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Do you guys remember my no bake Birthday cheat cake from earlier this year? Well I decided to get in the Christmas Spirit and make a christmassy version of it. Seriously, this cake is so easy and quick. I made it all while Jasper was having his afternoon nap.

To make it more christmassy, instead of a plain buttercream, I used this recipe to make a ginger and cinnamon buttercream. And I just kept it simple with a white chocolate ganache.

I found some ready made gingerbread trees as well as a cute green tree that I used for the toppings – and voila done!

Let me break it down for you:

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WHAT YOU NEED

For the Cake:

4 x Double Unfilled Sponge Cake (comes in packs of 2, so you have 4 total cakes)

For the Cake Toppings:

(can be literally ANYTHING you like) I had:

Gingerbread Trees
Green Decor Tree
White Chocolate
Edible Glitter
Icing sugar
Wooden Star

For the Buttercream Icing:

250g butter, softened
430g  icing sugar mixture
3 tbs milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp lemon zest

For the Drip Cake Ganache:

100ml cream
300g white baking chocolate
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[1] Step One

The first thing you want to do is make the buttercream icing. In your mixer, add the butter and whisk until it’s creamy.
Reduce the speed, and gradually add half of the icing sugar to the butter and mix until it’s incorporated.

Then you’ll want to add the milk, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and lemon and mix until it’s incorporated.

Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix until it’s creamy and fluffy.

[2] Step Two

Now you’ll be layering your cakes. Start with your first sponge cake, and put it on a round cake plate. Cover the top of it in the buttercream icing.

Then add your next cake and repeat the icing until all four cakes are layered on-top of each other. Use four kebab sticks to hold your cake in place (so it doesn’t fall over)

Easy DIY Drip Cake

Then you want to ice the outside of the cake. I just went nuts, adding icing and scraping it all over the place. This can get messy, but if you have the right consistency of buttercream, it will hold in place. Once you’re happy with how the cake looks, pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Pop the leftover buttercream in the fridge because you’ll need it for later.

[3] Step Three

While the cake is in the fridge. You can make your ganache. Pour the cream into the white chocolate. Microwave for 1 minute. Stir well to help chocolate melt into cream. If you have chocolate that isn’t melted, pop it back into the microwave for another 30 seconds at a time until it’s all melted.

Drip Cake Ganache Tip:

You want the ganache to be quite runny, but not overly runny.

Using a squeezy tube, cover the top surface of the cake and the ganache should naturally drip over. if it doesn’t, you can use the squeezy tube to drip the sides

Pop it back in the fridge for another 20/30 minutes or until the ganache has set.

[4] Step Four

Now comes the fun part – the decorating. This is really up to you how nuts you want to go. I used the remaining buttercream to act as the glue for the decorations (I put it into an icing tube to get prettier shapes)

I am SOOOOOO happy with how this cake turned out you guys. Serioulsy! I think this might be my new thing – cheat cakes. Gets me excited for Jaspers first birthday (which is just around the corner now – HOWWWWWW!!!!!!)

Here are some more festive snaps of the cake, because, I went nuts.

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