XMas Cake - Easy to Make Christmas Cake

For this cheery Christmas cake start with a simple yellow cake, but to help liven things up replace one of the Tablespoons of vanilla extract with peppermint extract. This will help add another depth of flavor to your cake.

For the butter cream, start with this simple icing:

Butter Cream Recipe:

Ingredients

1/2-cup butter, softened

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

2 tablespoons milk

1-teaspoon vanilla or ½ teaspoon vanilla and ½ teaspoon peppermint extract

1lb (4 cups) sifted confectioners’ sugar

3-4 tablespoons light corn syrup (optional, it helps thin the icing)

Method:

Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer until very smooth and light in color. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.

When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Cover with a damp cloth until ready to use. It can be stored for about ten days in the refrigerator before using, but re-whip it before use.

You can replace the vanilla with peppermint extract for added flavor if you wish!

Method for preparing the finished cake:

Materials Needed:

-Round cake cardboard (8 to 12 inch, depends on size of cake)

-Piping bag with smallest round tip and a star tip

-Parchment paper cone (optional)

-White rolled fondant

-Black food coloring (gel recommended)

-Red food coloring (gel recommended)

-8 or 10 inch long bamboo skewer

-Sifter

-Bread knife

-Turntable (optional)

-Metal cake spatula

-Rolling pin

-Fondant smoother (optional)

-Ribbon (optional)

-Sharp paring knife

When cake is cooled, cut (torte) the cake in half using a bread knife. With half the cake on a cake cardboard, spread a thin amount of butter cream on the cake and for added texture, sprinkle crushed candy canes or peppermint flavored candies on top.

Place the other half of the cake on top, sandwiching the butter cream and crushed candy pieces. Spread a thin layer of the butter cream on top of the cake and spread around and down the sides, icing the cake (using a turntable helps)! You only want a thin layer of butter cream here since this cake will be topped with rolled fondant.

Place thinly iced cake in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or until the icing has become hard (can do this a day ahead of time).

On a clean, smooth counter top, dust the surface with a mixture of equal parts sifted cornstarch and powdered sugar to help prevent the white rolled fondant from sticking. Gently knead the white rolled fondant on the table to smooth out. Using a smooth rolling pin and keeping fondant dusted with the cornstarch/powdered sugar mixture, roll out the fondant until about 1/16th of an inch thick (about half the thickness of your pinky). Try to keep the fondant rolled in a circle, is easier to work with.

Pull cake from fridge about 10 minutes before you are ready to cover with the fondant (helps to soften butter cream a bit and allows fondant to adhere better). Carefully pick up the fondant and drape fondant over the cake.

Trim as much excess fondant as you can. Pick-up the cake from the bottom with the cake cardboard underneath and gravity will allow the fondant to drop over the cake. Use a sharp knife to cut away extra fondant so that it is not overhanging. Place cake down and use your hands or a fondant smoother to smooth the sides and top of the cake (this take some practice, so don’t worry about a few wrinkles your first time).

To give the appearance of snow, dab a little bit of soft icing on random parts of the cake and while still wet, sprinkle sifted powdered sugar all over top and sides of the cake. Shake off excess.

For the XMAS letters, take a small amount of the white fondant (about the size of a baseball) and use red food coloring (recommend gel) and with gloves on, knead the coloring into the fondant until reaches deep Christmas red (to obtain deep red color with food dye, will have to use a lot!) Once the desired red color, roll out the colored fondant, (once again using the powered sugar and cornstarch mix) to about 1/4 inch thick. Use alphabet cookie cutters or a sharp knife to cut the letters X MAS. Place the letters on top of the cake.

For the friendly snowman, use a bit more of the white fondant, about the size of a golf-ball, and roll out into a log. Using a knife, divide into 3 pieces, one small, medium, and large. Round each segment into a ball by cupping you hand around the fondant and pressing slightly down as you rotate your hand; this will help create a nice, smooth round.

Using a skewer, insert the sharp end through the largest ball, then push the medium sized ball on top, followed by the larger (just like building a snowman outside). Make sure to push the skewer through the top of his head about ½ and inch for the hat! Then, with the remaining skewer sticking out through the bottom, use this to insert into the cake to support your snowman.

Make a piping cone with a piece of parchment paper or use a piping bag with the smallest round tip attached. Mix some black food coloring into a small amount of butter cream until dark. Put into piping bag (if using parchment, use scissors to cut a very small hole in the point). Gently squeeze the bag to make dots for the snowman’s eyes, nose, and mouth. A trick to preventing the icing from creating points as you pull it way from making your dots is as you finish squeezing, twirl your hand quickly like you are drawing an imaginary circle in the air, this will help make a nice clean round dot (do this before putting the hat on).

For the snowman’s hat, take another small piece of fondant (about the size of a large marble) and with black food coloring, knead it into the fondant until achieves a nice black color. Cut off a small piece of the black fondant and roll out into a very small disk (use the powdered sugar/cornstarch mix to prevent from sticking).

Using a small round cutter, cut a circle about the size of a penny, allow this to sit out for a bit to dry. With the other bit of black fondant, roll into a log about 1 inch thick and using a sharp knife, cut about a 1 ½ inch long piece. Use your hands to smooth out any rough edges. Once the round piece has dried out a bit, push that through the little bit of skewer sticking out the snowman’s head and then push the rounded log on top of that to create a little top hat! Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

For the base of the cake where it is in contact with the cake cardboard, you have a couple of options. One is you can take a piece of ribbon and tie it around at the base and make a bow (always looks nice) or you can make a piped boarder. If you do a piped boarder, shells are always a good choice. Place a star tip into your piping bag and add your butter cream.

Remove as much air as you can by twisting the top of the bag until the butter cream comes out the tip easily. Holding the bag firmly with your hand at an angle, squeeze gently for about 1 second then stop squeezing and pull the bag down and away, this will create a shell design. Where that shell ended, place the tip, squeeze for about 1 second and release drawing the bag down and away. Repeat this around the cake so the edge does not show.

This cake will keep at room temperature for about 2 days. Happy baking!!

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