Ugly Christmas Sweater Cake – A festive cake perfect for Christmas! Red velvet cake topped with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles to look like a Christmas sweater!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Cake

Welcome to #ChristmasSweetsWeek 2018! I am so excited to be sharing this ugly Christmas sweater cake today! This recipe was inspired by my popular ugly Christmas sweater cookies from last year. When I heard that I was going to be recieving red velvet emulsion from Lorann Oils, I just knew I had to make a cake. What is more festive than an ugly Christmas sweater?!

The base of this cake is red velvet. It is a delicious recipe with it’s flavors enhanced by the red velvet emusion. It made the cake so much easier to make because the emulsion is colored so that I didn’t have to deal with using food coloring myself in the cake. On top is a delicious cream cheese frosting and sprinkles for decoration.

If you want to make this cake even easier, you can always just make the cake, frost it with the green cream cheese frosting, and sprinkles. It is a festive cake regardless of whether or not you make it into the whole sweater design.

Additionally, you can color the frosting any color (or just leave it white) but I went with green to make it as Christmas-y as I could.

How to decorate an ugly christmas sweater cake

Step 1 – Make red velvet cake

Make the red velvet cake according to the instructions.

Step 2 – Cover with green cream cheese frosting

Once the cake has completely cooled, frost it with the green frosting. Cover evenly. To avoid having your cream cheese frosting end up having chunks in it like mine does, here are some tips to avoid this. I tested these out after making this cake with good results:

Beat the butter before the cream cheese
Sift your powdered sugar before adding it to the frosting.
Make sure your cream cheese is completely to room temperature. This is a really important step.

Step 3 – Pipe on white frosting

Transfer the white frosting to a piping bag fitted with a flat piping tip. Pipe a “v” onto the top third of the cake and then a line coming down the rest of the way from where the lines meet. Pipe two horizontal lines across the cake, each about 1/3rd of the way down.

If you don’t have a flat tip pipping tip or piping bags, you can always just put the frosting in a ziploc bag and cut off the tip. It’ll be close enough.

Step 4 – Pipe on black frosting

Transfer the black frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small circle piping tip. In the middle section of the cake, pipe a line that has some loops in it. This will be what the light bulb candies are on.

Make sure you leave enough room to fit the light bulb candies in the space remaining in these blocks.

Step 5 – Add lights

Place light candies on the black string of icing. Add as many of these lights as you want. I chose to skip using the green ones because they were too similar to the green frosting on the cake.

Step 6 – Add sprinkles

Fill in the remaining areas with sprinkles (except the area inside of the “v”. You can use any type of festive sprinkles here or even some different shaped candies like the lights.

Looking for more Christmas recipes?

Yield: 12 slices

Ugly Christmas Sweater Cake

Name: Ugly Christmas Sweater Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 3 tablespoons cocoa powder; 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened; 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar; 2 eggs, room temperature; 2 tablespoons LorAnn Red Velvet Emulsion, adds color and flavor; Pinch of salt; 3 tablespoons water, room temperature; 1 cup milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon white vinegar; 8 ounces cream cheese, softened; 1/2 cup butter; 2 cups powdered sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; Red food coloring; Green food coloring; Black food coloring; Candy holiday light bulbs; Festive sprinkles

Ugly Christmas Sweater Cake - A festive cake perfect for Christmas! Red velvet cake topped with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles to look like a Christmas sweater!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons LorAnn Red Velvet Emulsion, adds color and flavor
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons water, room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Red food coloring
Green food coloring
Black food coloring

Decorations

Candy holiday light bulbs
Festive sprinkles

Instructions

Red Velvet Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and dust with flour a 12"x8" pan.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add in eggs one and a time along with emulsion, salt, and water.
Slowly add in flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Pour in milk and continue to milk.
Dissolve baking soda in the vinegar. Once it has dissolved, add into the batter, mixing until combined.
Transfer batter into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat the butter until smooth in a large mixing bowl. Add in cream cheese and vanilla extract, mixing until well combined.
Add in powdered sugar 1/3 cup at a time until fully combined. Place 1/2 cup of frosting in a seperate bowl and 1/4 cup into a third bowl.
Add green food coloring to the remaining frosting in the big mixing bowl and combine until the desired shade of green.
Add black food coloring to the bowl with 1/4 cup of frosting and mix until combined. Leave the bowl with 1/3 cup of frosting as is.

Assembly

Once the cake has completely cooled, frost it with the green frosting. Cover evenly.
Transfer the white frosting to a piping bag fitted with a flat piping tip. Pipe a "v" onto the top third of the cake and then a line coming down the rest of the way from where the lines meet. Pipe two horizontal lines across the cake, each about 1/3rd of the way down.
Transfer the black frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small circle piping tip. In the middle section of the cake, pipe a line that has some loops in it. This will be what the light bulb candies are on.
Fill the remaining sections of the cake (except for the section inside of the "v" with sprinkles.

Notes

Adapted from Lorann's Red Velvet Cake recipe

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 497Total Fat: 24gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 92mgSodium: 322mgCarbohydrates: 67gFiber: 1gSugar: 44gProtein: 6g

This nutritional information can vary depending on the specific products you choose so this is a general guess of the correct nutritional information based on the products I used. Please keep that in mind when making the recipe.

Never miss a Mildly Meandering recipe

Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter