Christmas cake recipes tend to be handed down as part of the family tradition and the same cake mixture and decorative scheme produced year on year. And that’s a great part of Christmas: tradition. After all, if your granny or other family member hit upon a perfect recipe that works time after time, why change things?
The thing is, there are some rather fabulous looking cakes being created and shared across the internet via You Tube. So today’s post rounds up some of the amazing designs for your delectation and delight – and you never know, you might just be inspired to follow the tutorial and have a go at something just that bit different this year!
The first tutorial I’m going to share with you is for a cake in the design of a penguin. The end result is a super cute cake that must prove extremely difficult to cut into. After all that hard work, you’ll really need to take lots of photos before wielding the knife. Although I love this design, personally, I cannot stand desiccated coconut and as this is a key ingredient, this won’t be a cake I’ll be tackling myself. The tutorial does not cover how to make the actual cake or chocolate ganache but explains how to create the penguin shape and design. In total, it’s just over 10 minutes long.
Another stunning looking design is this Christmas Wreath cake. In terms of practicality, the wreath shape will work well when you come to slice it up to share with friends and family. You’ll be able to slice it into smaller pieces for anyone who’s trying to hold back from over indulgence at this festive time, but still wants a “taste”. If you want to have go at making this cake yourself, you will need a grass tip for the green frosting.
For me, chocolate is not a traditional Christmas cake flavour or ingredient. Dried fruit, nuts, alcohol: yes, chocolate: not so much. However, that’s not to say that I’m not open to new ideas. And this cake from Steve’s Kitchen could just persuade me that chocolate is the way to go!
I think this is an innovative idea – creating a round cake that resembles a Christmas pudding is a good idea of itself. But to then cover it in Maltesers (and who doesn’t love them) is just brilliant. With this video, you get step by step instructions on how to make the cake, as well as how to produce the fabulous decoration. Now, I haven’t tried this cake but my thoughts are that there’s rather a lot of cake in each slice and there might be some merit in slicing through each half and adding some additional frosting, perhaps a layer of buttercream? Anyway, you decide!
This next video is a tutorial showing how to make a “Christmas Tree” cake. One of the things I like about this video is that the instructions appear as subtitles so it’s easy to see what the next step is and what equipment you need without the danger of missing anything spoken. And, of course, it’s easy to press “pause” if needs be.
As this cake is made from several layers, you need some form of dowelling to provide the strength for to help support the weight of the cake above. You will need a cake dummy for the base or, if using real edible cake, additional dowels or supports will be required.
This is a fun cake to make and would look very special on the big day. You can always change the decorating scheme and choose your own design. For some reason, whilst drifting off to sleep last night, I imagined it with a pink and silver theme – you know, pink frosting instead of the green – which might just look very winter wonderland. It’s up to you! It doesn’t require any special skills to make so why not give it a go? Do feel free to share any pics with us here at Crafty Bug if you do make a Christmas Tree cake.
Now if you fancy a bright cake that will really cheer up the dark and drab days of deepest winter, I commend the following to you! Definitely not a traditional fruit cake with royal icing, it’s a bright and breezy festive green and red with oodles of buttercream frosting. The tutorial doesn’t cover making the actual cake batter but starts with the assumption you have already done this. It focuses on how to get the fabulous stripy effect and I think the method of layering the different coloured batters in the baking tins seems straightforward to do. Not too time consuming but a really striking result at the end. And of course, you could always add your own flavouring as well as the colourings to either or both the cake batters and frosting. It might be fun to choose a flavouring which no-one would expect from the colour scheme. Lemon for example. Or even a festive almond and amaretto taste!
For all your piping needs, we love this comprehensive set of 55 Wilton Piping Nozzles. The set comes in a useful purple and white storage / carry case and includes round tips, star tips, multi opening tips (for grass, hair etc) and a whole lot more. An investment buy or a great gift.
