Christmas Cookie Decorating Birthday Party Cake

I appreciate all of you so much – and your patience as I’ve tried something new and varied away from all cake posts lately… but cake is still my first love, so I’m so excited to be sharing this Christmas Cookie Decorating Birthday Party Cake with you today!   And this cake… it almost didn’t happen for me.

You see, a few weeks ago I had a cancellation on an upcoming weekend and my plan was to leave the slot open.  I already had  a wedding & groom’s cake to do, so I really didn’t need any more work, ya know?!

When this client messaged me about doing her child’s birthday – I almost said no without even getting more information.  But curiosity got the best of me and I asked what she had in mind (design-wise) and how big it needed to be.

As soon as she described what she wanted – I was HOOKED on the idea!  She told me that they were having a Christmas Cookie Decorating Party for Maddy Claire’s birthday party and she really liked the look of this Holly Jolly Christmas Candy Cake I’d done and this Gingerbread House Christmas Candy Birthday Cake.

She also sent a pic of her daughter’s outfit for the party… red chevron and lime green polka dots.   It only took a few minutes for me to have a dozen visions floating around in my head!

I sent her a quick sketch and the design was set!  So, let me tell you about the components of this cake…

I baked real gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies to go on the cake.  I know I could’ve made them out of fondant but I figured the real-deal would be just as good, if not better!

Instead of decorating them with buttercream or royal icing – I decided to use melted candy melts.  Why?  Well, it dried faster, plus I could also use it to stick them to the cake and cake board and the lollipop stick on top.   Work smarter, not harder, right?!

To decorate the gingerbread men, I also used the white candy melts and these perfect tiny little Gingerbread decorations by Wilton (“glued” on with the melted candy melts).

My client mentioned that she liked some of the candy and cake pops that I used on the other cakes, so I incorporated those too.  The cake pops (or “lollipops”) were red velvet cake balls dipped in red candy melts then sprinkled with red sparkling sugar.

I also made a couple of cake balls and covered them in green fondant to match the cake (I didn’t have candy melts that color on hand).    The big red, green and white gumballs were real 🙂

To get that wavy overlay look – check out my tutorial here: How To Do Wavy Fondant Overlay on Cake {Picture Tutorial}.

Again in this pic… sugar cookie with melted candy melts and Christmas nonpareils, a gumball, a cake pop and polka dots 🙂

Then on the bottom…

I used Not Just Cakes by Annie cutters for the Chevron stripes and the “7”.   The single most important thing I can recommend for perfect chevrons (besides the Not Just Cakes by Annie cutter) is Jessica Harris’ Craftsy Class: Clean & Simple Cake Design.  Her wax paper transfer method makes perfect stripes easy-peasy!

Maddie Claire’s name was cut with my favorite Funky Alphabet Tappit Cutters… see how to use Tappit cutters by clicking here.

The cake was 5″ and 7″ tiers of vanilla cake.  I used 3 layers on the bottom and 2 layers on the top.  I prefer Magic Line pans… if you’re wondering 🙂   I used homemade marshmallow fondant for covering the cake and for all decorations except the red – that was Duff Red Fondant.

Oh and I got the gorgeous red stand at Home Goods!   And I love it more than my Diet Dr. Pepper!

And that’s it!  I hope you love this Christmas Cookie Decorating Birthday Party Cake as much as I do and that you’re all enjoying the Christmas season!  If you have any questions… leave me a comment, as always!

Happy Caking!

Rose