Bring in the festive cheer with these simple cake baking techniques

Christmas is around the corner and the festival is incomplete without gobbling on some delicious cake.

The festival that marks the birthday of Jesus Christ is also the perfect time to try out some new cake-decorating techniques. These quick and easy ideas will impress your holiday guests and bring a little holly jolly spirit to your dessert table.

1. Candy-cranberry cake: This is the easiest cake to bake at home when you do not want to spend hours in the kitchen during a special occasion.

For this special dessert, you just have to start off with a doctored cake mix recipe and then decorate the entire cake with store-bought red and green candies. You can make a two to three-tier cake with this recipe and also add other types of seasonal candies and dried cranberries.

2. Santa Claus face cake: This cake will be the best cake for the occasion and especially when you have kids at home. Cakes are indeed a type of dessert that nobody can resist to have but if that comes with some creativity then it looks even more impressive. The baking process of this jolly Santa face cake is easy but you have to emphasize the icing and decoration of this kuchen.

After starting off with the doctored cake mix recipe, you have to wait till the cake bread cools down. Buy a white sugar paste and use food dye to get the colours you want. Stick to gel-based dyes rather than liquid to avoid making the sugar paste too sticky.

Draw the Santa's face on a piece of paper, which will later be used as a stencil. Roll out some sugar paste and cut out the pieces according to the drawing. Brush water on the back of the piece and stick it into place.

3. Twizzlers cake: This is one of the easiest cake recipes that you can bake at home, and the best part is that kids would love it due to its vibrant icing. Bake two chocolate cake bases and let them cool down completely. Place one cake on a cake stand and top it off with white icing.

Gently press the other cake on top and frost the entire cake in icing. This frosting will work like glue while sticking red and green colour Twizzlers on the border of the cake. You can cut the Twizzlers to match the height of your cake. Secure the Twizzlers by tying a ribbon in the shape of a beautiful bow. Fill the top of the cake with candies, gems and choco balls.

4. Snowflake white forest rum cake: Rum cake is the traditional holiday season dessert. This cake contains dried fruits that are soaked in rum for days and then added to the dough prepared with sugar which has been caramelized by boiling in water. To add creativity to your simple rum cake, follow this recipe, which will turn your cake even more delicious and attractive!

Pipe some candy melt snowflakes for a cake covered in buttercream. The buttercream will be prepared by whipping butter for 2-3 minutes. Add cream, sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt in the whipped butter. After getting the fluffy consistency, divide the frosting into two batches. One will remain white while the other will be coloured with red food colouring.

To make the Snowflakes, melt candy melts in the microwave. Transfer to the piping bag and snip off the tip. Pipe snowflakes onto a piece of parchment paper, with the help of a stencil. Now decorate the cake after frosting the entire cake in icing. Do not forget to add the rum-soaked dry fruits in the batter of the cake bread.

5. Traditional Plum Cake: In a pan, take orange juice, lemon juice and water. Add cranberries, and dry fruits of your choice to the juice mix and cook till the mixture thickens. Bake the cake with a doctored cake mix recipe and add some winter spices, orange zest and the soaked dry fruits to it.

See that you do not over mix the ingredients at this stage. Keep a small portion of the soaked dry fruits aside for the topping. Bake for 50-55 minutes or only until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Top the cake with the leftover soaked fruits, and serve hot.