Awesome Tree Stump Tinkerbell Birthday Cake Idea

Deciding on a Tinkerbell Birthday Cake Idea

There has only been two times total for both kids that I didn’t make my kids birthday cake myself. It’s so much fun yet can be a bit stressful. This year, the youngest decided she wanted a Tinkerbell birthday cake. After looking all over Coolest Birthday Cakes and Pinterest for a Tinkerbell birthday cake idea, I had my plan. I found a ton of cute cakes that were covered in fondant. However, I’ve never been a fan. To me I feel likes it’s like taking the easy way out and it tastes horrible (sorry if you disagree). The cake I fell in love with online was a tree stump and had Tinkerbell on top with a pretty gum paste flower.

Baking the Cake

I made 2 cakes from a 9×3 round pan. After they cooled to room temp, I always put my cakes in freezer for several hours or overnight. (They are much easier to work with from the freezer and thawed a bit, if you don’t already know.) After putting a frosting filling between layers, I “shaved” all the edges so it was completely rounded evenly. I saved all the shaved pieces for the tree stump roughness/roots and added them here and there attaching to cake with frosting. After I got the look of a tree stump that I was happy with, I did a thin crumb coat layer of frosting. Then I put it in fridge for 15-20 mins to chill/harden up a bit.

Frosting the Cake

Lets skip to the frosting real quick… I used a white buttercream frosting, that I LOVE! I saved a small cereal bowl of white so I could color that green for the grass. The rest I colored with chocolate brown food coloring gel. I added it a little at a time because I needed a really light brown for the tree rings. Once I got my light brown I took 1 1/2 -2 cups and put it in the middle of the cake and smoothed it over the top, leaving 1/2 inch or so bare at edge of cake for it to met up with the “bark”.

The bark color needs to be much darker than the center of the stump. Once you add the frosting all over the cake, stick it back in the fridge for the frosting to chill a bit. In order to get the rings of the tree I used a basting brush and circled it around the top. For the bark, I took two different size forks and ran them from the bottom up. Be ask “messy” with this as possible, tree bark isn’t straight lines. For the grass I piped it with a grass tip. Once I added Tinkerbell to the top, I wanted a bit more “something”, the “mushrooms” are just chocolate melting wafers and the flowers are fresh picked from my yard.