Christmas is the time for family, fun, frolic, and just general festiveness. It is also the time for food! Food of all tastes, varieties, taste and color. No need to worry about diets or that ever increasing waist line. Everyone knows we gain a few holiday pounds so don’t sweat it. Now since this is the time for family, and food, put two together and you get christmas lunch or dinner. It is always great to be able to wow your family with your cooking skills, especially Dessert! Now we all know that Christmas calls for cake, whether traditional plum, or fruit. But why not give it a twist, perhaps with a Christmas theme in mind. Let us see a few themed Christmas cakes ideas to help your dinner party stand out. They are quite creative, and are sure to get the creative wheels in your head turning.
1. Jolly Santa cake
The first thing that strikes our mind when we think of Christmas, other than the tree and gifts of course, is probably Santa Claus. And why not? These big jolly guy with his big green sack filled with presents never fails to bring a smile to our faces. He can probably be called the mascot of Christmas quite frankly. Kids and elders alike love him. There are ornaments designed to look like this jolly fellow, there are Christmas carols sung about him, and every mall you visit, you are sure to see a big fat jolly Santa sitting as the main attraction, and all the kids lined up to sit in his lap and tell him their wishes and what they want as gifts. So why not turn this mascot in to a cake? Imagine how much fun it would be to bring this jolly guy to life through something you have baked? It is sure to be a hit amongst the kids, as well as the adults. The amazing part? It is not even hard! Just bake your regular cake, and the rest is all done with colored fondant, all you have to do is put on your imagination cap, and unleash the inner artist. Give him a red cap with red fondant, and great big smile with white fondant, or rosy cheeks with pink fondant, or maybe all of these and more! There is no right or wrong way of doing it, just go with your gut feeling. It is all up to you how you want your Santa to be.
2. Berry-Sherry cake
You know what is also always another hit on Christmas? If you said alcohol, you are correct. Christmas is the time to be jolly and its never bad to have a little extra help to be a little extra jolly isn’t it? If you know what I mean! Another Christmas favourite is plum and dry fruits cake. Both the both together, and voila! Magic right there! But, how about if we gave the traditional recipe a little twist, and instead of your regular dried fruits, added dried cherries and other berries of different sorts. And if you want to add alcohol to your menu, in more ways than one, why not add a generous helping dose of sherry in that cake. It is sure to make it rich, moist, and decadent. A total stellar recipe and a sure shot crowd pleaser. The Sherry adds a completely different angle to this recipe and gives it that extra oomph, lets say that is sure to make it stand apart from the other Christmas Desserts. Keep in mind that since this does have alcohol in it, be mindful before serving it to children, even though most of the alcohol usually evaporated due to high temperatures while baking, and what you are left with is probably one of the most decadent cakes you will eat!
3. Snowflake Christmas Cake
A recurring theme with Christmas is Snow, and one of the most unique properties of snow is snowflakes. Moreover the most unique properties of snowflakes? No two are alike. Not to mention how beautiful they are. The way we imagine them with their intricate beautiful designs, the pureness, everything about snowflakes are beautiful and elegant. Why not take it to the next level? Use these intricate, beautiful, elegant designs to spruce up an otherwise ordinary cake. It is definitely not as hard or as daunting as it seems. All you need is some white fondant, mixed with some edible silver dust to give it that sparkly note. You can design them by hand, and come up with your own unique designs, anything you like. Let your imagination run wild, you could dinosaur shaped snowflakes for all that matters! However if you want to go the more traditional route, and a more perfect looking snowflake, you could always use a Snowflake shaped cookie cutter. Cover the cake completely with smooth white fondant, and place your fondant snowflakes on top and around, as many or as little as you want. Brush over some more silver dust, and maybe some edible silver balls for finish.
4. Christmas Tree Cake
How can we talk about Christmas and not about Christmas Trees? The joy of decorating one with your loved ones is a joy nonparallel. The sparkly tinsel and the decorations and the Christmas balls all add to the charm of this Christmas tradition. Christmas trees are symbolic to Christmas really. It kind of gives us that feel that Christmas is knocking on the doors. Use this in your Desserts and you will have a wonderful Looking Christmas themed dessert in no time. Again, all you need is fondant in different colors. Cover your cake of choice with any colored fondant that you want., or maybe even make it multi colored if you want, it is your creation after all! After you are done with that, the fondant Christmas trees need to be made. Use a mixture of maybe light and dark green colored fondant to create texture. Do them yourself or use a Christmas tree shaped cookie cutter to make the basic shapes, its up to you. Then decorate them the way you want. With Different colored Christmas balls made of fondant, or with tinsel made of colorful fondant and edible dust. Remember to make an extra sparkly star made with gold colored fondant and gold colored edible dust to place on top as a beautiful finishing touch.
5. Rudolph Christmas Cake.
“Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudy
Join in any reindeer games
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight
Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee
Rudy the red-nosed reindeer
You’ll go down in history”
Everyone knows this lovable festive Christmas Carol! It is sung in schools, in churches, and when Carolers go around on Christmas, this song is high on their list of songs. It is an adorable carol, and Rudolph is one of the most cutest characters there is! In face I am sure you sang this song when you started reading this paragraph! If cake decorating is your thing, then a Rudolph Themed Christmas cake is a must do. Make any cake of your choice, and cover with a blue fondant maybe to represent the night sky. Then place a Rudolph Reindeer made of fondant on top. Remember to make his antlers and definitely remember to make him cute with big black beady eyes. Also whatever you do, do not forget to give him a big red shiny nose made with brightly colored red fondant! He is Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer after all!
6. Igloo Christmas Cake
When we think of snow and cold, and then we think of houses, you are bound to think of Igloos! The adorable, and frankly quite scientific Ice houses that Eskimos live in. Incorporate this in your dessert and make it a theme. Make your whole cake Igloo shaped, and cut up little pieces of fondant and stick them on to look like ice cubes. It may be a bit tedious, and you might have to put in more effort, but the end result would be worth it, guaranteed.
7. Festive Stocking Cake
Well we all know Santa gives us gifts, good ones if we have been nice, and coal if we are on Santa’s naughty list. So he puts the big gifts underneath the Christmas Tree, we know. But what about the small ones? Well they go in the stocking of course! Eureka! Turn that into your Christmas Cake theme. Make a stocking shaped cake with some basic shaped caked like round, and rectangles, and assemble them together to look like stockings. Cover with fondant and decorate as per your choice. You can add some red and green candy to look like mistletoe too!
8. Snow Scenery Cake
Since Snow is such a recurring theme in Christmas, because why not, the weather is cold and chilly outside, why not turn thins in to a theme in itself? Make a whole snow scenery on your cake. Cover with white fondant and add things like a small fondant snowman or snow angels. Texture the “snow” with some white cotton candy maybe. It is your creation, do it as you like and get praises from everyone.
9. Present themed Cakes
Christmas. Synonymous with gift giving. It is after all the time to give, receive, and share. We start planning and shopping for our loved ones way ahead in time, so that we can give them their gifts on time. Why not make a present themed cake? All you would need to do is make a square or rectangle shaped deep cake. With this as your starting point, cover it in colorful fondant, add glitter, and use more colorful ribbon to make a pretty bow on top. Your present themed beautiful cake is now ready! And whats more, you could turn this in to an actual present for someone! You could make one as take it as a gift if you have been invited to someone’s house for a Christmas Dinner or Christmas Lunch. It is a unique and out of the box idea, and your host is sure to love it! They will definitely be talking about your creativity for days to come.
10. Frozen Inspired Christmas Cake
Frozen is one of the most loved Disney Christmas movies. The story follows the life and journey of the ice queen Elsa, her struggles, her situations, her fights with herself, and how she finally comes to terms with what and how she is as a person and is finally at peace. It is one of the most inspiring stories ever, so what if it is animated? Moreover children love Elsa, and her little sister Ana! So if you are maybe throwing a Christmas party for the Kids, a frozen Themed cake would be an amazing idea. Make it as intricate and detailed or as simple as you want, the kids are sure to love it. She is by far, one of the most loved Disney princesses. Make the cake blue and white with snowflakes, and fondant cut outs of Elsa and Ana. Or maybe you could make the cake like the ice castle that Elsa built for herself. Or if you want to go a completely different route, and not make the theme on the Disney princesses, why not base it on Elsa’s faithful, goofy and adorable Snowman. He would fit in to your Christmas theme perfectly, because, well, he is a snowman after all! The possibilities are endless, you just need to let your imagination loose and just go for it, you are sure to come up with something unique and amazing!
