I am making a wedding shower cake with an artsy woodland meadow with a feature being a realistic looking tree made out of a modeling chocolate/fondant combination. Making the tree is not the issue, making sure it is stable in the cake is my problem. The cake is only going to be one layer because it is a display cake with the majority of the cake for the shower being cupcakes. Therefore, it would only be 2 inches deep and with the weight of the trunk and the branches and leaves it would need to be secured well.

I have found a flange and pipe extender that I could screw into a wood cake board that would work. However, this cake is for a close friend and I have given her a reduced price and the above solution would cost me about $15.00 with the price of the support and the board.

The cake is to be 12" and the tree will be approximately 6 - 8 inches tall. Do any of you have a recommendation for a cheaper way to secure that tree?

Could you not use a wooden dowl through the tree through to the base of the cake?

The cake is to be only one layer which would be only 2 inches deep and would not provide much support with the dowel through that little bit of cake. Unless someone else comes up with a better idea, I am toying with doing a dummy layer underneath the cake layer and then tapping a sturdy dowel down through the cake, through a cake circle, then through the Styrofoam and then down to the board. That ought to work. But I really don't want the display cake to be 4+ inches tall either.

Hopefully someone will chime in here and give me another idea besides the more expensive one and the dummy cake solution!

Just use plywood (or MDF or scrap of shelving board or anything you can put wood screws into) for the cake board and screw a wooden dowel into it. You can use a wide washer for a little extra stability where the screw goes in; you don't need a pipe flange. The materials won't cost anywhere near $15!

That's how I did the tree cake in my pics. Similar design to what you're talking about -- the base was a 14" round, only 2" high, and the tree trunk was probably about 10" tall. I had another small "base plate" of wood screwed to the top of the dowel to support the cake on top that forms the leaves/crown of the tree. Which was angel food, but even so the whole thing altogether was pretty heavy, and we didn't have any problems with stability.

Holly

How about just taking the cake and tree separately, and assembling on-site? Then, you can just attach cardboard under tree, place a couple of dowels into cake, and let tree sit on top.