Christmas Tree Wreath Cake

Christmas tree wreath cake! I can’t believe it is almost December which means Christmas is just a few weeks away now! We have been so busy buying presents, wrapping, writing cards and letters to Santa! Also not forgetting busy keeping our Christmas tradition of building a gingerbread house and making chocolate Christmas trees!

To celebrate this coming festive season in style, Parragon have offered me to review this fantastic collection of Christmas recipes and crafts book. It is a simple but inspirational guide on Christmas dishes that will delight family and friends. It also includes traditional favourites and contemporary takes on Christmas classics, edible gifts, inspirational ideas for leftovers and practical advice to keep you on track. Also there are stunning ideas for crafts to decorate your home with templates provided. This book is available to buy at good book retailers and Amazon.

Out of so many fabulous recipes, I decided to make this stunning cake! This will definitely surprise your guests!

To make this, you will need a ring cake tin and a Christmas tree cutter. Luckily, I have this fluted ring cake pan and a small Christmas tree cutter that is slightly smaller than the ring cake pan.

Due to school runs and housework, I used a whole day to make this cake. It is quite time consuming. If you want to make this all the way through in one go, you will probably need at least 3 hours. This cake recipe is similar to a Victoria sponge cake. If you prefer, you can add your own flavour to it.

To make the Christmas tree sponge, you will need:

• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g self-raising flour
• 4 large eggs
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• Green food colouring

Method:

1. Thoroughly grease the ring cake pan and lightly dust with flour.
2. Mix all the ingredients until it is smooth and creamy. Add the food colouring into the mixture.
3. Bake for 45-50 minutes at 160°C. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out carefully onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
4. Place the cold cake on a board and use a sharp knife to cut into 16 wedge-shaped slices. Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.
5. Use the cutter to stamp out the tree from the chilled sponge wedges. Re-form the trees into the ring shape and return to the freezer for a further 30-40 minutes.

To make the vanilla sponge, you will need:

• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 250g self-raising flour
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Thoroughly grease the ring cake pan and lightly dust with flour.
2. Mix all the ingredients until it is smooth and creamy.
3. Pipe the mixture around the tin. I didn’t pipe the mixture, instead I spoon the mixture around the side of pan.
4. Take the tree sponge cakes out and place them into the tin with the tip of the tree pointing down onto the vanilla mixture.
5. Now pipe/spoon the vanilla mixture into the tin and make sure you cover them completely.
6. Bake for 45 minutes at 160°C. Then loosely cover the top of the cake with foil and bake for a further 15-20 minutes.
7. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out carefully onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

To decorate the wreath cake, you will need:

• 525g buttercream
• Christmas sprinkles

Method:

1. Spread the buttercream in a thin layer all over the cake.
2. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Spread the remaining buttercream all over the cake.
3. Decorate with sprinkles.

Many of my friends were amazed with this bake. I love it too. It takes a while to bake but the results are worth it! I love the creative side of baking this as it is fun and challenging! Can’t wait to try out the rest of the recipes and crafts!

In this photo, I am using a Sophie Conran cake knife to cut the cake and I love the classy handle of this knife. It gives a very clean cut and it is made from the finest stainless steel. It is part of the Rivelin collection designed by Sophie Conran. This is a wonderfully useful and stylish gift for anyone who loves to bake or indeed enjoys cake.

And in this photo, I used this cake lifter which is another Sophie Conran creation for Arthur Price. It is made from high quality 18/10 stainless steel and complete with a beautiful gift box.

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher and Arthur Price samples for free. However, they have not paid me for this review, and they do not exercise any editorial control over my review or anything else on this site.