It's the most wonderful time of the... baking year. The show-stopping event of our annual baking calendar has arrived.
You've made your cake in advance, you've lovingly fed it with brandy (or not), so now it's time to prepare it for your family festivities. Whether you're looking for traditional decorations or a more modern finish this year, get ready to find inspiration.
No matter what recipe you are making, we've got plenty of fun and stylish decoration ideas in this round-up. You'll find a selection of simple Christmas cake decorating ideas alongside more complicated ones using fondant and buttercream.
Happy decorating, and Happy Christmas, everyone.
Easy Christmas cake decorating ideas
1. Top with foliage
Let's start with one close to my own heart. Domestic Gothess has a delicious recipe for a Gingerbread Christmas Fruitcake and a super simple but stylish way to decorate it.
This cake looks like it belongs in a fancy cake shop! But in reality, it's just covered in royal icing and topped with a rustic mix of sugared cranberries, herb leaves, dried orange slices and pine cones. Give it a go.
2. Opt for an easy colour boost
If you're ready to break away from the traditional snow-inspired white cake icing, why not switch it up and opt for red fondant, then add a fondant bow?
This is a pretty simple icing idea to put into practise and looks stunning. Learn how to make this sweet and festive Christmas cake from Cookies Cupcakes and Cardio.
3. Gingerbread house cake
Here's a super cute idea by Liv for cake and we especially enjoyed 3 things about this fun Christmas cake decorating idea!
Firstly, the cake is covered in a base layer of cream cheese frosting (so a nice alternative if you're not a fan of royal icing).
Secondly, those rosemary spring Christmas trees are so clever but easy.
And thirdly, this is one of the most honest baking tutorials we've ever seen – down to the bits that were challenging.
Want to try making your own mini gingerbread house to top your tree? You can get some great cookie cutters and kits online to get you started...
4. Top with stars
Short of time? Gluten Free Alchemist has loads of great Christmas cake decorating ideas and tips on their website, including this simple but effective star-topped cake.
The stars are made from fondant icing, rolled and cut out with star cookie cutters, then sprinkled with edible glitter for added sparkle.
5. Decorate with Christmas lights
This bright and merry Christmas cake decoration idea from The Pink Whisk is simple but eye-catching. All you need is an edible ink pen and some fondant icing for the baubles.
Kids will love it, and it will taste pretty sweet too.
6. Add simple tree toppers
These super simple and speedy to make Christmas cake decorations involve cutting three trees from sugar paste and then decorating them with cake sprinkles. Children in the family will especially love helping you with this bit!
Find the tutorial over at Good to Know.
7. Decorate with chocolate
The holiday season is all about the chocolate. Is there anything better than snuggling up by the fire and sharing a selection box with your family after a mammoth Christmas dinner?
Becky Excell's scrumptious cake is lined with tasty chocolate fingers and has a mini chocolate Santa on top for added festiveness. Plus, her cake recipe is gluten-free and coeliac-friendly.
Decorate your Christmas cake with chocolate for an extra indulgent bake that will be a total crowd-pleaser!
8. Add some sprinkles
Spruce up your sponge by adding some green, red and white sprinkles to your cake batter and bake a Christmassy funfetti cake.
Little sunny kitchen has smothered her bake in a simple vanilla buttercream and pressed even more sprinkles around the bottom. The more sprinkles the better!
9. Top with candy canes
Stick some pretty peppermint candy canes into the top of your cake and create a simple and sweet design little ones will love.
Check out this delicious cake idea from Ahead of Thyme.
Magic up a Halloween cake!
Fancy celebrating spooky season with a bit of baking? Check out our round-up of 13 scarily delicious Halloween cake ideas and enjoy a spooktacular slice of inspiration!
Buttercream Christmas cake designs
10. Reindeer cake
Make a light-hearted cake for chocolate lovers this Christmas with this fun DIY from Love Crafts.
With a chocolate buttercream coating and chocolate antlers, it's sure to be a family favourite.
11. Cable knit Christmas cake decoration
Tis the season for warm cosy cable knit jumpers, so why not apply those stunning stitches as inspiration for your Christmas cake decorating.
This fabulous idea is by Cake Geek Magazine, who have also included some handy photo tutorials on how to do that clever buttercream piping!
12. Top it with a buttercream wreath
Cake by Courtney has this beautiful idea for topping your Christmas cake with a piped buttercream wreath. Simply add some green food colouring before you get piping.
This cake uses red chocolate peppermint candies for berries but you could also use red M&Ms or smarties.
13. Top it off with buttercream Christmas trees
We love this idea from Wilton for piping buttercream trees to make a frosted forest to top your cake. Finish with a scattering of sprinkles for a snowy effect.
14. Make buttercream holly leaves
Mix fondant red icing berries with piped buttercream holly leaves for this eye-catching but easy to recreate Christmas cake decoration idea from Cake by Courtney.
15. Bobble hat Christmas cake decoration
You can't beat a bobble hat for staying warm in winter, so why not pay homage to this awesome accessory with your Christmas cake.
This tutorial from The Cake Blog will teach you some useful piping techniques and help you create a truly unique Christmas cake that will wow your friends and family.
16. Decorate with buttercream Poinsettias
Up next is one of the more traditional Christmas cake ideas in our round-up.
We love a festive Poinsettia and love this idea for piping your own from buttercream to create a wreath around the edge of circular Christmas cakes. Image and idea is from Cake Angel on Flickr.
17. Eggnog Buttercream Christmas tree cake
Yep, you heard us right. Get on over to Curly Girl Kitchen for this show-stopping recipe, but it's the stylish piped buttercream cake on the side that first caught our eye. What a neat idea.
18. Make a Santa Christmas cake
Ho ho ho! Ok, this one is next level festive, but if you love to go 100% Christmassy and you're confident with a piping bag and batch of buttercream, it could be the one for you.
Get the tutorial over at Desserts 101.com.
Christmas cake decorating ideas with fondant or icing
19. Snowflakes Christmas cake
It wouldn't be a Christmas cake round-up without featuring an idea from the complete icons of domestic goddessery, Good Housekeeping. True to form they've got a beautiful cake decoration idea with fondant that won't take you hours and hours to master.
This snowflake cake idea only needs two colours of fondant plus some edible glitter or sprinkles of your choice to make a really eye-catching cake.
Plus some snowflake cutters, of course...
20. Knitted mittens Christmas cake
Roll out your fondant into thin strings, then shape them into knitted mittens to top off your Christmas cake.
This is one of the more technical Christmas cake ideas we've included, but with a bit of practise, you can create the effect of knitting with your icing!
Head over to cakesdecor.com for more pictures and inspiration for this cake.
21. Candy cane Christmas cake
This is one of our favourite Christmas cake decorating ideas, as it looks fantastic while also being incredibly simple.
Whatever sort of cake you're making, all you need to do is give it a base coating of white icing. Then grab your piping bag with a star tip, and pipe candy cane shapes in alternating red and white icing. Easy peasy!
Learn how to make this cake from Wilton.
22. Build your own fondant Frosty
Roll small balls of fondant icing into a pair of Snowman Friends with this cake decoration tutorial from BBC Good Food.
They show you step by step how to make our own mini snowmen and how to decorate them. We are smitten with the super cute details of this idea – the snowman's buttons are cloves!
23. Holly wreath and baubles cake
Here's another traditional cake idea that's really effective! Make a taller, tiered Christmas cake, then decorate with fondant holly leaves and baubles hanging down the edges.
Priya over at Decorated Treats shows you how to recreate this design in her detailed tutorial.
24. Christmas parcel cake
Wrap up your Christmas cake with fondant gifts. Sandra Manger made this beautiful cake for Cake Decoration Heaven Magazine.
25. Star sparkle cake
This is one of those Christmas cake decorating ideas that initially looks quite simple, but look closer. It uses a clever technique to create a layer of gold balls that show through star shapes cut out of the icing.
Take a look at the recipe from BBCgoodfood to see how it's done!
Awesome cake decorating ideas
Just throwing these in for those of you who want to really go to town. They're the Christmas cake showstoppers of our dreams...
26. Make a shadow Christmas Eve cake
This absolutely beautiful Christmas cake idea is from Great British Bake Off's Cathryn Dresser for BBC Good Food.
Cut out silhouettes of Santa on his sleigh, then pop them onto a blue base layer to look like the night's sky. It will take a while to recreate but will be worth it for the wow factor!
27. Make a Christmas tree stump cake
Valya's Taste of Home has this amazingly realistic tree stump cake tutorial. The bark around the edges is actually chocolate frosting made using Valya's recipe.
If you want to make a table centrepiece that your Christmas guests will love, this is the one!
28. Elf jumper Christmas cake
Err... yes we all need an elf-themed cake in our lives! Find out how to make your own over at Delish.
29. Stained glass Nativity cake
There are a lot of Christmas cake ideas out there, and many involve snowflakes, trees, Christmas characters etc. But there are surprisingly few traditional cakes that have a religious theme at their core.
We love this idea from Cake Central both for its nativity theme and the really unusual idea of creating a stained glass effect. You can do this by piping chocolate and then flooding the areas in between with coloured icing. Beautiful.
Find more pictures for this cake idea over at cakecentral.com.
30. Nutcracker Christmas cake
If you're a fan of traditional Christmas toys... or drumming... then you can't go wrong with this amazing nutcracker cake.
This tutorial from Hobbycraft is a bit of a challenge, and you will need a Nutcracker cake mould. But when it comes to epic Christmas cakes, this one is hard to beat!
31. Christmas pudding cake decoration
When it comes to Christmas cake decorating ideas, this one is pure genius! We love the use of negative space in this clever decoration.
You can find the full recipe and instructions on the BBC Food website.
32. Scandi snowflake Christmas cake design
This stylish yet simple geometric design starts to appear everywhere at this time of year – on your knitted Christmas jumpers, Christmas cards, and now your Christmas cake!
It's a great way of creating a stunning design with just a single colour. Plus, this cake decoration idea comes with a free vegan Christmas cake recipe courtesy of Supper in the suburbs.
33. Tiered snowman cake
You may think tiered cakes are only for weddings, but you can also use this technique to make an amazing snowman Christmas cake! It's a great idea if you're having a festive party with lots of guests.
But if watching The Snowman film makes you cry every year, you might not enjoy cutting out the first slice!
Find the recipe at mycakeschool.com
Customise your Christmas cake decoration
Now that you've seen all of these fabulous Christmas cake decorating ideas, don't be afraid to get creative.
You could try using different cookie cutters and coloured icing or even decorate your cake with your family's favourite sweets or chocolates.
Christmas cake or gingerbread - enjoy the best of both worlds
We love gingerbread, but we can never say no to cake either. Well, you no longer have to choose between them, thanks to our free gingerbread cake recipe on Gathered.
