renshaw Teddy Bear Brown Ready to Roll Icing
• 250g Renshaw Leaf Green Flower and Modelling Paste
• 250g Renshaw Grass Green Flower and Modelling Paste

How to make the trees…

• Start with a large ball of Renshaw Chocolate Ready to Roll Icing or Renshaw Golden Marzipan with added Coco Powder to get the desired shade of brown.
• Roll into a sausage that’s starts off thick and trails off to a thin end.
• Using cooled boiled water, mark a wet line up the cake tiers at the side, this will be where the trunk will flow up.
• Apply the long sausage up the cake, starting with the thick end and the base, to create the tree trunk.
• Using a veining/modelling tool, make marks in the trunk to give it a tree like appearance.
• You can then take more of the Renshaw Chocolate Ready to Roll Icing or the Renshaw Golden Marzipan with added Coco Powder and make smaller sausages that will join on to the trunk to form branches, up the various cake tiers.
• Again use the veining/modelling tool to mark the Icing.
• Once you are happy with the tree trunk and branches, it’s time to make the leaves.

• You will need Renshaw Leaf Green and Grass Green Flower and Modelling Paste along with Renshaw Teddy Bear Brown and Chocolate Ready to Roll Icing.
• Select a variety of sizes/shapes of leaf cutters and veiners.
• Using one of the above colours at a time, roll out to 1/2mm think and cut out and vein various leaves.
• Take a foam pad and with a ball tool gently go around the edges of each leaf to thin out the edge and create a little movement.
• Using a piece of foam egg crate you can position your leaves for drying.
• Once you have repeated the process for all the colours, leave them to dry overnight.
• Now you can take a range of edible dusts, and dust the individual leaves to give them depth and an Autumn feel.
• Having dusted your leaves you can apply them to the cake using royal icing to adhere them.

How to make the acorns…

• Start with a ball of Renshaw Teddy Bear Brown Ready to Roll Icing about 1.5cm.
• Roll into a cone shape and pull one side into a gentle peak. This is the bottom of the acorn. Set aside.
• Using Renshaw Chocolate Ready to Roll Icing, roll it out and using a circle cutter (1cm) cut out a circle, not too much wider than the acorn.
• Using a sponge or matt, press to imprint the circle with a little texture. This is the “hat” of the acorn.
• Measure the size comparison by placing the acorn onto the hat. Once sized properly, attach with water.
• With a toothpick gently poke holes around the edge of the hat.
• With your veining/modelling tool, poke a hole into the center of the hat for the stem to sit into.
• Roll a tiny piece of Renshaw Chocolate Ready to Roll Icing into a cone shape with a pointed end.
• With water, attach the stem by placing the cone into the hole, and there you have your acorn.