Easy and Festive Wreath Cake

Do you remember what your favorite gift was when you were a little kid? I’ve always loved the part in The Santa Clause 2 when he gives all of the adults the toys they wanted or loved the most in the childhoods. The idea of reconnecting with a lost piece of childhood like that is so beautiful to me.

When I was seven years old, my family suffered a house fire. We lost everything, if not from fire, then from smoke and water damage. Obviously, my family lost a lot of incredibly valuable things that day, like family photos, but at the tender age of seven, my valuables consisted of dolls and Micro Machines. Through the years, I’ve often thought back to my lost She-Ra action figure and my beloved Rainbow Brite doll.

I’ve considered snooping and searching and finding them through the years, but I’ve never pulled the trigger to buy either one. But then…yesterday…I got the most amazing surprise from the Hubster!

That’s right, he surprised me with an early Christmas gift of a vintage, 1984 She-Ra action figure, still in her packaging! Can you even believe this amazingness?! She’s incredible. I’ve been debating for the last 24 hours whether or not I’m going to open the package… I mean, I have no intentions of selling her, ever, so I couldn’t care less about her value, but I can’t seem to bring myself to rip into her thirty-year-old box. Decisions, decisions.

In the meantime, I decided to make a cake for Hubs. He deserved it. And since Christmas is right around the corner, I made it festive. 🙂

All I did to create my wreath was swirl soft green frosting into various sized tree-like shapes. I used a small open star tip to achieve the ruffled look. Next, I added shiny red Sixlets candies to act as pretty holly berries.

As for the cake itself, I frosted the whole thing with fluffy white buttercream. And kept it swirly and rustic.

I love how the cake is a wreath from above, but from the side like this it looks like a happy Christmas tree forest. You could even cover the entire cake with green swirls, if you wanted to, and dust with snowy confectioners’ sugar, to make the whole top of the cake a magical Christmas woodland.

I also made this cake using airy meringue cookie trees. I made this recipe of meringues, without the raspberry flavor, and shaped the trees using the same method as I used to make the frosting trees above. After baking the trees as directed in the recipe, I simply topped my frosted cake with the trees and added candies for decoration.

I prefer the meringue tree cake to the frosted one, because it’s like two desserts in one. 🙂 But the frosting trees are much faster, and far simpler, than the meringue trees, so if you’re pressed for time, I recommend that method.

This cake makes me ridiculously happy. It’s just so sweet and festive!

If you want a beautiful and impressive looking centerpiece dessert this holiday, with minimal work, this cake is perfect for the job. Enjoy!

Recipes used:

Chocolate Cupcakes (I made it exactly as directed, but baked it in three 6-inch round cake pans. You can also do two 8-inch round pans.)
Vanilla Buttercream
Meringue Cookies (omit the raspberry flavor, or substitute with peppermint or another flavor, as desired)