I made this tree stump cake recipe many years ago as a wedding cake and next to the wood cake look it is a lumberjack cake inside! It is all about that wood look! Even though this tree trunk cake seems to be a very difficult cake to make, it is easy when you know the step-by-step process and I’m taking you along in this tree stump cake tutorial.
- You can find even more impressions and videos of the this wedding cake on my coucouweddingcake Instagram account and my other cakes you can look up on my coucoucake Instagram account
- Get inspired by more extraordinary cakes here and you can view all my wedding cake recipes here
Tree Trunk Cake
There are tree stump cake fondant versions out there, but I try to avoid working with fondant as I dislike the taste and this is my main reason for it. The taste of a cake has highest priority, of course it also has to look outstanding, but if it doesn’t taste good then it’s all for nothing in my opinion. So, I checked some tree stump cake ideas and this one turned out to be the best! This cake is ideal for any wooden themed party, as tree birthday cake or as tree stump wedding cake.
How to make a Tree Stump Cake
In this tree stump cake tutorial I’m taking you along the step by step processes of this extraordinary lumberjack cake which looks like a tree stump. There are buttercream tree stump cake versions, but I didn’t use any buttercream in this recipe but instead worked on a super delicious ganache tree stump cake.
Lumberjack Cake
In order to create this lumberjack style I used red sponge cake, chocolate sponge cake, chocolate ganache and chocolate cream cheese frosting, with those four elements I created this style. I incorporated chocolate cream cheese frosting into the lumberjack look to have more frosting between the cakes, as I love frostings and didn’t want to have only cake layers.
- Sponge cakes: I used the same recipe for the red and chocolate sponge cakes. I used red food coloring for the red sponge cake and dark cocoa powder for the chocolate sponge cake. Once they’re baked and cooled the cutting is very important. In order to have perfect squares when cutting the cake the height has to be the same as depth, so I decided for 2cm / 0.8 inch. This means one have to cut out many circles but it’s totally worth it for the look!
- Chocolate ganache: is the perfect frosting to act as a glue between the different cake layers. It doesn’t moisten the cake and it holds it perfectly in shape. Plus it tastes super delicious and fits perfectly with sponge cakes and the chocolate cream cheese frosting.
- Chocolate cream cheese frosting: this is my specialty frosting and I absolutely adore it. It is a mixture of almost equal parts whipped cream, cream cheese and dark chocolate. All of them mixed together become a super chocolatey but still refreshing frosting. It’s dangerous, you won’t get enough of it. Instead of a cake layer circles I’m using those in some parts to add some frosting in between the layers and it also gives another shade to the lumberjack cake.
Tree Stump Wedding Cake
Now we’ve talked all things lumberjack cake and let’s switch to our beautiful tree stump cake recipe. The lumberjack cake is covered in chocolate cream cheese frosting as well. And for the top, to create this wooden look I’m mixing the chocolate cream cheese frosting with some more cream cheese to create a light brownish color and then I’m using a jagged scraper.
- Tree bark: even though the tree bark looks difficult to make it is actually the easiest thing in this tree stump cake tutorial. For this we need melted chocolate, and here it is very important to not expose the chocolate to too much heat, otherwise it’ll have white stains when hardening. Spread the melted chocolate on parchment paper, roll it up and let it cool down, once hardened, roll out the parchment paper and it automatically breaks into tree bark looking pieces. When the chocolate pieces are all on the cake, I brushed some melted milk chocolate on it to create some shade and make it look more resembling to real tree bark.
