We’re walking in a Winter Wonderland with this cake tutorial! Dig out your Christmas CD’s, put on your best Rudolph apron and pour yourself a sherry, it’s time to get in the Christmas spirit! This cake tutorial will show you how to make a lovely modern festive cake that you can use as the centre piece on your dinner table or take to a party to impress your friends. It can be achieved in just 13 steps with a few tools, so let’s get started!
You Will Need
- 8″ Sponge Cake
- 11″ Cake Drum
- 1.25kg Navy Blue Sugarpaste
- White Sugarpaste
- White Modelling Paste
- PME Christmas Tree Cutters
- White Edible Glitter
- Ribbon Cutter
- PME Cutting Wheels
- Alphabet Cutters
- Edible Glue
- Edible Sugar Penguins
- 15mm White Satin Ribbon
Step Buy Step in Pictures
Decoration Instructions
Bake or buy yourself an 8″ cake and cover this with a layer of navy blue sugarpaste (don’t forget the frosting first!). For an 8″ cake you’ll need approximately 1kg of sugarpaste. You’ll also need to cover an 11″ drum with navy blue sugarpaste (or you can cover the cake and drum all in one go).
Making The Christmas Trees
1. So you’ve baked and covered your sponge cake and cake drum with navy blue sugarpaste, and now you’re ready to decorate! To start with, we’ll make the trees. Dust your work surface with a little white icing sugar and take a chunk of white sugarpaste, rolling this out to approximately 1mm thick.
2. Using the PME tree cutter set, create lots of sugarpaste trees in various different sizes.
3. To give the trees a sparkly, winter finish, coat each one with a thin layer of edible glue.
4. Using a teaspoon, cover each tree with edible white glitter. Carefully lift up each tree using a palette knife and gently tap them to knock off any excess glitter.
5. Gently dab the back of each tree with edible glue and stick each one to the side of the cake. You can place these in whatever pattern you like, but make sure you use all three sizes to create variation and a realistic forest setting.
Making The Snow
6. For the snow, start by taking a chunk of sugarpaste and roll this, using your hands, into a rough sausage shape. Roll the sausage out along the length of your work surface to create a long strip.
7. To neaten the edges of the strip, use a ribbon cutter. Set the ribbon cutter to approximately 2″ in width and cut along the length of the strip so you now have a thinner, straight-edged strip.
8. Now you’ll need to give the strip a wavy edge to create a realistic snow effect. Using the smaller end of the cutting wheel tool, start at one end of the strip and cut along the edge in a random, wavy pattern.
9. Carefully lift the strip up and place this around the cake, making sure you tuck it right up to the edge. You’ll likely need to make a second wavy-edged strip to go around the other half of the cake.
Making The Ho Ho Letters
10. To make the ‘Ho Ho’ sign, start by taking a piece of white modelling paste and roll this out to approximately 0.5 – 1cm thick. Using the alphabet cutters, make two H’s and two O’s.
11. Dab each letter with edible glue and sprinkle edible white glitter over them, just like you did for the trees. Leave the letters to dry, preferably stood up-right.
12. Once the glitter has dried and the letters have hardened up, stand them on top of the cake. Stagger the words so that one of the ‘Ho Ho’s’ is closer to the back, and the other is closer to the front of the cake.
Finishing Touches
13. Lastly, arrange the 3D sugar penguins on top and on the bottom of the cake, securing into place using a little edible glue or royal icing. You can also tie the white satin ribbon around the edge of the cake drum, pinning this into place using a drawing pin.
You’ve now made a beautiful Winter Wonderland cake in just 13 simple steps! You can store the cake in a cake box until Christmas Day or, if you can’t wait till then, tuck in!