A Cheats Christmas Cake!

So how do you cheat at making a Christmas Cake? You simply buy one! No joke! Time seems to be running away from me and with general family things going on I had already imagined how I was going to decorate a Christmas cake but had simply not factored in the making of one!

Traditionally my Grandma made all of the Christmas cakes but as she is unable to anymore. My mum took on the baton last year and well this year everyone is too busy to get started so I just opted for a bought one. It is no bad thing. I like to just carry on the tradition of even having a christmas cake and being able to decorate one!

This year it was going to be easy. I actually had already thought about doing a Nutcracker cake as we have a great book which Raph particularly likes reading, so my theme was set and I had thought I would just make my own little characters but then on a recent trip to HomeSense I found a cake decorating kit (similar one here) which fit the bill perfectly. This set was full of cupcake toppers with an array of different characters from the classic tale. The reason I thought I could make it all into one scene on one cake was because this set happened to come with Christmas trees meaning I could set a scene nicely.

Using my cake that was £10 from Tesco, I re-ribboned the base and tied fresh rosemary, from the garden, around. I love how the green brings more colour to the cake.

Setting the scene was a very simple method, I just used my inner child and thought about the classic scene from the land of the sweets where Clara watches the Nutcracker and his commerade parade. Having a Mouse King also made setting up the traditional scene easy!

As simple as it seems, this cake was really nice to stand and make. As far as stress levels went, there was minimal fuss allowing me to just get on and enjoy it. And it took no time so if you are feeling the pressure to get things done this could be a perfect option!

As a finishing touch I placed some plastic candy canes (similar here) around the edges which helps add a bit of festive red to the scene!

Inspired you? I hope so!

Emily