Easy Candy Cane Cakes

For many people, its been a rough year. That makes it a little tough to produce a fabulous Christmas on a small budget. If youre used to buying Christmas things, and there is little money this year, you can save by making things yourself. Even with no experience, and little money, you can make any number of fabulous candy cane cakes! Mix up a chocolate or white cake and bake it as you normally would. Make a two-layer round cake or a single-layer, rectangular cake. After baking and cooling, turn the cake out on a cake plate or platter. Frost the cake with chocolate or white frosting.

One way to make a candy cane-flavored cake is to stir a couple drops of red food coloring and a quarter-teaspoon of peppermint extract into white frosting and ice the cake. Another is to add the extract to the frosting, frost the cake, then apply the red food coloring to the top. Place a drop here, and a drop there, and use a toothpick to swirl the color into the white frosting. If youre using chocolate frosting simply stir the peppermint extract into the frosting.

When you use large and/or mini candy canes, and round peppermint candies, you can make a huge number of different candy cane cakes. Arrange two large candy canes for a large cake, and two small ones for a small cake, to form a heart shape in the center of the cake. For a stacked, round cake you can press mini candy canes into the frosting, all the way around the cake, spacing them evenly apart as you go. For a rectangular cake use round peppermint candies on all four sides. Place peppermint candies on a piece of waxed paper, roll it up, then tap the candies with a rolling pin or other object. Take the crushed candies and sprinkle them atop a white or chocolate cake to decorate it with peppermint sprinkles. Use peppermint sprinkles to make lots of different designs on top of the cakes. After frosting, place the cake in the freezer for 20 minutes to make the frosting a little harder so your pattern will not stick to it. Cut a design, like a candy cane shape, out of the middle of a piece of wax paper. Lay the wax paper on the frosting and sprinkle the candy cane pieces into the cutout area of the paper. With this technique you can make bells, a Santa, a reindeer or other designs. Everyone will love the candy cane cake you decide to make this year for Christmas. But, theyll all be wondering where you got the money for such an expensive cake! Youll be the only one to know the cost was under five bucks!