Ok here are the leaves I tried. I stole a fake leaf off one of my fall decorations and took some rose leaves from my rose bush outside. I did the fake leaf backwards and it is bugging me, I keep wanting to turn it around I did the rose leaves on the backside and they turned out great. Dusted with some luster dust and they turned out really cool. I tried white and dark chocolate.
Thanks for all the great ideas, and to the original poster for starting this thread I learned so much.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PRETTY, i love 'em!!!

Wow!!! Those look great!!! I cannot wait to try them. Thanks for your idea melysa!

Those look fantastic!

Hi -

I was just reading this post about the fall leaves made from chocolate and dusted with luster dust. They are beautiful! I would love to make them for my daughter's fall party in her class, but I'm curious if the leaves are edible with the luster dust on them? I know if I make those leaves, the kids are going to want to eat them. I've never worked with luster dust before, so I don't know anything about it. Also, is it something I could pick up at Michael's or is it special order?

Thanks,
Gina

Thanks all, there is a newbie contest going around and I am going to submit a cake since I am pretty new at cake decorating. I decided to try techniques I have never done before for the cake.
Melysa, I peeked into your cake photos and wow, your cakes and cupcakes are incredible, I love the Retro flower cake it is so pretty, and the Haunted pumkin patch cake wow, I love everything about it! Have a great day everyone!

chelseafitz your leaves are awesome. Nice work!

There are some amazing leaves on here (sheesh, I'm saying that leaves are amazing)! Thanks for the tip Melysa.

I just did a wedding with fall cupcakes and did the chocolate leaves as well, everyone loved them and couldn't believe they were chocolate. The cupcakes are in my images if you want to see how they turned out

I love doing fall leaves. I have several different cutters and veiners. I do make them out of fondant/gum paste and dry them to have "motion". I airbrush them and sometimes dust them too.

Here is a link to I
http://cakessospecial.com/Allison_Manzer_Falling_Leaves.html


I am demo'ing fall leaves in Sugar Land, Texas this weekend. I hope they turn out right!

Thanks bobwonderbuns, so I didn't make it in time for the newbie contest, and it was supposed to only be 1 tier, so I thought I would post my cake here and show it off . The layers are 8 and 6 and all those leaves are less than an inch in height. It was a lot of fun making them and I was happy with how it turned out.
Thanks all, and have a great day, or night.
Chelsea
p.s. sorry it is so big!

Thanks to you all for your tips and advice! The leaves turned out great and the client loved it!

meganmo27, your cake is so pretty, I love the leaves and the bow. I am glad your client loved it, but whats not to love about it!! Great job .

Thanks! This cake was alot of fun to make!

I just made some for a cake at work and I got the coloring right but I had problems with the ball tool -- going from the outside of the leaf in to make the leaves curl up -- it looked like a big ball dent in the end of the leaf! The leaves were fondant/gumpaste mix. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

meganmo27, you're cake turned out AWESOME! Your leaves look like heat treated copper. Beautiful!

I, too, made a cake Sunday after reading this thread. I'm a newbie so the cake I made doesn't compare, but I was happy with it and of course my non-caking co-workers were amazed. I colored gumpaste in yellow, red-orange, and red. I used a storebought cutter for the small oak leaf, but the other two were hand cut from templates I made.

Although I thinned the edges with a ball tool, I will try to roll them thinner next time. I veined them and manipulated them and then dried them on a cookie sheet that I had layered with crumpled foil. When they were dry enough to handle I dry brushed them with gold and bronze lustre dusts. The dusts lessened the intensity of the colors, so they didn't appear as richly colored as I would have liked them to.

meganmo27, if you would like to share how you colored your leaves, I would like to try your technique for a Thanksgiving cake. If not, I understand.

What veiner are you all using? Anyone have a link ? Thanks.

Kim,
Thank you so much! Your leaves turned out beautiful!! I just used plain white gumpaste, rolled thin and cut out with cookie cutter. Dried on crumpled up parchment paper. I tried dry dusting them but didn't get the effect that I wanted so I mixed with lemon extract and then painted the leaves. I actually mixed some colors and tried to do some blending of different colors on the leaves so they would look more natural. I used bronze, gold, pearl gold, claret and mixed pumpkin spice with the pearl gold. The only thing I would do differently is vein my leaves-forgot to do that but that's what happens when you have 2 kids running around the house I too am a newbie-have been doing cakes for about 10 months now and am still learning

Not sure if the question was for me, but I'm using a tool that came in the new Wilton gum paste kit. I picked up at Michael's when I had a 50% off coupon.

Wet painting definitely made a difference. Thanks for sharing! I took my first Wilton course in March, so I'm "newbier" than you! I understand about the kids. Although my girls are 9 and 11, I'm the Kool-Aid mom so my house is usually filled with all the neighborhood kids. It just so happens that both of them slept at friends' houses Saturday night so Sunday I had the house to myself, except for DH. And he was watching football, so I was pretty much alone.

Looks like you're having as much fun as I am trying new things. It feels great doesn't it?

I love making cakes and trying out new things! It's my creative outlet My kids are 5 and 15 months. My son, 15months, is WILD!! into everything!! But a ton of fun my daughter is usually my official taste tester and so is my hubby if he's home.
Where are you in LA? I'm in texas just north of Dallas. looks like we're neighbors. Were you affected by all of the hurricanes?
Looking forward to seeing more from you!
Megan

Kim your leaves look great. Love the colors.

Thanks, Jen.

Meganmo: I'm in the St. Martinville area. We were visited by Gustav, but were only without power for three days. A mere nuisance compared to those who were severely affected by both Gustav and Ike. Thanks for asking.

I'm looking forward to seeing more from you too!

All of your leaves look wonderful everyone!! I am amazed and very impressed! Thank you for sharing!

Thanks Kim the question was for anyone! Funny I just bought that kit with the last 50% off coupon to !

I just made this one. I used brightly colored fondant, marbled and rolled out. I liked the colors better after the 2nd or 3rd rolling, they were better blended and more muted. But the cake was fun and bright and everyone loved being able to eat the leaves. I wish I had veined them and shaped them a little curvier.