Looking for a Christmas cake idea? You’ve come to the right place. Here you will find 18 Beautiful Christmas cake ideas. Christmas time is the season that reminds us all how important it is to take care of our loved ones. To do that, I believe cakes are always a good solution.
Whether you’re looking for inspiration for a family gathering, a dinner party with friends, or with colleagues. I’m confident you will find the perfect cake idea here.
How to make sure these Christmas cake ideas are suited to your cake decorating level?
I’ve come up with a system. The cake ideas are presented to you according to their level of difficulty. There are three categories :
What Are Beginner Cake Ideas?
These are the easy cake ideas. If you’ve never decorated a cake before (or only did it once or twice), these are the cakes that you should pay attention to.
- What you’ll find: Beautiful Christmas cake ideas that only require basic decoration techniques. This is a great place to start your cake-decorating journey.
What Are Intermediate Cake Ideas?
I have decided to divide this category into two.
Low Intermediate Baker: If you are confident that you’ve mastered the cake decorating basics, such as how to smooth a cake for example, but feel like you still have a lot of techniques to learn apart from this foundation, this category is perfect for you.
- What you’ll find: Beautiful Christmas cake ideas that require both basic decorating skills and one or two techniques that are a little bit more advanced. This is a great place to grow your cake-decorating abilities.
High Intermediate Baker: If you’ve mastered both basic and several more advanced cake decorating techniques, these Christmas cake ideas are made for you.
- What you’ll find: Beautiful Christmas cake ideas that can be fairly challenging, but are a great place to get even better than you already are.
What Are Advanced Cake Ideas?
If you consider yourself an experienced cake decorator and have mastered most of the decorating techniques, including the use of fondant, then this is the perfect place for you.
- What you’ll find: Beautiful and challenging cake ideas, perfect to sharpen your skills or maintain them.
The Grading System
Finally, I’ve also assigned a grade of difficulty to each cake inspiration: 1/5 being the easiest to 5/5 being the hardest design. The goal is to make the ranking the most accurate possible. You will find this to be particularly helpful if you happen to fall in the Beginner or the Intermediate Cake Ideas categories.
Growth Tip : This list is great a place to set goals about your cake decorating skills. Pin this post and come back later to tell us how far you’ve come in your cake decorating journey !
How to recreate those Christmas cake ideas?
What cake recipe should you use to make your Christmas cake come true?
To recreate these Christmas cake ideas, you will need a trustworthy cake recipe. You have several options.
Adapt your favorite cake recipe
There are a lot of ways to adapt a cake recipe to the Holiday season. Here are three suggestions :
- You could add Christmas flavor to your favorite cake recipe :
- With spices → cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamon are classics, but there are many others.
- With Dried Fruits → In many parts of the world, fruit cakes are a staple of the Christmas season. You could go for a premade mix, or choose individually the fruits you love.
- A cranberry Christmas cake also is a classic.
- You could add a Christmas-flavored filling such as :
- A chestnut cream sounds like a great idea for the holidays
- Some kind of peppermint filling would also be hit.
- Finally, you could also personalize your frosting recipe to the Christmas season by adding seasonal fruit flavors such as cranberry or oranges.
Here, the possibilities are endless. Personally, this year, I’m most likely going to go with a spice cake, paired with a chestnut cream, and frosted with a dark chocolate ganache.
Be careful, if you’re a beginner baker, having to figure out both your cake design and creating a new cake recipe could be overwhelming. Therefore, I always recommend taking your learning journey one step at a time.
Look for a cake recipe
Where? You can ask friends, or family or simply look on the internet. You have to keep two things in mind though :
- The recipe has to be suitable for cake decorating, especially for cakes that require stacking or carving (advanced Christmas cake ideas).
- Once again, if you’re a beginner baker, be careful not to put too much on your plate and choose a recipe suited to your current level.
Use my Christmas Cake Recipe Recommendation
Finally, you could try one of the delicious recipes I recommend. To me, gingerbread is one of the most iconic Christmas season flavors, which is why when I tested the gingerbread latte cake recipe of Sugar and Sparrow I knew, it would be the perfect recipe for this post.
What you will love about this recipe :
- It is fairly easy to follow.
- It is perfect for cake decorating
- It is the ideal flavor for a Christmas cake.
How to follow the instructions of the designs.
For the cake designs in the beginner category: I’ll be providing written instructions on how you can make the cake idea presented to you. Don’t hesitate to watch video tutorials about the basic techniques such as how to smooth a cake.
For the designs in the intermediate category: I’ll provide some guidance on how to perform the more complicated techniques.
For the advanced category: you are an experienced baker, at this point, and you will find great opportunities to put this experience to use. To be completely honest, several cake ideas for the advanced category, I cannot make myself, so trust your abilities and go for it.
Find the perfect Christmas cake idea according to your level.
Growth Tip : If you aim to get better at cake decorating, you should choose a cake idea that feels sligthly above your current decorating level. Get out of your comfort zone !
Christmas Cake Ideas for Beginner Bakers
I’ve gathered 4 easy and stunning Christmas cake ideas just for you.
An easy Santa Cake
Difficulty Level: 1/5.
This cake idea tackles the most basic cake-decorating techniques. This makes it the perfect place to begin for a new cake artist.
What you will need:
- Enough frosting to cover and decorate your cake (buttercream for example)
- 3/4 of your frosting colored in red
- For the remaining 1/4 :
- Color a tiny portion in yellow
- Divide the rest between white and black
- A piping bag for each frosting.
- Here, a nozzle (also called a piping tip) is not necessary. Simply cut straight the tip (1-2 cm) of the piping bag to retain enough control.
How to recreate this cake?
- Cover and smooth the cake in the red frosting. I will be posting a visual tutorial soon.
- Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes, in order for the buttercream to set.
- Outline the rectangle with the black frosting. Fill it and smooth it, using the same technique as with the cake covering.
- Outline the mustache. Fill it and smooth it.
- Put the cake in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Draw a little square with the yellow frosting in the middle of the black rectangle.
What you’ve learned :
This is the perfect cake cake to practice your frosting smoothing ability, the most basic cake decorating skill. It might be a bit intimidating, but I know you can do it!
An Easy Snowman’s Head
Difficulty Level: 1/5.
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover and decorate your cake (buttercream for example)
- 2/3 of your frosting left white.
- For the remaining 1/3 :
- Enough black frosting to draw the face
- Enough orange frosting to draw the nose
- All the remaining frosting colored blue.
- A piping bag for each frosting.
- Here, a nozzle (also called a piping tip) is not necessary either. Simply cut straight the tip (half a centimeter) of the piping bag for the black and orange frosting to retain enough control. For the blue frosting, cut the piping bag 2 centimeters away from the edge.
How to recreate this cake?
- Cover and smooth the cake in your white frosting. I will be posting a visual tutorial soon.
- Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes, in order for the frosting to set.
- With the blue frosting, draw big dots, at a third of the cake, from one edge of the cake to the other.
- Still with the blue frosting, fill the third you delimited, with a thick and uniform coat.
- Smooth all the blue frosting until it is uniform, using the same principle as for the covering of the cake.
- Draw a final big dot with the blue buttercream on top of the cap you just drew.
- Finally, draw the face of the snowman with the black and the orange frostings.
What you’ve learned :
This cake is also a great opportunity to practice your cake-smoothing skills.
An Easy Santa’s Head
Difficulty Level: 1,5/5
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover and decorate your cake (buttercream for example)
- 2/3 of your frosting colored in a nude color.
- For the remaining 1/3 :
- Half of the frosting colored red.
- The other half remaining white.
- A piping bag for each frosting.
- You will need a piping tip for the white buttercream in this design. I recommend using one of the most popular ones: the 1M by Wilton
- For the other colors, simply cut straight the tip (1-2 cm) of the piping bag.
- 2 chocolate chips
How to recreate this cake?
- Cover and smooth the cake in the nude frosting. I will be posting a visual tutorial soon.
- Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes, in order for the buttercream to set.
- Draw the limit of Santa’s cap with the red buttercream, at a third of the circle. Fill that third and smooth it, using the same principle as for the covering of the cake.
- Put the cake in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- To draw the white outline of the cap, use the white buttercream. On the edge of the cake, pipe a dot with the nozzle and drag outward slowly releasing the pressure. Repeat until you reach the other edge.
- Then, pipe Santa’s beard. To do so, use the same piping bag and pipe little dots of cream along the edge of the cake on the nude part.
- To pipe the top of Santa’s cap, do a little dot of white buttercream with or without your nozzle.
- Next, in the middle of the remaining nude space, pipe a little dot with your buttercream. Underneath, draw the mustache with your white buttercream without any nozzle.
- Finally, put the chocolate chips in the place of the eyes.
What you’ve learned :
This cake idea is the ideal introduction to piping and smoothing. Those are the two most important techniques in cake decorating. You’re slowly but surely building your cake-decorating skills.
An Easy Christmas Tree Forest Cake
Difficulty Level: 1,5/5
What you will need:
- Enough frosting to cover and decorate your cake (buttercream for example)
- 2/3 of your frosting colored left white.
- For the remaining 1/3 :
- 3/4 colored in green
- 1/4 colored in pink.
- A piping bag for each frosting.
- You will need a piping tip for the green and the pink frostings in this design. I recommend using really popular ones: the 1M or the 2D by Wilton
- For the other color, simply cut straight the tip (1-2 cm) of the piping bag.
- Sprinkles.
- A ribbon of the color of your choice (optional)
How to recreate this cake?
- Cover and smooth the cake in the white frosting. I will be posting a visual tutorial soon.
- Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes, in order for the frosting to set.
- To recreate the Christmas trees, you need your green buttercream and your piping tip. You are going to do a practice round on a sheet of parchment paper. Don’t worry, you can still reuse this practice buttercream.
- On the parchment paper, draw the trees by keeping the piping bag perpendicular to your surface. Draw circular motions, slowly going upwards. Once you’re satisfied with the height, stop piping.
- When you are confident enough with the piping, do it on the actual cake. Pipe the first tree on the edge of the cake. For the next tree, draw it straight across from your first one. The third tree has to be placed between the first ones. So on and so forth. This allows for your trees to be equally spaced.
- Once you’re satisfied with the trees, pipe a small dot of pink buttercream with your piping tips between each of them.
- Finally, put sprinkles on your cake, to mimic Christmas decorations and gifts.
- You can also add a ribbon at the base of your cake, just like in the picture if you want to.
What you’ve learned:
This cake idea tackles buttercream swirls. It is very useful as it is a part of a lot of cake designs these days. Well done you!
Christmas Cake Ideas for Intermediate Bakers
Now, let’s continue with both low and high-intermediate Christmas cake ideas.
A Chocolate Christmas Tree Forest
Difficulty level: 2/5 (Low intermediate)
This cake isn’t that complicated. It only requires basic techniques (smoothing the cake and beginner-level piping). It is not beginner cake though because you will need to do a little of chocolate work, which can be overwhelming for complete beginners.
A little guidance
To recreate the chocolate Christmas trees, simply pipe melted white chocolate you have previously colored (or not) on sticks placed over parchment paper. Wait until it sets and then put them on your cake.
A Little Gingerbread Men Cake
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (Low Intermediate)
This cake is the perfect cake to test your cake decorating level as it combines both beginner and intermediate techniques.
A little guidance
To recreate the little gingerbreadmen, simply cut the shape in brown fondant, with a cookie cutter or following a paper pattern. Use your leftover white chocolate drip, and green and red buttercreams to decorate it.
A Minimalist Doodle Christmas Cake
Difficulty Level: 3,5/5
Even though, this Christmas cake appears to be simple enough, it is actually quite a challenge. Recreating these little Christmas doodles requires a lot of patience and dexterity.
A little guidance
To recreate these little drawings, I wouldn’t use buttercream, but royal icing to end up with a smoother and glossier finish.
A Festive Striped Christmas Cake
Difficulty Level: 4/5
If you’re looking for a cake that’s a little less traditional, with this pink and green combination, this cake is the one for you. It is a level 4 as it requires several intermediate techniques (stripes, bicolor rope on top, vertical piping of the Christmas tree …)
A little guidance
I’ve always found piping vertically a bit challenging, which is why for the Christmas tree, my advice is to stick a sheet of parchment paper to your cake and practice on it. That way if you mess up, there’s no chance that you ruin your striped pattern underneath.
An all-in Christmas Cake
Difficulty Level: 4,5/5
This cake is so high in the grading system because even if it doesn’t require any complex technique, there still is a lot of vertical piping. And, it probably will take quite some time to recreate this design.
A little guidance
To guide your piping placement, you could use cookie cutters to outline the elements on the sides. If you don’t have cookie cutters, you could also print paper patterns from the internet and trace the outline with a knife.
Christmas Cake Ideas for Advanced Bakers
I’ve gathered 4 advanced-level Christmas cake ideas. Each of these is simply a work of art.
A Snowball Christmas Cake
Difficulty Level: 5/5
If you’ve never used a pulled sugar technique before, this is your sign to do so and recreate this beautiful Snowball Christmas Cake.
A “Santa Has Overeaten” Cake
Difficulty Level: 5/5
This cake, on the other hand, is a perfect opportunity to get into cake carving.
An Elegant Christmas Tree Cake
Difficulty Level: 5/5
This Christmas tree Cake also requires cake carving. It is more challenging though as it is a high cake, and you have to pay attention to its structure for it to stand right.
A Realistic Christmas Gift Hood Cake
Difficulty Level: 5/5
When I saw this cake for the first time, I wasn’t even sure it was actually a cake. This cake is definitely a showstopper. If you’re confident enough in your fondant skills, go for it.
Uncategorized Christmas Cake Idea
A Beautiful Snowy City Cake
I haven’t been able to classify this cake in any of the categories. As it requires baking gingerbread cookies and decorating them, but at the same time there’s no intricate piping or any complex techniques, I couldn’t tell whether it was an intermediate cake or an advanced one.
But, considering how stunning it looks, I still wanted to include it, so I added an uncategorized category. I wouldn’t recommend this cake if you’re a complete beginner though.
Did you make one of the Christmas cake inspirations?
Please let me know in the comments and/or tag me on Instagram @theperfectcakeidea. I’d love to see your creations.
