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vegan Christmas cake

The Ultimate Vegan Christmas Tree Cake (Video!)

  • Author: thebananadiaries
  • Prep Time: 40
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Yield: 16 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

This vegan Christmas cake is the ultimate holiday showstopper. Super fluffy and sweet vegan eggnog cake decorated as with edible gifts underneath an edible Christmas tree! Super fun and festive for the holidays!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 3 1/2 cups cake flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour (with 1 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar or coconut sugar*
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups vegan eggnog, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup olive oil (or melted coconut oil, not hot)
  • Blue vegan food coloring

Vegan Buttercream + Decorations:

  • 2 cups vegan butter, softened
  • 67 cups powdered sugar
  • 12 tbsp dairy free milk
  • 1 vegan ice cream cone
  • Marzipan
  • Vegan food coloring

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F and line three 6″ cake pans with parchment paper and oil.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.
  3. Add in the vegan eggnog, applesauce and oil, and use a rubber spatula to mix the batter until there are no more dry streaks throughout the batter.
  4. Pour 1/3 of the batter into one cake pan and set aside.
  5. Then add in the vegan blue food coloring to the bowl and mix until the color is fully incorporated. Divide the batter into the two remaining cake pans.
  6. Place the cake pans into the oven to bake for 27-32 minutes, or until the plain cake pan is lightly golden and the toothpick comes out clean.
  7. Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Then remove the cakes to cool on a cooling rack completely before frosting. The cakes should be cool to touch (absolutely no warmth whatsoever!).

Vegan Buttercream + decorations:

  1. When the cakes are ready to frost, prepare the vegan buttercream and decorations.
  2. To a large bowl or a stand mixer, add the 2 cups of vegan butter and cream until fluffy.
  3. Then add in the powdered sugar in 1 cup increments, creaming together in between each pour. Use the dairy free milk to help with consistency. 
  4. Divide the buttercream in half, saving half of the buttercream to ice the cake. The remaining buttercream will be divided into 3 bowls, one for green, one for pink, and one for blue.
  5. Mix the colors into the 3 bowls, using a little food coloring to start and only adding more until you’ve achieved your desired color.
  6. Spoon the green frosting into a piping bag with a small star tip, and pipe dots onto the ice cream cone. Place the ice cream cone into the fridge to chill while you prepare the remaining decorations.
  7. With the marzipan, form 1″ sized cubed presents using your hands. Use about 1 tablespoon of each color and a knife to “paint” the buttercream onto the presents. Place the presents into the fridge to chill while you frost the cake.

Vegan Christmas Cake Assembly:

  1. Use half of the frosting to frost between the two layers of the cake and around the cake. Use a bench scraper to smooth the frosting. You’ll want to alternate the colors of the cake: the bottom is blue, the middle is white, and the top is blue.
  2. Use the pink frosting with a star tip to pipe the tree onto the side of the cake, starting from the top with just one dot, and working your way down. Decorate with vegan sprinkles if desired.
  3. Then use the remaining green frosting to pipe 4 wreaths around the cake. Use any leftover pink frosting to pipe a bow onto each wreath.
  4. Use the blue frosting with a closed star tip to pipe swirls onto the top of the cake and to connect the wreaths.
  5. Use an offset knife or spatula to carefully transfer the tree onto the top of the cake, along with the presents. 
  6. Finish off with any decorative sugar and enjoy!

Notes

*using coconut sugar will make these cakes more tan in color, and may make the blue color brown. However, it will keep the cake layers completely refined sugar free.

Keywords: vegan Christmas cake, holiday cake, Christmas cake, christmas tree cake