Making the candy coated popcorn is so easy; just fold melted green confectionery coating into popped popcorn until it's nicely coated.
Working quickly, I added popcorn to the tree, placing a few pieces in between the branches then piling more on top once those pieces were secure. This is a messy job! I washed my hands several times while creating my tree.
If the popcorn starts to harden as you're working, you can put the bowl in the microwave and heat it for 10-15 seconds. You want to get all the popcorn on the tree, then refrigerate it until the candy-coated popcorn hardens.
Once my tree was ready, I used the rest of the green candy coating as edible glue to attach the sour cherry candies (AKA the apples) to the tree.
Right after I took this picture, the tree fell over and I realized it needed larger roots! I added the roots, but worried the tree wouldn't stand up well, so I pushed three skewers into the tree in a crisscross pattern and cut off any excess on the bottom. I let it sit overnight to make sure it would stand up, and it did. So, as I said, just start with a sturdy root structure and your tree should stand strong!
To finish off the cake, I created a picket fence out of white modeling chocolate. I rolled it out on a silicone mat then cut out all the pieces.
Then I attached the fence pieces using water as glue and let them dry for a while.
Once all the components of my cake were done, I pulled the cake out of the freezer and set the tree on top.
Then I finished the cake by piping on the rest of the grass, adding the fence around the cake and sprinkling on some candy apples under the tree.
