Peppermint Stripe Holiday & Christmas Cake
Steps involved
Make cake layers
Make buttercream (no color)
Split and color buttercream
Frost and stripe the cake
Chill cake
Add sprinkles and glittery sugar
READ BEFORE CONTINUING: The following recipes are scaled to make the cake pictured above -- a 4 layer cake made with 6-inch round cake layers. If you wish to make a smaller cake, please scale down these recipes.
recipes used
1 - 1.5 batches Italian meringue buttercream
I made this buttercream vanilla flavored by adding 1 tablespoon of vanilla to my 1.5x batch (can add less or more to taste)
This cake would be amazing with chocolate cake and peppermint buttercream (recipes below)
1 - 1.5 batches Italian meringue buttercream - just add peppermint flavor to taste
Colors used
To get these colors, I used Wilton's Color Right Food Coloring System*
For the icing:
The colors may differ depending on how much icing you're coloring and the starting color of your buttercream (certain butter brands are more white or yellow which can make the buttercream whiter or more yellow).
Red Icing:
Crimson: 60 drops
Red: 30 drops
Supplies/tools
To find the tools I use for almost every cake I make and decorate (including pans, cake boards, icing smoothers, etc.), click here.
The supplies/tools below are specifically for decorating this cake, which I used in addition to the ones in the link above.*
*Some of these links may be affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I earn a small amount from some purchases, however, this does not affect my recommendations.
Decorating the cake
After the cake has been assembled and crumb coated:
Ice the cake with the white icing and smooth with an icing smoother or the smooth side of the icing comb.
Use the stripe side of the icing comb to create grooves in the icing, which will become the stripes. With the first pass of the icing comb, press lightly to remove a small amount of icing. Continue using the stripe comb, taking off more icing with each pass. You'll have to do several passes with the stripe comb until the "raised" buttercream is smooth.
Next, place the cake in the fridge until the icing is firm to the touch.
Using a piping bag, fill each of the grooves with the red buttercream. I chose to fill the middle groove with white so I'd have a thick white stripe in the middle.
Using the smooth side of the icing comb, smooth the cake. With the first pass of the comb, press lightly to remove a small amount of icing. Continue smoothing until the stripes start to "appear". Once the stripes are pretty clean, run the icing comb under hot water to heat up the metal slightly. Dry off the icing comb, then use the warm comb to smooth the stripes further.
Put the cake in the fridge until the icing is firm to the touch.
Once the icing is firm, cut a strip of parchment the size of the stripe you would like to block off. Wrap the parchment around the cake where you don't want any glittery sugar. If the parchment isn't sticking well, you can brush the back with a thin layer of vegetable shortening.
Take your glittery sugar in handfuls and press it onto the cake to add sparkle. I like to place a baking pan under the cake when doing this to catch any falling sugar.
Remove the parchment paper from the cake carefully. Using your mixed silver dragees, place them in a pattern onto the cake where there is no glittery sugar. I chose to alternate between the long rods and medium-sized balls. (If they're not sticking to the cake well, you can brush the cake with a thin layer of vegetable shortening)
Create the glittery, swirly dollops: using a Wilton 1M tip, pipe a red and white swirled dollop onto a pan/plate that you can put in the freezer (I like to put small pieces of parchment down before piping so they're easy to remove later). I show you how to set up your piping bag to pipe multiple colors at once, here. To see how to pipe siwrly dollops, click here.
Pipe about 5 or 6 red and white swirled dollops onto you parchment lined pan/plate. Sprinkle the dollops with glittery sugar and place them in the freezer to firm up.
Once the dollops are firm, gently remove them from the parchment paper using an offset spatula and place them on the cake evenly spaced apart.
In between each red and white swirled dollop, pipe a white swirly dollop.
For the final touch, add some mixed silver dragees at the top of the cake at the base of the swirly dollops.
Slice and enjoy :)
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