Royal Icing Skeletal Tree

I love finding new excuses to make and use black icing! Of course, you could pipe this leafless tree in brown, white, or whatever, too, but this one was definitely made with Halloween in mind! All you'll need are stiff consistency royal icing, round tips #10 and #8, a 3" flower nail and squares of parchment large enough to cover it, a glue stick, a Styrofoam block to rest the nail in, and a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 blend of cornstarch and powdered sugar. Start by sticking the parchment to the flower nail with a dab or three from the glue stick. 

 Using the #10 tip, pipe the trunk and one branch angling off in one direction or another. Imagine the right 2/3 of the letter "Y."

 Add another big branch, but try not to be too symmetrical. Overlap the first line of icing you piped…

…then touch a fingertip to the dusting pouch and gently tap where they overlap to ensure the likelihood of them sticking together.

 Add another large branch, if you like…

 …then switch to the smaller tip #8 and pipe a few smaller branches off these first big branches, tapping all the intersections down gently. You can pipe even smaller branches, but this type of thing tends to be rather fragile. Let the tree dry thoroughly, peel away the parchment, then plant it in a cake or cupcake, perhaps alongside a few royal icing headstones (or maybe put it inside a panoramic egg eyeball).