Ugly Sweater Cake

5 from 1 vote

This Ugly Sweater Cake recipe makes it easy to create a tacky Christmas treat with bright colors and cheerful designs. Using a simple pantry staples, plus holiday garnishes, it’s fun to design a delicious dessert!

Prep Time40

Cook Time25

Total Time1 5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 395kcal

Author: Jennifer Fishkind

Ingredients

For the cake:

15.25 ounce white cake mix
2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup orange juice
3 large eggs
⅓ cup salted butter melted

For the decoration:

12 ounce tubs whipped white frosting divided
Red food coloring
Green food coloring
2 Twizzlers pull’n’peel strips
5 ounce theater box Mike and Ike candies
1 mini pretzel stick
Christmas sprinkles
4 mini candy cane candies
6 mini marshmallows
2 orange jimmies
4 brown jimmies
2 mini pretzels
½ Biscoff cookie
2 blue mini M&Ms
1 red peanut butter M&M
4 brown peanut butter M&Ms

Instructions

To make the cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and thoroughly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with cooking spray.
Whisk together the cake mix and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl.
Add in the orange juice, eggs and melted butter and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Pour into the greased baking pan and bake for 23-28 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool for 5-10 minutes.
Place a cake board or cutting board on top of the pan and invert it to turn out the cake.
Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.

To decorate the cake

Place ¾ of a frosting container in a medium mixing bowl and add in some red food coloring. Mix until you reach a deep, Christmas red color.
In a separate mixing bowl, mix together ¾ of the other frosting container and green food coloring.
Use some of the remaining white frosting to frost on a “V neck” onto the middle of the top of the short side of the cake. Frost half of the rest of the cake, vertically, with red frosting and the other half with green frosting. Reserve about 2 Tablespoons of the green frosting to make a Christmas tree.
Use a piping bag and star tip to pipe the remainder of the white frosting as an outline of the neck and down the middle of the cake to make the button up seam. On the red half of the sweater, pipe 2 lines to separate the red side into 4 even spaces.
Separate the pull’n’peel strips so that you have several thin strings. Loop them across the green half of the cake to make a “string of lights”. Place Mike and Ike candies every inch or so as “lights” on the string.
On the red side of the cake, place the pretzel stick on the top third of the cake. Pipe the rest of the green frosting onto the pretzel stick, using a small, round tip, to make a tree. Make a longer strip on the bottom and make each strip shorter as you move up towards the top.
Decorate the Christmas Tree with the Christmas sprinkles.
In the next section place mini candy cane decorations or fill with sprinkles.
On the middle third of the red half of the cake, place the mini marshmallows to make two snowmen. Use a little white frosting to place an orange jimmie as a nose and two brown jimmies as arms on each snowman. Decorate around the snowmen with Christmas sprinkles, optional.
On the bottom third of the red half of the cake, place the two mini pretzels with the half of the Biscoff cookie on top to make a reindeer. Use a little white frosting to place on the two mini M&Ms as eyes and the red peanut butter M&M as a nose.
Place the brown peanut butter M&Ms down the front of the sweater, on top of the white strip that you piped on, to make buttons.
Decorate with additional Christmas sprinkles, optional. Enjoy eating your ugly sweater!

Notes

Storage:

To Store: Once frosted and decorated, this Ugly Sweater cake can be stored at room temperature, uncovered, for up to 1 week. Once you cut it, it should be stored covered.
To Freeze: This cake can be frozen in a freezer-safe container for up to 6 months but the candies may not keep their color and consistency after thawing.

Nutrition