Holiday Wreath Cake Food

HOLIDAY BERRY MERINGUE WREATH

Steps:

• Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 225 degrees F. Line the back of a baking sheet with parchment. Use a 12-inch bowl as a stencil: Flip it upside down and trace a 12-inch circle onto the parchment. Use a 9-inch bowl to trace a circle inside the 12- inch one. This is the outline of your wreath.
• For the wreath: Combine the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in the very clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until thick and opaque, about 1 minute more. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until stiff, shiny peaks form, 13 to 15 minutes.
• Build the wreath: Using the template on the parchment as your guide, drop dollops of meringue in a line along the inside of the 12-inch circle. Use a rubber spatula to help clean off your spoon between dollops. Following the 9-inch circle and slightly overlapping the outer ring of meringue, make an inner ring of meringue dollops to fill in the rest of the template. Flatten the meringue slightly with the back of the spoon, making sure to keep a lot of peaks. Bake the meringue until it is dry, crisp, and pearly white on the outside, about 2 hours. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely.
• Meanwhile, make the cranberry sauce: Bring the cranberries, sugar and lemon juice to a simmer in medium saucepan and cook until the cranberries are soft and just begin to burst and the sugar is completely dissolved, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool completely. Gently fold in the raspberries and pomegranate seeds. Whip the heavy cream in a medium bowl until soft peaks form.
• Before serving, spread the whipped cream on the meringue. Spoon over the cranberry sauce and sprinkle with mint leaves.

NORWEGIAN WREATH CAKE

Steps:

• Whisk together the almond meal, powdered sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the egg whites, almond extract and orange blossom water or rosewater, if using, and stir with a spatula to combine. At first it will seem like there is not enough liquid to hold everything together, but just keep on mixing and it will eventually form a dough. Pat the dough into 2 discs, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and position two racks in the center of the oven. Use your hands to grease the kransekake molds liberally with butter or coconut oil, then set aside. (I prefer to set the molds on large baking sheets so that they're easier to move around.)
• Working with one dough disc at a time, chop off a piece of dough and roll it into a rope that's a generous 1/2-inch thick (or, if you're pulling your kitchen ruler out, just go with 5/8-inch thick), dusting with additional almond flour if the dough is sticky. Coil the rope into the molds, then pinch off any excess dough and pinch the ends to seal them together. Continue the process, re-rolling scraps as needed, until all of the molds are filled. Don't worry about overworking the dough!
• Bake until golden; begin checking for doneness at 9 minutes. You'll likely need to bake these layers in batches, which is totally fine; just keep any dough that you're not working with covered and in the refrigerator.
• Let the rings cool in the pans, then carefully pop them out (a small offset spatula or butter knife will help) and transfer to a baking sheet or wire rack.
• Stack the rings up using dots of the royal icing as "glue" (I do dots at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock). Decorate with sprinkles. Let the icing dry, 30 minutes to 1 hour, then decorate with paper chains, flags or other decor as desired. This is good for at least a few days uncovered at room temperature, so feel free to make it in advance!

HOLIDAY WREATH CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Slice off the top half of the top portion of each cupcake or muffin. Using a teaspoon carve a small amount of the cake so that you are left with a shallow indentation about 1-inch deep and place 1 tablespoon of the cherry pie filling into the indentation. Smooth into a circle.
• Add the peppermint extract to the frosting container and mix. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip with the frosting. Pipe the icing around the circumference of the cherry pie filling to the edge of the cupcake.
• Cut the fruit roll into 6 thin strips about 6 inches long. Tie each strip into a bow and place onto the edge of the icing. Place a red cinnamon candy in the center of the bow using a bit of icing to secure it. Repeat with remaining bows and candies. Lightly sprinkle the icing with green sanding sugar.
• Foil Wrap:
• Cut out 6 (6 by 6-inch) squares of foil. Stack the foil squares on top of each other and place a saucer on top of the foil. Using scissors cut around the saucer so that the foil is a perfect circle. Place a cupcake in the center of each of the foil circles and wrap the foil up along the side of the cupcake. Fold out edges of foil.

HOLIDAY WREATH CAKE

Steps:

• Split 15 of the cookies, leaving filling on 1 side of each cookie. Stand cookies with filling attached, filling sides out, on edge around rim of 9-inch springform pan.
• Crush cookie halves without filling; mix with granulated sugar and butter. Press firmly onto bottom of pan. Coarsely chop remaining 10 whole cookies; stir into ice cream along with the mint candies. Spread evenly over crust. Freeze 4 hours or until firm.
• Tint whipped topping with green food coloring to desired shade of green; spread or pipe into wreath design on top of cake. Decorate with icing, cinnamon candies and colored sugar. Remove rim of pan just before serving. Cut dessert into 15 slices. Store leftover dessert in freezer.

CHRISTMAS WREATH CAKE

Steps:

• Make sure the cake has completely cooled, remove from its tin and peel off the baking parchment. Use an 8cm round cookie cutter to cut a hole through the middle of the cake, pushing down as far as you can, then cut all the way down using a small sharp knife. Carefully remove the centre by lifting the cake and pushing the smaller cake up through the middle (you may need to get someone to help you with this). Keep the smaller cake to decorate and give as a gift (see 'goes well with').
• Spread a little runny icing around the edges of a cake board or stand and invert the large cake on top.
• On a clean surface dusted with icing sugar, roll out 100g marzipan into a long rectangular strip, about 8 x 20cm. Trim the edges, then use this piece to line the central hole of the cake. Trim away any excess. Roll out the remaining marzipan to a circle large enough to cover the cake - use a piece of kitchen string to help you check. Melt the apricot jam in a small pan with 1 tbsp water, then sieve and brush a little all over your cake. Use the marzipan to cover the cake, then trim any excess from the bottom and the centre.
• In a large bowl, mix the royal icing sugar with enough water to make a thick, spreadable icing. Use the food colouring to dye it a rich leaf-green colour. Working quickly, spread the icing all over your cake - don't worry about being too neat as most of the icing will be covered. Break the fondant icing into 2 lumps and dye different shades of green. Roll the icing out and cut out lots of holly shapes with cutters. Use a little runny icing as glue to stick the holly leaves all over the top of the cake. Put a big red bow at the top to finish the look.