Tutorial on how to make a realistic looking tree stump cake. A great project for beginning fondant users. I'll show you how to make decorations to turn it into a home for gnomes, faeries, elves or Peter Rabbit. Complete with, door, toadstools, ladybugs, moss and more.

Things needed:

White Fondant

2" chip brush

Artist brushes

Vodka for painting. All alcohol evaporates. It is safe for kids!

Gnomes or other cake toppers

Dirt - crushed Oreo cookies

Toadstools and stones made in our previous video

Ladybugs - red M&Ms and black gel food color or black edible marker

Moss - crushed graham crackers and green food color

Bushes - green fondant and scissors

Flowers - pink. white and green fondant Door - brown and black fondant and white food color

Step 1: Prepare Your Cake

Bake and frost with chocolate buttercream a 2 layer 6" cake.

Step 2: Cut Fondant for the Top of the Cake

Roll out fondant to 1/8" thick and use a cake pan to cut it into a circle. Save any scraps of fondant created.

Step 3: Attach the Fondant to the Top of the Cake

Use a fondant smoother to ensure it is firmly attached to the top of the cake. Then trim the fondant even with the edge of your cake.

Step 4: Create Tree Rings in the Fondant

Using the end of an artist brush or fondant sculpting tool draw concentric circles in the fondant. This makes the tree rings on the top of the stump. Do NOT cut into the fondant just leave impressions.

Step 5: Paint the Top of Your Cake a Golden Brown

Using a 2 inch chip brush paint the top gold using an Americolor gold gel food color mixed with vodka. Paint in concentric circles.

Step 6: Add Brown Highlights

After the gold color has dried for just a couple minutes, paint the top using straight vodka and Americolor Chocolate brown in circles around the top of the cake. This gives it brown highlights and brings out the tree rings previously created.Let this dry for an hour.

Step 7: Cut Fondant for the Sides of the Cake

Measure the height of your cake. Cut a rectangle of fondant to the height of the cake plus 1/4 inch. Save any scraps of fondant created.

Step 8: Cover the Sides of the Cake With Fondant

Attach the fondant to the side of the cake. You may need to brush some water onto the fondant to adhere it to the cake. Continue to add more rectangles of fondant until the side of the cake has been covered. Do not worry if there are some places where the cake shows through.

Step 9: Make the Bark for You Tree Stump

Take the scraps you saved and attach them with water around the sides of the cake to create the bark.Rough up the scraps by pulling pieces off, use a knife to cut into them. Be sure to overlap them in places to give it a 3 dimensional look. You can use your scraps to form roots and knots for the stump.

Step 10: Paint the Sides of the Stump

Using vodka and the Americolor Chocolate Brown paint the sides of the cake using the chip brush. Use artist brushes to get into places you cannot get with the chip brush.

Step 11: Decorate the Cake

I decorated my stump cake to be a fairy garden. I used Gnomes, some fondant flowers, ladybugs and more... You can decorate the stump for any theme you want or just leave it as a plain tree stump