Autumn Birch Trees Cake

Jump To Recipe Jump To Video

Today I'm sharing a beautiful fall birch tree cake that is covered in color buttercream leaves. This is such a beautiful fall cake for all sorts of occasions!

I love this cake for it's texture, dimension, and especially its vibrant color scheme. This is a cake that has a uniquely elegant feel, but is also very doable for a variety of skill levels.

Beautiful Buttercream Birch Trees! An Autumn Cake Tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com!

Variations

The piping method that we demonstrate in this free cake video could easily be adapted to a single tier or even sheet cakes with beautiful results.

The type and color of trees could be easily altered for an entirely different look. For example the buttercream trees in our Elephant Clothesline Cake have more branches, brown trunks, and green leaves.

How to Make an Autumn Birch Tree Cake

You can find the full, printable how-to card further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our cake decorating steps!

Today we are working with stacked 8 inch and 6 inch tiers, frosted with vanilla buttercream frosting. You can use our Classic Vanilla Buttercream or our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream.

  1. Frost the 8 inch tier with light blue tinted buttercream. Add green around the bottom of the tier with a small offset spatula. The bottom tier should be on its own cardboard cake circle cut to the size of the cake.
  2. Use a bench scraper to smooth the blue and green together.  
  3. Smooth the buttercream. (You can use the Hot Knife Method or Viva Paper Towel Method)..or just frost as smoothly as you can with a bench scraper or spatula ;0)
  4. Next, frost the 6 inch tier (should be on its own cake cardboard) with blue frosting and smooth. Chill both tiers to firm them up in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
  5. Remove cakes from freezer and add 4 bubble tea straw supports to the bottom tier (cut to the height of the cake). Place on your cake base or pedestal with a smear of buttercream. Top with the 6 inch tier. (We have a video on tier stacking if you'd like to see!)
Autumn Birch Tree Cake

Piping the Birch Trees

  1. Using a small round piping tip or piping bag with the tip snipped away, pipe the white tree trunks all the way around with buttercream. Make sure that the bottom trunk lines up with the trunk on the top tier.
  2. The buttercream trunks fork toward the top of the top tier. I added black lines onto the birch using black coloring gel mixed with a touch of vodka, and applied with a toothpicks.
  3. Apply colorful buttercream leaves using a piping tip 352. Pipe at all different angles for lots of dimension.

That's it! We added a few little piped leaves on our cake pedestal also.

More Fall Cakes

We've made lots of colorful fall cake decorating videos over the years- here are a few more free cake videos for the season- enjoy!

Fall Wreath Cake Tutorial-Free Video

Buttercream Wave Cake with Chrysanthemums-Free Video

Pumpkin Meringues Cake- Free Video

**You can also find a full roundup of our favorite fall cake designs and delicious cake recipes here: Roundup of the Best Fall Cake Designs and Fall Cake Recipes! 

More Tree Themed Cakes

We have a few more "tree themed" cake tutorials to share with you! A few of our favorites are our Fairy House Tree Stump Cake, Autumn Leaves in Chocolate Cake design, and Tree Stump Cake with Carved Initials blog tutorial.

We also love our Sweet Woodland Owls Cake which is great for anniversaries or Valentines Day, and our Quilling with Fondant- Autumn Cake Tutorial for something a little fun a unique!

Collage of Fall Cake Designs and Recipes

There are so many great recipes that would be perfect for this autumn birch tree cake! You can check out our full collection in our cake recipes section.

Some of our fall favorites are our Pumpkin Spice Cake, homemade Spice Cake, Gingerbread Cake and Caramel Cake.

Birch Tree Cake Video

Autumn Birch Trees- A Buttercream Cake Tutorial

Autumn Birch Tree Cake

Learn how to make a beautiful Autumn Birch Trees Cake with beautiful buttercream piping in this free cake decorating video tutorial!

Materials

  • This cake design is made up of an 8" tier and 6" tier, frosted in our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream frosting. (Use your buttercream of choice).
  • Vanilla Buttercream- (We used our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Recipe)
  • Coloring Gels:  We used Americolor Sky Blue, Avocado Green + Wilton Leaf Green, Super Red, Orange, Lemon Yellow, Super Black, White (optional). For our leaves, we tinted about ¼ cup buttercream for each color.
  • Vodka (optional, we used a bit in our "paint" for the birch bark)
  • Piping Tips: Leaf Tip 352
  • Miscellaneous: Disposable Piping Bags, cake boards (each tier is on it's own board), supports of choice (we used 4 bubble tea straws in bottom tier), Bench Scraper, spatula, toothpick or small paint brush

Instructions

  1. Today we are working with stacked 8 inch and 6 inch tiers, frosted with vanilla buttercream frosting.
  2. Frost the 8 inch tier with light blue tinted buttercream. Add green around the bottom of the tier with a small offset spatula. The bottom tier should be on its own cardboard cake circle cut to the size of the cake.
  3. Use a bench scraper to smooth the blue and green together. Clean up any excess frosting around the top with an offset spatula.
  4. Use a Viva paper towel to smooth the crusted buttercream, or use the hot knife method (heat the spatula or bench scraper under hot water before smoothing over chilled frosting).
  5. Next, frost the 6 inch tier with blue frosting and smooth. The 6 inch tier should be on it's own cake cardboard cut to the size of the cake. Chill both tiers to firm them up in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
  6. Remove from freezer and add 4 bubble tea straw supports to the bottom tier (cut to the height of the cake), in the space where the 6 inch tier will be placed. Spread a smear of buttercream on the top center of the 8 inch tier, and place the chilled top tier on top.

Piping the Birch Trees

  1. Using a small round piping tip or piping bag with the tip snipped away, pipe the white tree trunks all the way around with buttercream. Make sure that the bottom trunk lines up with the trunk on the top tier.
  2. The lines/ fork toward the top of the top tier. I added black lines onto the birch using black coloring gel mixed with a touch of vodka, and applied with a toothpicks.
  3. Apply colorful buttercream leaves using a piping tip 352. Pipe at all different angles for lots of dimension.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 8 MB. You can upload: image. Drop files here

20 Comments

  1. Now that is one fabulous looking cake! I absolutely love it! :) The design and colours are wonderful! I like the little fallen leaves on the cake stand too. :)

  2. Oh this cake is so lovely. Is that 352 a Wilton tip? How do you come up with so many different ideas for your cakes. Everyone is so beautiful.