For the months leading up to Christmas 2015 I kept changing my mind as to what dessert I was going to make. It had to be special as it was our turn to host Christmas again so I considered macarons, meringues, a giant cupcake and even a gingerbread house.
All of that went out of the window when I came across a video from Rosie’s Dessert Spot in my YouTube subscription list for a Christmas Wreath Cake. It was what I had been waiting for and Rosie made it look so simple I had to give it a go!
After watching Rosie’s video at least half a dozen times, I worked out what I had in the pantry to use/adapt then purchased a couple of remaining things (food colouring and gold sanding sugar as the powder was not available where I live). My plan was to display the wreath cake on a larger cake board with a Merry Christmas message along the front so I hacked up the cardboard base for the cake so that it too was a wreath shape and would show the larger cake board in the middle rather than the silver.
Just because they were the size tins I had, I baked a 12 inch white chocolate mud cake and then used a six-inch tin to remove the centre for the cake pop baubles. Once the centre was removed, I flipped the cake over to place my hacked up cake board on top, with a little buttercream so it would stick.
Very carefully, so carefully I got the hubby to do it, the cake was flipped back over and then I carved the top so it was more rounded like a wreath.
I proceeded to crumb coat the cake and then load up my piping bag, fitted with the grass tip, with a couple of shades of green and some yellow as Rosie did to add some dimension. Working around the base of the cake first I piped and piped a little way up the cake. This technique definitely does take some time, so ensure you have your patience. I did not have a lot this particular day as it was late so despite desperately wanting to make this look exactly like Rosie’s, I cut off the top of the piping bag, squeezed the multicoloured icing onto the cake and spread it around before roughing it up with a spatula to give it a little texture.
For decoration on the cake I piped a whole bunch of poinsettia flowers and let them firm up in the fridge then created cake pop baubles using gold sanding sugar as the gold element rather than the powder as mentioned before. I also used some jelly fruit lollies I had been saving for Christmas Day and some white sixlets to adorn the wreath.
To top the cake off, I opted for some Christmas ribbon as the one I made from fondant fell a bit flat. The ribbon I used had wire along each edge which meant it held the shape perfectly and I used toothpicks to hold it in place on the cake.
Overall I was still pleased with what I created for Christmas Day and it definitely tasted yummy, but there was disappointment that I did not achieve my goal of recreating Rosie’s cake. The tutorial was perfect and I highly recommend it to anyone, it just was not my day on this occasion. Next time Gadget, next time!