Nothing but BARK - Woodland / Stump Cake

Stump Cakes are all the rage for "guy" parties.  Everything from Baby's First Birthday to Bro-Showers to Grand-Paw's 80th birthday are going with the Woodland theme. So when a friend request one I jumped on the chance to give it a try.  And despite my initial angst, the cake was surprisingly easy to make.

There were three parts to this cake: 1) the  Ax, 2) a cake board that looked like wood and was thick enough to hold up the Ax, and 3) the "bark" of the stump.  

To me the "bark" was the biggest unknown.  I researched a few different ways of making the bark (chocolate curls, fondant ropes, bark impression mats, etc), but decided on the easiest method I could find: melted chocolate.  

I just melt some chocolate (I actually used some ganache I had leftover from a previous cake), and using a offset spatula smeared lines of chocolate on some wax paper.  My cake was 7-1/2 inches tall so I marked off lines on the wax paper to make sure my chocolate lines were long enough.  I made the surface extra lumpy and uneven, because, hey, when have you ever seen a smooth piece of tree bark. And make sure you make them relatively thick - if the chocolate is too thin it will crumble when you peal them from the paper.

After the wax paper was filled with "bark", I popped it into the freezer till it harden.  Then carefully, cautiously I removed the harden strips of chocolate from the paper.  Once free from the wax paper, I stuck them to the side of the cake using chocolate buttercream as glue.

How easy is that?  And don't worry if the strips break into pieces.  Just slap the pieces anywhere you want.  The beauty of a stump cake is that you DON'T want it to look perfect.

And the gaps?  No worries there.  If you end up with large gaps between your chocolate strips...

Just use a paint brush and fill in the holes with a little bit of melted chocolate.  But what if your melted chocolate is a different color from your chocolate bark strips??  Well, that's all the better.  The various shades will make your Stump Cake look even more realistic.

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Next to give the bark a little "life", I painted on some edible luster dust.  I used brown and black and some white. I tried green for a moss-like effect, but it didn't look very good.

I went a little overboard with the white, but after a night in the refrigerator the white dulled down a bit.

PS: Here is the top of the cake.  I just swirled the "tree rings" into the buttercream using a spoon.

The second challenge to this cake was the Ax.  I thought about using a real one, but they were too expensive (and not really food safe).  So I made my own!!    I built an armature out of balsa wood and aluminum foil, and then covered the handle section in tan fondant.  I scored the length of the handle to give it a wood-like look.

Next I used black fondant to make the ax blade.  I scored random lines and dings in the soft fondant to make the blade look old and used.

A little powder food color in black and brown to make the blade and wooden handle look more life-like...

And then a final touch of edible silver powder food color to give the blade a shiny look...

The final challenge of this Stump Cake was the board under the cake.  I wanted it to look like wooden planks, so I used a technique I found on YouTube called  Weathered Fondant Effect Using Wafer Paper by Kass. Again the technique is so easy and yet it gives amazing results.  The finished fondant board looks like real weathered wood.  Here is an example from the Bear Head Smash Cake that I also made for this Woodland Theme party. This board was made with gray fondant.

The first step to making the weathered board is to choose the fondant for the base color.  For the Stump Cake I wanted a brown toned board, so I gathered up a bunch of fondant scraps in all different colors and squished them together.  I know it looks like some strange sea creature, but it is fondant.

Roll out the fondant to fit the size of the edible wafer paper, and then trim the fondant to fit the paper.

Wet the wafer paper with water.

Use a small roller to roll the fondant and wafer paper together.   The fondant will stretch and thin as you roll it, but the wafer paper can't stretch so it will rip and tear instead.

The more you roll, the more the wafer paper will be shredded and the more the "wood" will look weathered.

When you get the look you want, use a strip cutter to cut the fondant into evenly sized "planks".

Then simply place the planks on your cake board.  I wasn't sure if I would have enough of my "sea creature" colored fondant, so I skimped and left the center of the cake board empty.

I let the board dry overnight, and then I added some additional color with the edible powder food colors in black and brown.

And below is the finished "weathered wood" fondant board.  A night in the refrigerator also increased the "weathered" look.  The cold air really dried out the wafer paper and made it curl up even more.  This technique is so neat.

So this ends my Stump Cake adventure.   Give it a try for your next Guy party, it really is a fun (and easy) cake to make. 


Happy Decorating,

Carol