Christmas Cake with Quick Buttercream Frosting

Who doesn’t appreciate a delicious teddy bear cake? This simple Christmas cake is sure to please the kids, and it’s not difficult to make. A coloring book page will be used as a template. The cake decorating goes quickly since it is made entirely of buttercream and contains no fondant.

I think this little guy is adorable. The good news is that it’s all buttercream, baby! There will be no fondant work on this one. I wanted to make something for Christmas that was entirely buttercream but didn’t require any difficult piping techniques. This Easy Buttercream Christmas Cake seems to fit the bill.

I wanted to make something different than the typical Santa cake. Because, after all, who doesn’t like an adorable teddy bear?

(By the way, there’s a video at the bottom of the article that shows the whole process.)

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Supplies for the Easy Buttercream Christmas Cake:

• Vanilla, Chocolate, Red, Dark Brown and small amounts of light brown, light pink  and black buttercream. For the red, I like Americolor Super Red or Wilton No Taste Red
• Two baked 13 x 9 inch cake layers
• Wilton 2D icing tip (for the top of the stocking)
• Wilton 233 Grass icing tip (for the bear’s fur)
• Wilton 21 tip (for the shell border on the bottom)
• Wilton 5 tip (for the eyes, nose, mouth, ears and stitches on the stocking)
• Small icing spatula
• Knife for carving
• Printed coloring page image (see below)

The Buttercream:

First, prepare all of your buttercream. I probably made three of my buttercream recipes. I wanted to make certain that I had plenty. These are the recipes for vanilla bean buttercream and double chocolate buttercream.

I used both recipes, although I made a few modifications.

• For the vanilla, I wanted to make sure it was really white, so I cut half the butter and replaced it with shortening. You can also use my recipe here: Bright White Heat Stable Buttercream
• For the chocolate, I reserved about a half a cup for the nose (the lighter brown color) and I added several tablespoons of dark cocoa powder to the rest to get the darker color brown for the bear’s fur.
• I added an extra cup of confectioner’s sugar to each recipe. It helps with piping.

To make a real red buttercream that does not turn pink, you must use a lot of red coloring. It is better not to use food coloring from the grocery store. It’s a little too liquidy (is that a word?) In any case, if you can locate it, you should use gel food coloring. As for the red, I like Americolor’s Super Red (you can find a link to it in the supply list below), but you might want to consider getting a no-taste red coloring like the Wilton brand (also in the supply list above).

To create the black buttercream, I took a little amount of the dark chocolate buttercream and simply added black gel coloring.

Check out this link for additional information on tinting your buttercream dark colors: Dark Buttercream Coloring

Shaping the cake:

To begin, you need have an example of what you want to utilize. I went online and searched for free coloring book pages, when I discovered my picture. You may use whatever picture you choose, however I liked the sweet little teddy bear the best. Here is where I found my picture.

After you’ve located your picture, copy it into your word processing tool and enlarge it to the size you want. After that, print it and cut it out. Put one of your cake layers on a cake board, cover with buttercream, and then top with another cake layer.

Place your coloring sheet picture on top of the cake and cut it out.

Save your cake leftovers since you’ll need them later. If you have any leftover after you’ve finished the cake, make cake pops or a trifle out of themyum!

Wrap your cake in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator while you finish the following step.

Making the paws and the nose:

Now, crumble some of the remaining cake into a bowl. It’s possible that you’ll need to add another spoonful of buttercream to the mixture.

You’re going to bake cake balls now, but just three will be required. You want them to be bigger than regular cake balls and in the form of the paws and snout. Just roll them into balls and flatten them with your palm.

If desired, place them in the refrigerator to harden up. I didn’t get a photo of it, but you can see it in the video at the bottom of the page.

Icing the cake:

After everything has been cooled. You should ice your cake. The stocking is red, the teddy bear is brown, and the top of the stocking is white. Because you’ll be covering it with more buttercream later, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Tip: You may want to thin your icing somewhat for this initial application to avoid crumbs.

Place your cake pops where the paws and nose will go on the cake. Put some frosting on top of them. (Don’t forget to watch the video below, which will walk you through all of the processes.)

Piping on the cake:

Now, using the dark brown icing and the grass tip, pipe the fur all over the bear section of the cake.

Pipe ruffles for the white area of the stocking using white icing and a 2D tip.

Using a Wilton #5 tip, pipe a little light pink for the ears and eyes, nose, mouth, and stitches on the stocking.

Next, I used a Wilton tip 21 to pipe a shell border around the stocking portion of the cake.

That’s all! You’re done, and everyone will adore this one.

Keep this cake in the fridge because if the buttercream becomes too warm, it may slide down the edge of the cake or the fur may fall off in little pieces.

Since I live in Texas, it is usually warm here, even at Christmas, but if you live farther north, it is probably not a problem. I don’t generally keep my cakes refrigerated, but it’s hot and humid here, and I don’t want to risk the buttercream slipping.

That’s all there is to it. Everyone will like this adorable and simple buttercream Christmas cake. To view all of the steps, watch the video below.

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