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5 Christmas Cake Decorating Ideas
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Sep 6, 2024
These 5 Christmas cake decorating ideas are secretly easy to achieve! In this video I'll show you step by step how to create each design with techniques like homemade stencils, buttercream transfers and cake toppers made out of cupcakes! *Take my FREE course on 10 Frosting Techniques on my ONLINE CAKE SCHOOL https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/online-courses *LEARN 50 Easy Cake Decorating Techniques in my new online course https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/p/50-easy-cake-decorating-techniques-for-any-skill-level/ *My 4 Minute Buttercream recipe https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/ *READ a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/5-christmas-cake-decorating-ideas/ *SUBSCRIBE to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week! *SAY HI! Website: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britishgirlbakes
View Video Transcript
0:00
There are so many fun ways to decorate cakes at Christmas
0:02
and I'm going to share five ideas with you with the steps to decorate each one
0:07
To make a cute reindeer or snowman or any other character, print or draw the character and tape a piece of parchment paper or wax paper on top
0:16
Tint butter cream to make a spoonful of each colour you need and put the colours in piping bags with small round piping tips
0:22
or use Ziploc bags and cut a small piece of one of the bottom corners
0:26
to make your own piping bags. Start with the small details, piping the coloured buttercream to trace the design
0:34
skipping any complicated details if you want to simplify the design. This side of the design is not going to be visible
0:40
so don't worry about messy textured piping. Save the largest colour section until the very end
0:47
and when you finish all of the other colours, put the design in the freezer for five minutes to chill and set those colours
0:52
and then pipe the final colour on top, spreading it around with an offset spatula to fill in the round
0:58
of the design and to flatten it, so the whole design is level
1:02
It's fine to spread over the other colours because they've set. Straight away, pick up the parchment and gently press it against a cake
1:10
The frosting on the cake should have already set, so I put this cake in the fridge for an hour before doing this
1:15
Put the cake with the parchment transfer back in the fridge for another hour
1:19
or in the freezer for 15 minutes, and then peel the parchment off to reveal your design
1:24
To make your own cake stencil, cut a piece of parchment or wax paper so that it as tall as your cake and wide enough to wrap around half the cake Draw or trace a design onto it and then cut it out with scissors You need an offset spatula next and you can use just coloured buttercream on your stencil or sprinkles
1:43
and I'll show you how to do both. If you're going to use sprinkles, put your cake on a tray or baking sheet to catch falling sprinkles
1:50
to make clean up easier and a non-sleep mat will stop the cake from sliding around
1:55
Wrap your stencil around your cake after the frosting has set in the fridge for at least an hour
1:59
and pipe or spread buttercream over the stencil, spreading it to cover the whole stencil design
2:05
and scraping off the excess with your offset spatula or a frosting smoother
2:09
Peel the stencil off straight away and you can touch up any smudges with a toothpick
2:13
since the frosting on the cake has set so you won't damage it. If you want to add sprinkles, do that now
2:19
while the stencil frosting is still soft and sticky. Pressing sprinkles against the design
2:23
and they'll stick to the fresh frosting on the stencil but not the frosting around the rest of the cake
2:28
because that frosting has set. Use your finger or a toothpick or a paintbrush
2:33
to tidy up the edges of the design so that the sprinkles go just up to the outline of the design
2:38
and make the shape really clear and recognizable. By doing this on a tray
2:43
when you've finished, you can tilt the tray to collect the leftover sprinkles and then pour them back into a jar or packet
2:48
and save them for another project. Cookies are a fantastic way to make a really unique cake topper yourself
2:55
I keep raw cookie dough in the freezer to pull out whenever I want to make a topper like this
3:00
Roll the dough, press a cookie cutter into it to cut out your shape, and push a paper straw into one side of the cookie
3:07
which you'll use to attach the cookie to your cake. Freeze the shape for five minutes before baking it to help it hold its shape better so it doesn spread out into a shapeless blob in the oven Now decorate the cookie with buttercream using piping bags or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off to pipe through
3:24
Sprinkles make an easy, colourful addition. To attach this to a cake, start with a plain straw and push it into your cake
3:31
You'll have to push quite hard if your cake has been in the fridge, and that's the reason for using this test straw first
3:37
Pull it out, and this makes a pathway for your cookie, Topper. Push your cookie on its straw into the hole and it will slide in easily without breaking the
3:45
cookie in the process. Instead of a cookie, you can make a Christmas tree with cupcakes. Peel the wrapers off
3:51
and layer the cupcakes like a little cake with frosting in between to attach them together
3:57
Carve the cupcakes to make a point at the top, a Christmas tree shape, and cover it with green frosting
4:02
This is a crumb coat, so it doesn't have to be neat. It just seals in the moisture and traps the crumbs
4:07
Use a leaf-shaped piping tip, like this number 352, to pipe leaves to cover the cupcake Christmas tree
4:14
starting at the bottom and piping in rings and working your way up to the top
4:18
This is my 4-minute buttercream which I use for all of my cakes and the recipe link is in the video description
4:23
Chill the cupcake in the fridge for an hour to set the frosting and then lift it up and lower it onto a cake
4:29
To make Christmas ornaments, choose a fun sprinkle mix and press the sprinkles one by one into the frosting
4:35
You can do this immediately after piping the frosting. while it's still soft and sticky
4:39
or if you wait until the frosting has set, like I did, you'll need to spread or pipe a tiny dot of frosting
4:44
onto each sprinkle to act as glue to attach it to the cupcake Christmas tree Now let pipe some Christmas trees straight onto a cake There are loads of different piping tips you can use for this and I show you my favourites now I like to press a cookie cutter into a frosted cake to give myself an outline to follow and here a
5:01
crash course on Christmas tree piping. This is an open star tip, a number 32, piped as rosettes or
5:08
spikes to fill in the outline. And this is the same tip but piped a bit differently. Starting with
5:13
a dot and then after it bulges out, pull the tip upwards to form a peak
5:17
which you'll cover up with the next row of piping. Next up a petal tip, a number 104
5:23
which pipes ruffles like this if you keep the narrow end of the piping tip
5:26
pointing down and the wide end pointing up. Holding the same piping tip in the same way
5:32
with the narrow part pointing down, pipe these little petals along the tree
5:36
starting at the bottom and overlapping each row as you work up the tree. With a leaf tip, a number 352
5:44
you can make spikier shapes, holding the tip with the two little teeth above each other
5:49
Use a medium round piping tip, like a number 12, to pipe dots
5:53
and as you pull away after each dot, you'll leave a point behind, which gives the Christmas tree that branch texture
5:59
Almost everyone has a 1M tip, a star tip, and that works too
6:03
piping little lines downwards to resemble the branches. Or, instead of dragging the tip downwards, squeeze a bit out to make these spiky star dots
6:11
I hope you've seen a fun technique you'd like to try. visit my online cake school for my free course on 10 frosting techniques
6:17
and lots of courses on hundreds of cake designs and decorating techniques
6:22
Thanks for watching and happy caking
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