If you like to take cakes into work to share at Christmas, why not try taking a Christmas Cake.  Not only will you be very popular, but it can be a chance to be creative with the decorations.  If your workplace has a logo or even sells a specific product, you could use this as a basis for the decoration. (Please remember company logos are the the property of that company and cannot be used on cakes that are for resale). 

 Below is a cake I made for a member of my family to take into the camera shop where they work.

The Christmas Trees were made from cones of green coloured fondant icing with the branches being created by snipping into the fondant icingwith a pair of pointed scissors.  I then mixed a little green petal dust in with a few drops of Rejuvenator Spirit and used this to paint over the trees.  Finally using a fine artists brush I dotted different colours over the trees to resemble lights.

The snowman is made from two balls of white fondant icing with flattened coloured balls of fondant as buttons and eyes with a cone of orange fondant icing for the nose.  The hat is simply a flattened ball of black fondant placed on the snowman’s head and a second piece of black fondant icing rolled and flattened at each end to give the top of the hat. All pieces will stick together with a little cooled boiled water. The camera stand and camera were made from shaped pieces of fondant icing, which were allowed to dry before assembling with a little royal icing as ‘glue’.  The silver paint was created by using silver petal dust and Rejuvenator Spirit.  A little white royal icing was roughly spread on the top of the cake to resemble snow.  This also gives you something to stick your models to the top of the cake.

The letters were made using cutters and the coloured ‘underline’ was created from small strips of white fondant, painted with food colouring once dry. 

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As These little cakes are such fun to give as presents, I have included some more.  If you are making a larger cake, you can increase the ingredients and bake one of these small ones at the same time.  For example if you want to make an 8″ round cake, make a 10″ mixture and put the extra in the 4″ tin.

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This was decorated with a Father Christmas which was made using a ‘Father Christmas Plunger Cutter” and white fondant icing.

The cut out figure was left to dry for two days and then painted using edible colours.

The balloons around the side were made from red fondant ising and cut out with different sized piping tubes.  A large cream tube for the big balloons and a standard icing tube for the small ones.

A small amount of royal icing, coloured green and a fine writing tube was used to create the little ‘strings’ around the balloons and trailing up the sides of the cake.

Once again the balloons have been used to create a simple but effective decoration on the side of the cake, while letter cutters have been used to create the ‘NOEL’ on the top.  The letters are cut out of red fondant and placed on the cake straight away and left to dry in position.  I use a small dedicated artists brush to moisten the backs of the letters with a little boiled water.  This helps the letters to stick to the top of the cake.

Once dry a little white royal icing can be piped on the top of the letters to create the effect of snow having fallen on them.  It is important to ensure that the red letters are completely dry as the icing will turn pink.

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These little cakes are baked in a 4″ tin and make lovely gifts for family and friends.

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An 8″ round cake recipe will make 3 of these cakes or alternatively if you are making a large cake for example an 8″, use a 10″ recipe instead and make one small cake at the same time.

Feed and wrap for a couple of weeks before decorating.

To Decorate

You will need a 6″ board and box.  These are available by mail order from a Piece of Cake Thame.
500 grams marzipan
500 grams fondant
Coloured fondant to decorate

Cover the cake in Marzipan and Fondant

To mark round the side of the cake where the frills are to go, take a piece of greaseproof paper long enough to go around the cake and then fold it in half.  Using a cup or other round object draw a semi-circle and cut this out.  Place against the cake and using a pointed modelling tool or the point of a knife, mark along the top of the paper template to create an indentation in the fondant.

Using a small writing tube, pipe small dots or shells around the base of the cake.  Leave to dry.

Make holly leaves and berries

Using red fondant, roll out thinly.

Using a frill cutter or a biscuit cutter and an egg cup to make the centre hole cut out a circle.

Make a cut through the fondant frill and open up.

Using a small dowel and some cornflower, carefully work round the circle by rolling the dowel from side to side to ‘frill’ the fluted edge of the fondant.

Cut the ends to make them straight and tidy.

Using a small clean artists brush and some cool boiled water, brush a little water over the indents you made on the side of the cake.

Gently lift the frill and place the one end on to the dampend indent on the cake and working along this mark, gently press the frill onto the cake.

Using a modelling tool or a cocktail stick, gently lift the bottom edge of the frill from the cake to arrange into folds.  Continue round the cake and leave to dry overnight.

When dry take a small artists brush and gently brush off any cornflour.  Repeat with a white fill directly above the red one.  When the second frill is in place, using a small pointed knife, trim the top edge of the frill where it is joined to the cake to make a neat edge.  If the frill starts to fall from the cake just brush a little water onto the cake and re-attach it.

Using white royal icing and a writing tube, pipe a line of dots along the trimmed edge of the frill.  At the top point of each curve, pipe a line of dots up to the top edge of the cake.

The top of the cake can then be decorated.  If you have made large cakes, any left over holly leaves and berries can be used on the little cake.  Holly leaves around a Christmas Roses are also effective and a Pointsettia is a simple but effective decoration.

 
Starting with the large cutter and progressing down to the smallest, cut out 10, 9, 8 and 7 petals.
Dampen the top of the cake with a little boiled water and start to arrange the large petals in a flower shape leaving a small space in the centre.  As you lay the petals, bend some of them so they do not lay completely flat.  Continue with the smallet petals placing the next size in between the last size.

Taking the yellow fondant make 5 small balls.  Roll the ball to make a small cone shape and use a Ball Tool to hollow out the cone.  Paint the centre of the cone with a little green food colouring and place in the centre of the flower with a little royal icing. 

Display in box.

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You will need:

Cake covered in marzipan and white sugarpaste
Additional White Sugarpaste
Blue Colour Mist Spray
Snow Flakes
Previously made Snowman and Children figures
Plain holly leaf cutter
A small amount of Royal Icing

Using the additional white sugarpaste, make 4 Medium and approx 20 small snowflakes using the same method as Making Holly Leaves plus a few extra to allow for breakages and leave to dry.

Spray the cake with the blue colour mist spray as evenly as possible.  (It will be necessary to cover the adjoining area before spraying as it does tend to go everywhere!).

Wipe the board with a damp cloth to remove any blue spray and leave the cake to dry.

Roll out the remainder of the white sugarpaste and cut out plain holly leaves.  Dampen the bottom edge of the cake with a little cool boiled water and stick the holly leaves to the cake, placing them at a slight angle.  Continue until you have gone right around the cake.

This provides an attractive boarder which is quick and does not require any piping of icing.

Using the royal icing place a small amount in the centre of the cake and attach the Snowman and Children figures.

To fix the snowflakes, place small blobs of icing in a pattern around the snowman and children and gently press small snowlakes into the icing.

For the side decoration place four small blobs equally round the side of the cake and gently press in the medium snowflakes.  Finally arrange small snowflakes in between.

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The following is a shortbread baked in a Scottish Thistle mould (available from www.lakeland.co.uk) which looks lovely on a buffet table.  If you do not have a mould then a greased 8″ square shallow cake tin can be used, or alternatively the dough can be rolled out and cutters used to make individual biscuits.

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You will need:

150g (5oz) butter (at room temperature)
100g (4oz) caster sugar
275g (10oz) plain flour (sifted)
Half teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Caster sugar for sprinkling

To Make:

Set oven to 180 deg C, 350 deg F or gas mark 4

Cream the butter and sugar together until very soft and creamy.  Add the vanilla extract (if using).  Stir the flour into the creamed mixture until it is a firm dough.

If using the mould, using a pastry brush, gently brush the inside of the mould with flour.  Press the dough into the mould or cake tin and smooth the surface with a flat bladed knife.  If using a cake tin, mark the shortbread into slices or squares before cooking.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes.  The shortbread should be golden in colour, not brown.

When cooked, take out of the oven and sprinkle with the caster sugar and leave to cool completely before turning out of the moud.  Cut the shortbread in the cake tin while still warm, but leave in tin until cold.

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While the cake is maturing, it is a good idea to start making the decorations for the cake. I like to have all the decorations made and ready to assemble onto the cake as soon it has been covered with marzipan and icing.

As this is a Holly Wreath Cake it will require lots of holly leaves. The cake being featured is an 8″ round and I made approximately 60 holly leaves in three different sizes. I also curved 20 of them over the edge of a chopping board. These will be placed around the curved edge of the cake.

See Making Sugar Holly Leaves for step by step instructions.

I also made a large Christmas Rose to use on the cake to add relief to the holly leaves. See Making Sugar Christmas Roses for step by step instructions.

Once the leaves and flower have been made the cake can be prepared for decoration. The first thing that has to be done is to shape the cake into the ring.

Unwrap the cake and place on a chopping board.

I used the largest plain scone cutter to cut out the middle. Firstly I placed the cutter on the cake and measured to make sure it was central.

I then pressed the cutter down firmly and twisted it gently.

Remove the cutter and using a sharp knife, cut the remainder of the cake out of the centre.

Trim the outside and inside top edges to make them rounded.

Clear up the discarded pieces of cake and tidy up the edges. (The discarded pieces are perfectly edible and can be served with custard as I had intended until I turned round and found my husband tucking into them with a spoon!!!!).

Place the cake on a cake board and cover with a thin layer of warmed apricot jam (a pastry brush is a good tool to use).

Weigh 750 grams marzipan. Use a small amount of this to roll out a piece, the width of which should be slightly more than the depth of the cake and should be long enough to go round the inside of the cake with a bit extra.

Roll this piece of marzipan losely and place in the centre of the cake.

Press gently into place and cut off the excess.

Roll out the remainder of the marzipan on a work surface dusted in icing sugar. Take the cleaned scone cutter, that was used to remove the centre of the cake, and cut the centre out of the marzipan.

Lift the mazipan into position on the cake and gently press into place.

Smooth the marzipan round the edges with a smoothing tool or the flat of the hands and trim the bottom edge.

Leave to dry in a cardboard cake box or other container but do not seal.

When dry weigh 750 grams sugarpaste and knead until soft and smooth.  I coloured the sugarpaste light green using a paste food colouring which colours the sugarpaste without adding moisture.  It does take a little while to get an even colour, but it really does not matter if it is a little streaked as this will look natural.

Moisten the marzipan with a little brandy or cold boiled water and then using the same method as for the icing, cover the cake in the green sugarpaste.  The joins can be smoothed out by rubbing over them with your finger.

Do not worry if the surface looks uneven, this will be hidden by the holly leaves.  Leave to dry for at least 24 hours.

Mix a small amount of royal icing  and colour it green.  Lay out your assortment of holly leaves and starting at the back of the cake spread a little royal icing on the backs of the leaves and place them on the cake, using the curved ones to fit over the edges leaving a small ring at the back centre bare.

When you have placed approximately 8 leaves around the bare patch, put a little royal icing into this patch and lay some thin red ribbon accorss it so that it spreads out over the already layed holly leaves.  Place some more icing over the top and gently press in the previously made large Christmas Rose.

Continue to lay the curved leaves around the inside and outside edges of the cake until they are covered.

Then fill in the spaces with the flatter leaves.  This is a little like a jigsaw and requires trying different sizes and shapes to fit.  Continue until the top is covered and you are happy with the finish.  Finally add holly berries in little clusters of 2 or 3 to add relief and colour.

Put a band of red ribbon or cake edging around the side and the cake is finished.

Place in a display cake box and don’t tell anyone it started out as a solid round cake that went wrong.

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To make the flowers you will nead:

• A small quantity of flower paste (available from most cake decorating shops and also on-line at A Piece of Cake Thame
• A Set of Rose Cutters
• Royal Icing
• Petal dust in yellow and pink
• Some Stamens (optional)
• Small piece of fine lace
• Balling Tool (used to shape the rose petals – optional)
• Baking parchment
• Polystyrene apple container

Roll out the white flower paste very thinly and cut out 3 or 4 petals of your chosen size. (it is best to only cut 3 or 4 shapes at a time as the paste dries out very quickly and cracks.) Keep the remainder covered while you are working.

Using the “balling tool” shape the petal in the palm of your hand by stretching and curving it. (This can also be done with the finger tips).

Repeat this 5 times (the number required for each Christmas Rose) and place them in the Polystyrene apple container to dry while retaining their shape.

Continue until you have enough for the quantity of Christmas Roses required plus a couple of spare and leave to dry for 24 hours.

To make the centre of the Christmas Roses, take some yellow sugar paste (fondant) and make several small balls.

Then using the piece of fine lace, press each ball into it to make an imprint on each one and flatten it out at the same time. At this point you can add some stamens if desired. Just cut the stemens up and push into the yellow paste. Leave to dry.

When the petals are dry and hard take each one and gently dust the outer edge with pink petal dust and the point of each petal with yellow petal dust. Then carefully pass each petal through the steam from a boiling kettle of water and leave to dry.

To assemble the flowers: Cut a small piece of baking parchment and place in the bottom of each section of the polystyrene apple container.

Mix a small amount of royal icing and place a quarter of a teaspoon in the middle of a piece of baking parchment.

Place a petal into the icing.

Continue with the other 4 petals, placing a small amount of icing on the back of each tip and overlapping the petals as you place them.

Finally place a small amount of royal icing onto the back of one of the yellow centres and gently press into the centre of the flower. Leave to dry. Make the rest of the flowers.

When completely dry remove the baking parchment.

The flowers are now ready to be used.

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This unusual but very effective cake is easy to make using the following step by step instructions. I used a 6″ fruit cake and Patchwork Cutters to make the decorations.

Later I will show an 8″ cake with this design which incorporates all the items from the “Shepherds” set.

You will need:

6″ rouund fruit cake
8″ round cake board
8″ cake box
500 grams Marzipan
500 grams Atlantic blue Fondant (sugar paste) – Available from a Piece of Cake Thame
Apricot jam
Icing sugar (for dusting)
“Shepherds” Patchwork cutters
Small amount of Mexican Paste
Food colouring in various colours
Edible Adhesive (Gum Arabic) or a small amount of Royal Icing

Making the Decorations

Roll out the Mexican Paste thinly and cut out the following:

• Shepherd (kneeling)
• Extra head dress for shepherd
• 2 x Sheep (right facing)
• 2 x Tufts of grass
• 2 x Palm Trees (I separated the palms to make smaller ones)
• 1 x large star
• 12 x small stars

Leave to dry for 24 hours and then paint a black nose and lines on the sheep’s legs to give definition.

Paint the shepherds cloak with any bright colour you wish and also his head dress and the extra head dress (both the same colour). Do not paint adjoing colours at the same session as they will bleed, leave 24 hours between each colour. When the cloak is dry, using a slightly darker colour paint into the creases for a more realistic look. Finally paint the hands and face flesh colour, the eye blue, the shoes black or brown and the cord round the head dresses and cloak a contrasting colour.

Paint the stars a bright yellow and the palm trees green with brown trunks. Store in a cool dry place.

To Decorate

Take the 6″ cake and place it upside down on the cake board. Spread a thin layer of apricot jam over the surface of the cake. Roll out the marzipan and use to cover the cake (see covering a cake with marzipan) and leave to dry for at least 2 days.

Using brandy, brush the surface of the marzipan, then using the Atlantic Blue Fondant (sugar paste) cover the cake (see covering a cake with Fondant). Do not worry if there are white icing marks on it at this point.

When the cake is covered and smoothed out, take the shepherd and sheep cutters and lay them in position on the cake and gently press to create an imprint of the shapes.

Using a marking tool or the handle of a spoon, mark in the hills in the background.

When all the shapes have been marked, take a piece of kitchen roll and moisten with cool boiled water. Then gently wipe over the entire surface of the cake to bring out the deep blue. Do not worry if you can see the lines where you have wiped as these will disappear when it dries.

Using the pre-made decorations and a little edible glue or royal icing, “glue” the shepherd and sheep in position using the indents on the cake. Place the extra head dress on the shepherd to give a 3D effect, place the large star high in the sky and a smaller one a bit lower. Place the 2 tufts of grass by the feet of the sheep and the palm trees on the hillside.

Using the left over trimings of the atlantic blue icing, cut out several rows of buildings. Moisten the bottom edge of the cake and place the buildings onto the cake. These will be very soft and break easily and it is easier to split the buildings and place in smaller sections at a time. Gently press onto the cake without flatenning the buildings.

Leave for 24 hours and then using a blue petal dust and a soft brush, gently dust the buildings to make them stand out.

Finally stick the remaining small stars in an irregular pattern onto the side of the cake.

Pack into the display box to create a lovely gift or just as a treat to yourself and your family.

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Holly leaves can be made in one of two ways. Firstly and the simplest is to use plunger cutters. These cut out the leaves and indent the veins onto them at the same time. These cutters are available from: A Piece of Cake Thame (www.apieceofcakethame.co.uk)

The other method is to use metal holly leaf cutters and a veining tool or to as in the case of holly leaves, simply use a flat bladed knife to indent the veining.

Using Plunger cutters

Roll out some sugar paste (fondant) using icing sugar to prevent sticking. Take the plunger cutter and either dip into the icing sugar or brush on a little hard white vegetable fat to prevent sticking. Press the cutter firmly into the icing and twist slightly.

Lift the cutter up and the fondant leaf should be in the cutter. Place the cutter onto a clean surface (dusted with a little icing sugar) and firmly press the plunger down.

Lift up the cutter and carefully remove the leaf and place on a board to dry. Twisting the leaf slightly or drying it over a curved object will give it a less flat and more natural look.

Make lots more of these leaves (in various sizes if you have more than one cutter size) and leave to dry completely.

Using Metal Holly Leaf Cutters

Roll out the fondant (sugar paste) in the same way as for the plunger cutters and cut out the holly leaf shapes.

Then taking a flat bladed knife, indent a line down the centre of the leaf.

Finally indent a line from the centre line to each of the points.

Place on a tray, dusted with icing sugar or cornflour and leave to dry for at least 24 hours.

When they are dry, spray them with green colour mist food colour spray and leave 24 hours to dry.

To make the leaves a more natural green, take a small amount of petal dust (I used green, blue and burgunday mixed together) and brush lightly over the dried leaves. Do not worry if the dust does not look evenly spread this will look more natural.

When all the leaves have been dusted, boil a kettle or saucepan of water and carefully holding the stalk end of each leaf, ‘dip’ them into the steam (not the water). Hold in the steam for no more than 2 seconds, the leaf should have a sheen but not look wet. Leave the leaves to dry. Steaming the leaves sets the petal dust and gives a lovely finish to the leaves.

Finally using some red fondant (I used super cooks ready coloured fondant), make small balls for holly berries and leave to dry.

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