We're excited to share a CUTE new Christmas Village cake just in time for Christmas and winter gatherings!
I've seen several Christmas an winter village cakes over the years, most of them done with gingerbread cookies. I absolutely love the look, but thought it would be fun to create a bright and colorful village.
Using sugar cookie dough allowed us to easily add color without having to frost the entire cookie. Instead, we could simply add buttercream details! Of course, if you enjoy decorating cookies with royal icing, that is a great option too. This cake was time consuming, but I really enjoyed it, and the design options are endless!
Whether you choose to decorate your winter cake with an entire village of houses, or just one or two, we think you will LOVE the end result. This is such a fun cake to create, and who wouldn't love the added bonus of a cookie with their cake?!
Enjoy the tutorial, and don't miss our additional notes and tips below!
Materials:
We used 8 inch and 6 inch stacked tiers. Each tier was on it's own cardboard cake circle cut down to size. The upper tier was supported by 4 bubble tea straw supports cut down to size and inserted into the bottom tier. The cake was frosted in our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Template: Christmas Village Template
Sugar Cookie Recipe (We used two batches of a store-bought sugar cookie mix)
Buttercream Frosting (We used our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe)
Piping Tips: Small Round Tips: 2, 3 Medium Round Tip: 10 (you can substitute with similar sizes)
Coloring Gels: Americolor Red Red, Mint Green, Black, Orange
Lollipop Sticks for toppers (we used 4)
Additional Notes
As we mentioned in the video, we tinted our dough red, a lighter shade of red, and green...and also reserved out a bit of un-tinted dough for the snowman. I used two batches of cookie dough but I also did a lot of experimenting with different houses (and had leftovers!)
We cut our houses and trees AFTER baking the cookie dough only because the cookie mix that we are using spread a lot when baked and we wanted sharp edges. If you are working with a cookie recipe that does not spread, you can cut out your shapes as usual before baking.
We attached our cookies to lollipop sticks for the cake toppers with melted candy melts.
Alternative Video Format:
Well that is super cute! I love it! Very clever and fabulous as always! :-)
Love! I did one last year with gingerbread along with your gingerbread cake & ìt came out cute too. Love the sugar cookie idea too!
This is absolutely adorable! I love the bright, vibrant colors!! So fun!
This is super cute... Thinking I might have to make one this year..
It’s beautiful. Any advice to contend with the taste of red?
Thank you all for your comments!
@Melissa Poua- Somehow I didn't even give it a thought- I ate way too many cookies during and after this video, lol- red included! So either my taste buds just don't detect the red, or the flavor of the sugar cookies & frosting is enough to disguise it ;0)
I absolutely LOVE your videos and your instruction Melissa! Do you have a place for us to post pictures of our cakes from your instruction?
Hi Robin, thanks so much! We have our member gallery here on the site, or you can post photos within the comments beneath videos/posts. Also, on our Facebook Page, we always have "share days" on Mondays where we invite people to share their work. We'd love to see your creations! xo
Just beautiful and perfect for Christmas!
Hi! I'm trying to make this lovely cake! It will be for Monday, Christmas Dinner. Since I will be out of town on Friday, I am making what i can head of time. I have made the cookies. Can I decorate the cookie houses now and if so, how do I store them until time to construct the final design? Or should I wait until closer to the final assembly to decorate the houses? How best to store the undecorated cookies, then? Since the icing is buttercream, I would expect to refrigerate but am concerned to cookies will get either soggy or dry. Without buttercream I would store in airtight container. What is the best way to proceed, please? Thanks and Merry Christmas!
Hi Kathleen, Sugar cookies are usually fine for a week to ten days if kept in an airtight container. You also have the option of freezing the undecorated cookies in an air tight container with wax paper in between the layers of cookies. You could decorate the cookies and allow the buttercream to set until it is not soft or sticky to the touch and freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet......covering with plastic wrap and aluminum foil. We have not frozen these buttercream decorated cookies so we have a bit of concern about condensation forming and causing the colored buttercream to run when thawing. If you do freeze, when you take them out of the freezer, place on the counter and allow them to thaw, when condensation begins to forms on top of the aluminum foil, unwrap and allow to continue thawing. This way the condensation forms on the foil and not on the cookies. You could decorate the cookies 1 or two days in advance and store until time to put on the cake, but I don't know if you have time for that. We like to do as much in advance as possible so we would probably decorate and freeze the cookies. The cookies have a lot of white piping so if you want to be extra cautious just pipe on all the white decorations, leaving all the red flowers and green leaves until after the cookies have thawed since those are the colors that cause worry. Have the red and green buttercream made and that will same you some time. You can place the cookies on your buttercream cake the day before Christmas. A cake frosted with an all butter buttercream (if that is what you are using) can be in room temperature for 2 days, and eaten or refrigerated by the 3rd day. You can keep it stored in a cooler part of your home. Completing it the day before the event will give you time to add the snow frosting to the tops of the houses and the other buttercream finishing touches. It is a somewhat time consuming project so it is good that you are working in advance. Let us know if you have other questions. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Thiscake is the cutest. Loved watching it created by you. maybe some time i can do it .