Holiday Wreath Cake Recipes

Steps:

• Whisk together the almond meal, powdered sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the egg whites, almond extract and orange blossom water or rosewater, if using, and stir with a spatula to combine. At first it will seem like there is not enough liquid to hold everything together, but just keep on mixing and it will eventually form a dough. Pat the dough into 2 discs, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and position two racks in the center of the oven. Use your hands to grease the kransekake molds liberally with butter or coconut oil, then set aside. (I prefer to set the molds on large baking sheets so that they're easier to move around.)
• Working with one dough disc at a time, chop off a piece of dough and roll it into a rope that's a generous 1/2-inch thick (or, if you're pulling your kitchen ruler out, just go with 5/8-inch thick), dusting with additional almond flour if the dough is sticky. Coil the rope into the molds, then pinch off any excess dough and pinch the ends to seal them together. Continue the process, re-rolling scraps as needed, until all of the molds are filled. Don't worry about overworking the dough!
• Bake until golden; begin checking for doneness at 9 minutes. You'll likely need to bake these layers in batches, which is totally fine; just keep any dough that you're not working with covered and in the refrigerator.
• Let the rings cool in the pans, then carefully pop them out (a small offset spatula or butter knife will help) and transfer to a baking sheet or wire rack.
• Stack the rings up using dots of the royal icing as "glue" (I do dots at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock). Decorate with sprinkles. Let the icing dry, 30 minutes to 1 hour, then decorate with paper chains, flags or other decor as desired. This is good for at least a few days uncovered at room temperature, so feel free to make it in advance!

Steps:

• Heat oven to 325°F. Generously grease 12-cup fluted tube cake pan with shortening or cooking spray. Make cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs. Pour half of the batter into medium bowl; set aside. Divide the other half of batter equally between 2 small bowls. (You will be left with 3 bowls of batter.) Add red food color to 1 of the small bowls and mix well. Add green food color to the second small bowl and mix well.
• Pour half of the white batter from medium bowl into cake pan. Carefully pour red batter over white batter in pan. Carefully pour green batter over red batter. Then pour remaining white batter from medium bowl over the top. Do not mix the colors.
• Bake as directed on box until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Turn pan upside down onto cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet; remove pan. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Place cake on serving plate.
• Divide frosting between 2 small microwavable bowls. Microwave 1 bowl on High about 5 to 10 seconds; mix well with spoon until smooth enough to drizzle. With the spoon, drizzle white frosting back and forth around the whole cake in a striping pattern until you use all of the frosting (allow some frosting to drip down onto plate in middle of cake, if desired).
• Microwave second bowl of frosting; stir in a few drops of green food color. Drizzle over cake, scattering back and forth in the same type of striping pattern. Decorate with sprinkles. Let stand until frosting is set before serving.

Steps:

• Slice off the top half of the top portion of each cupcake or muffin. Using a teaspoon carve a small amount of the cake so that you are left with a shallow indentation about 1-inch deep and place 1 tablespoon of the cherry pie filling into the indentation. Smooth into a circle.
• Add the peppermint extract to the frosting container and mix. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip with the frosting. Pipe the icing around the circumference of the cherry pie filling to the edge of the cupcake.
• Cut the fruit roll into 6 thin strips about 6 inches long. Tie each strip into a bow and place onto the edge of the icing. Place a red cinnamon candy in the center of the bow using a bit of icing to secure it. Repeat with remaining bows and candies. Lightly sprinkle the icing with green sanding sugar.
• Foil Wrap:
• Cut out 6 (6 by 6-inch) squares of foil. Stack the foil squares on top of each other and place a saucer on top of the foil. Using scissors cut around the saucer so that the foil is a perfect circle. Place a cupcake in the center of each of the foil circles and wrap the foil up along the side of the cupcake. Fold out edges of foil.

Steps:

• Melt margarine in a large pan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir constantly until marshmallows melt and mixture is syrupy. Remove from heat. Stir in food coloring. Add corn flakes and stir until well coated.
• Drop mixture, by 1/4 cupful, onto cookie sheet. Using buttered fingers, quickly shape into individual wreaths. Dot with cinnamon candies

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a tube pan with 2 layers of brown paper or parchment, and grease well.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in raisins, dates, cherries, pineapple, walnuts, and coconut. Stir until all fruit is coated.
• In another large bowl, cream the butter with the white sugar. Add lemon rind, lemon juice, and eggs; mix well. Stir in fruit mixture. Spread batter into prepared pan.
• Bake for 2 hours or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Steps:

• Place marshmallows and butter in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave, uncovered, on high until butter is melted and marshmallows are puffed, about 45 seconds. Tint with green food coloring. Stir in cornflakes. , On a waxed paper-lined baking sheet, divide mixture into 8 portions. With buttered hands, working quickly, shape each portion into a 3-in. wreath. Decorate immediately with M&M's, pressing to adhere. Let stand until set.

Steps:

• Split 15 of the cookies, leaving filling on 1 side of each cookie. Stand cookies with filling attached, filling sides out, on edge around rim of 9-inch springform pan.
• Crush cookie halves without filling; mix with granulated sugar and butter. Press firmly onto bottom of pan. Coarsely chop remaining 10 whole cookies; stir into ice cream along with the mint candies. Spread evenly over crust. Freeze 4 hours or until firm.
• Tint whipped topping with green food coloring to desired shade of green; spread or pipe into wreath design on top of cake. Decorate with icing, cinnamon candies and colored sugar. Remove rim of pan just before serving. Cut dessert into 15 slices. Store leftover dessert in freezer.

Steps:

• Make sure the cake has completely cooled, remove from its tin and peel off the baking parchment. Use an 8cm round cookie cutter to cut a hole through the middle of the cake, pushing down as far as you can, then cut all the way down using a small sharp knife. Carefully remove the centre by lifting the cake and pushing the smaller cake up through the middle (you may need to get someone to help you with this). Keep the smaller cake to decorate and give as a gift (see 'goes well with').
• Spread a little runny icing around the edges of a cake board or stand and invert the large cake on top.
• On a clean surface dusted with icing sugar, roll out 100g marzipan into a long rectangular strip, about 8 x 20cm. Trim the edges, then use this piece to line the central hole of the cake. Trim away any excess. Roll out the remaining marzipan to a circle large enough to cover the cake - use a piece of kitchen string to help you check. Melt the apricot jam in a small pan with 1 tbsp water, then sieve and brush a little all over your cake. Use the marzipan to cover the cake, then trim any excess from the bottom and the centre.
• In a large bowl, mix the royal icing sugar with enough water to make a thick, spreadable icing. Use the food colouring to dye it a rich leaf-green colour. Working quickly, spread the icing all over your cake - don't worry about being too neat as most of the icing will be covered. Break the fondant icing into 2 lumps and dye different shades of green. Roll the icing out and cut out lots of holly shapes with cutters. Use a little runny icing as glue to stick the holly leaves all over the top of the cake. Put a big red bow at the top to finish the look.