Autumn leaves wedding cakes are a nice change from floral cakes, and there are a lot of edible options to use for the leaves.
Whether you choose gumpaste, fondant, chocolate, or wafer paper to make the edible leaves, you’ll end up with a pretty cake for your fall-themed wedding reception.
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Fondant leaves for a wedding cake.
One option is fondant leaves, which can be applied directly to the cake itself, or dried to end up being shaped like a curled leaf. The appearance of fondant leaves will be a little less delicate than gumpaste because it doesn’t roll out as thin, but it will still give you a nice look.
Fondant never dries 100% hard, it’s always more chewable than gumpaste. It will dry hard enough to keep its shape, though, so you’ll be able to arrange the leaves on a cake in a 3D way.
Applique leaves on the cake tiers.
Another way to add fall leaves to a wedding cake is to apply them directly to the cake itself. This will work if they’re fondant because it won’t firm up and you’ll be able to cut through it.
This cake was completely covered in fondant leaves, then painted with edible food coloring paint and luster dusts to give it a shine.
Dress-inspired cake design.
This wedding cake had light blue fondant and copper and bronze-patined fondant elaves, with matching color streaks painted on the sides of the cake to create movement.
It was inspired by a dress that appeared on a tv show in a scene that took place in the 1960’s.
Gumpaste leaves for the wedding cake.
Gumpaste can be rolled out a lot thinner than fondant, so when you make leaves with it they can look a little more realistic than fondant leaves.
However, not every gumpaste leaf is realistic. I’ve seen plenty that were thick and unnatural-looking.
I used to sell gumpaste leaves, and I would airbrush them with different shades of red, orange and yellow food coloring to give them a varied appearance. That makes them look more realistic, and as the colors are layered on it gave them a depth that you can’t get if they’re juat painted with a single color.
The advantage to using gumpaste leaves on a fall wedding cake is that you can dry them in curved positions and they’ll keep their shape on the cake tiers.
The downside is that they’re very hard when they dry, so if people try to eat them they won’t be excited.
Chocolate leaves.
Using chocolate or candy clay to make leaves for an autumn-themed cake is a good option that your guests will enjoy.
Chocolate leaves are fairly easy to make, and if you use candy clay (modeling chocolate) then it can be molded around a cake tier to fit on it. (To see an article about making chocolate leaves, click here.)
This cake with square tiers was covered with candy clay leaves and painted with edible gold paint as an accent.
Wafer paper leaves for fall wedding cakes.
I’m 100% biased on this because I’ve used all four kinds of edible material to make wedding cakes with fall leaves, and I know that wafer paper makes the most realistic-looking autumn leaves.
Because the leaves are printed on edible paper, they can be made using photos of real leaves, then cut out and curled using steam to give them a realistic shape.
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Using wafer paper leaves gives you the best result if you’re looking for realism, and if the leaves are printed on both sides like the ones that I sell are, you don’t have to worry about making sure that the unprinted side isn’t obvious.
(To see my wafer paper fall leaves, click here.)
The downside of using wafer paper is that they’re sensitive to moisture, so you have to be careful handling the leaves, and if the wedding cake has to be refrigerated you’ll need to be able to control the condensation that can form when the cake is removed from the fridge.
If it’s fall or winter, though, the weather probably won’t be as humid, so condensation might not be as big a problem.
Another thing about wafer paper leaves is that they’re flat, and they’ll need to be curled using steam to make them look more realistic if you want that appearance. For an article about how to do that, click here: How to curl wafer paper leaves.
