How to Make a Wood Effect Fondant Cake Board (Step-by-Step Tutorial)

Do you envy cake makers who always have fabulous designer cake boards, (even before they add the cake)?  Beautifully creative and decorative boards can give your cake a professional edge and that ‘wow’ factor! Everyone will surely love it. I would definitely put some Tie Dyed Cakes on it.

What You Need to Make a Wood Effect Cake Board:

• Icing Sugar;
• Vodka;
• Toothpick;
• Pastry brush or large paintbrush;
• Brown color paste;
• White ready roll sugar paste (ready roll fondant);
• Ruler (mine is from Homebase in the UK, a large hardware store);
• Cake drum/board. (I used a 10″ square);
• Ribbon;
• Glue stick;
• Paint palette (bowl is fine if you don’t have one).

DIY Wood Effect Fondant Cake Board (Images Tutorial)

Step 1: Dust your work surface with the icing sugar and knead the fondant a little in preparation for Step 2.

Step 2:

Roll your fondant to 1cm thick, large enough to cover your size cake board.  (The fondant needs to be no less than 8mm thick in order to make the grooves for the wooden floor effect). Using your brush dipped in a little water dampen (but not soak) your cake board so that the fondant will adhere to it, then lift it onto your board.

Step 3:

Trim the edges and neaten with a sharp knife. (See picture below).

Step 4:

Place your ruler beneath the covered board and measure along every 2 inches (or however large you want them) and make a mark in the fondant along with every 2-inch point.  Turn the board 180 degrees and then repeat on the opposite side. (If you have an uneven board, e.g. 11 inches you will need to adjust your measurements slightly). Actually, you can make it with many segments as you want but they must have an equal measurement.

Step 5:

Using your ruler match up the top and bottom marks and press firmly into the fondant making a long-lined groove (to make the floorboard effect). Continue along each indent until your board looks like the picture above.

Step 6:

Taking a small knife, draw some straight lines on the board, making sure the lines are vertical, for the wood grain effect.

step 7:

Using a toothpick, add some of the color paste to the palette and add some vodka to make a color wash.  Mix with a brush to get the color even.  (You may find it handy to have a piece of kitchen paper handy to wipe off some of the excess colors before you apply it to your board).

Take your pastry brush or paintbrush and color wash the board, ensuring you paint it from top to bottom in the same direction.  The vodka will completely evaporate and the color will stain the fondant giving it a varnished wooden effect.  Leave to dry for a few hours (or overnight) and then add a second application of color. Vodka is very useful, you can even make gummy bears out of it. Check it out here.

Step 8:

Once dry, add a ribbon to your board. Take your glue stick and rub it around the outer edge of the cake board and apply your ribbon, cutting it so that the two ends meet.

…….And you don’t have to stop there. You can do baby pink and blue floorboards with block colors too and they will look equally gorgeous…..

Suggest Read: Checkerboard Cakes

Make sure your board is completely dry and firm before you put your cake on it, ideally 48 hours before (I like to do mine the week before).

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial. Do you have any suggestions? Do you want to suggest improvements on how to make a wood effect cake board? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Happy caking! x

Gillian

Eating a cake is satisfying, but making one is more exciting yet fulfilling. Here on our website, we offer different tutorials about cake making, cake topper ideas, many treat recipes, and more baking-related topics. Check us out now! Or you might have an interest about How To Cover A Cake Board with Rolled Fondant.

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