The Last Christmas Cake Ideas & Victorian Gift Tags of 2015 !!

Today as we are getting on with our Christmas Festive arrangements ...I thought I would give you a few lovely ideas of how to decorate your Christmas Cake ...some these would be great for Children and Adults alike 

How SUPER cute is this one ...Santa in bed ....most of it made out of fondant icing or colored marzipan would also work ...lot's of coloring ...I like to use see through surgeon gloves to color the fondant or marzipan icing ...saves a lot of hand washing afterwards 
Lots of painting with edible gold and silver paint too and use a tiny star stencil for the headboard and the bed cover ...too beautiful to cut ...but that is what they are made for to eat !!!

Super easy and simple but really effective ..just a lovely high several layered cake or the Tunis cake recipe from my previous blog would work great ...color Fondant Red and black and put the red fondant all over the cake ...I like to cover my cake with a thin layer of buttercream to act as glue and smooth the icing over the cake with your hands dusted in corn flour ...keep rubbing till it's all one color and smooth..add a white scalloped strip to the centre then  ...make a long black belt for the bottom of the cake and make a buckle out of the white fondant and paint it with a small craft paint brush with edible gold paint ...Voilé it's done 

This is just so cute ...I am going to make some gift tags out of it tomorrow for  the remainder of my gifts 

Very cute ...made from a modern large 'Cup Cake' tin ..but you could make it from a large cake and just cut it to shape it .....the sides were iced with a piping nozzle that were piped with long stripes with a little sifted cocoa powder to color it ..do make sure you sift the cocoa powder as small lumps will form and are impossible to get through the nozzle end ...make some windows out of fondant and press in to the cocoa icing ...the same with the door ...and just use your imagination ...it would be such fun to make with your children or grandchildren ...

A very cute old Victorian scrap that you could spray adhesive on to stock card and just place as a decoration on the Christmas table plates ....a nice keepsake for your guests ..then make the rest of the table a woodland scene with snow of course 

Make lots of fondant or marzipan penguins ahead of time for this cake ...then a round cake and use a small round oven proof basin to make the igloo cake ...cover both cakes with either white icing or white fondant icing ....make an igloo entrance... adding 'snowflakes' is optional  ..then add the Penguin's where ever you like so simple and so cute ....make sure there are enough penguins for each child so as not to disappoint 

You have it in the bag with this one ...if you make all of the fondant parcels and teddy bears before hand ..if you find the bears too difficult ...although so cute then just the lovely parcels would be great ...you can take your time and just make two or three a day ...color several balls of fondant with the food colorings you would like ...then make round and square parcels out of them ...Make a tall cake or even buy an Italian Bread Cake called a Panatone ...I would layer it with buttercream ...then roll out a large circle of fondant icing colored with brown food coloring ..place the cake in the centre and just draw it up to the top of the cake ...press it together a little to secure then tie either a fondant made ribbon, a long piece of licorice or a real ribbon around the top ...fill the top with fondant presents and either make a some holly berries and leaves out of fondant or put on fabric ones ...again use your imagination and make it just perfect for you ...bound to be a crowd pleaser with lots of Wow's !!!

Easy as anything and another lovely cake that the children would love to help with ...make a lovely round cake of your choosing and roughly decorate it with chocolate icing ...this can all be store bought ....you can then freeze it if you like till Christmas Eve ...bring it out of the freezer in the morning ..unwrap it before it thaws then the icing won't stick ..let it sweat ( beads of water may appear but will vanish once thawed ) ...get the kids to help you with making white fondant eyes and little black circles for the pupils ..they can be made by just making a small ball of black fondant then squash them in to shape ...a big black nose ...all made out of fondant that has been colored black with edible coloring ...the Antlers can be made from card board and painted black or from black edible fondant ...have fun with it ...

Plain simple elegance ...just a lovely round or square cake of your choosing and cover it in white fondant ...either spread a very thin layer of buttercream over the cake or brush with sieved apricot preserves so that it acts like a glue for the fondant icing ..work and smooth the fondant over the cake with hands dusted with corn flour and all jewelry rings removed ...until smooth and almost flawless ....wrap with a lovely ribbon if you wish ...have some ready made fondant cone shaped trees made from white fondant colored with leaf green coloring and a little brown tree stump ...then using a tiny piping nozzle or tiny corner cut off of a plastic icing bag or zip lock bag gently pipe little dots of snow on them once they are in position on the cake ..then put a few random dots of snow on the top of the cake ...Voilé .....one understated elegant Christmas cake ..enjoy !!

Once again I made this cake by making the fondant Poinsettia flower about 2 months in advance and kept it in a tin ....I made several different sizes of leaves with White Fondant colored red with edible paste coloring available by Wilton's ...I then scored the leaves with lines and glued them together with icing (confectioner's) sugar made in to a thick paste with a few drops of water to make a flower the size I wanted it ..made the Red Velvet cake about 6 weeks before Christmas and then put the flower on the top with more icing (confectioner's) sugar made in to  a paste with a few drops of water and colored the rest of the icing with edible yellow food coloring for the centre of the flower as above

Hope you find some ideas for Christmas Cake decorations ....I enjoyed sharing them with you 

Also print out some of the Victorian Card images ..they can make great place settings if you leave a small white border at the top or the bottom of the picture when you cut them out and then put each guest's names on it and place it on the plate or if you spray adhesive them on to stiff card you can use them as place settings that stand up 

Can you believe there is only a week to Christmas and then it will be all over ...

Have fun 

Happy thoughts for the Season 

Best Wishes 

Janet