My Ugly Sweater Cake

Hey Everyone! I know, it’s after Christmas. But I just had to share the Ugly Sweater Cake with you. I did the baking, Kiddo did the decorating. It came out great! While I could have waited a year to share, who knows what I’ll have planned next year.

Merry Christmas!

Ugly Sweater Cake
The Cake
2 Boxes French Vanilla White Cake Mix
6 Eggs
½ Cup Vegetable Oil
½ Cup Butter, melted
2 Cups Water
Green Food Coloring as needed
Red No Taste Food Coloring as needed

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare 13×15 baking pan with Wilton’s Cake Release. Set aside until ready to use.

In a mixing bowl, beat vegetable oil, butter and water until blended. Add eggs, one at a time and incorporate into liquid.

Add cake mix, beat 30 seconds on low, then slowly increase speed and beat 2 minutes on medium, until well blended.

Reserve about ½ of the batter into two bowls. Tint 1 bowl red, the other green. Pour remaining vanilla batter into prepared pan, smooth out.

Using a spoon, drop tinted batter throughout pan. With a knife, swirl tinted batter to create red and green “marbling” throughout cake.

Place cake in oven and bake until just done, about 30-40 minutes. Check after 30 minutes and continue to cook until cake is just cooked, checking every few minutes to avoid over-cooking.

Remove cake from oven, cool in pan 10 minutes.

Remove cake from pan, invert onto large cutting board, then invert again onto cake board so that cake is right-side up.

Allow to cool completely before frosting

 

The Buttercream Frosting
½ Cup Solid Butter-Flavored Vegetable Shortening
1 ½ Cup Butter, softened
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
8 Cups Sifted Powdered Sugar
6 Tablespoons Heavy Cream (approximately)
Red No Taste Food Coloring as needed

Cream vegetable shortening and butter in a mixing bowl. Add Vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, sift powdered sugar. Add sugar a little at a time to the creamed butter mixture, allowing sugar to blend completely between additions. Whip, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, until all the sugar has been added. Frosting will appear dry and stiff.

Add cream, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached..

Remove about 1 cup of frosting and set aside. Tint remaining frosting a deep red. Using an offset spatula, spread the red frosting over the cooled cake into an even and smooth finish.

Pipe the white frosting onto the cake to create the neckline and the middle of the sweater. Use chocolate chips to create buttons down the front of the sweater. It’s time to decorate.

Ugly Sweater Decorations
Chocolate Chips for buttons
Christmas Themed Marshmallows such as Peeps
Christmas Themed Sugar Decorations (Christmas lights, ornaments, gingerbread people, little candy canes)
Christmas Chocolates wrapped in Holiday Foil

Use Marshmallow Peeps to create a border at the bottom of the cake. The assorted sugar decorations can then adorn the sweater as desired. Play around, have fun.

Note: To get the decorations to hold in place on the cake, lightly brush the underside with a little clear corn syrup.