Festive Ugly Sweater Cake

This ugly sweater cake is the Christmas cake recipe. A red velvet cake that is frosted and decorated to look like a tacky ugly Christmas sweater! The ultimate cake to serve up at your holiday parties.

An inspired Pinterest ugly sweater cake that is a over-the top award winning Christmas sweater cake. Red velvet cake never tasted so good with the fluffy white frosting. Also, if you take part in Elf on the Shelf, grab this free Elf on the Shelf printable for your kiddos!

Whip up this simple 9×13 Christmas cake and decorate to your hearts desire. This cake will be the talk of the night. Also check out these meringue on a stick and cookies!

Why This Cake Is A Hit

Any flavor of cake – You can use any flavor of cake you want! We did red velvet for a fun Christmas vibe.

Beginner Cake Decorator – we are no pro at decorating. This is our first cake we have decorated, and it’s ok to have imperfections!

Decorate How You Would Like – So each area you have freedom to decorate with any candies or items of your choice. We got all our items at the dollar store and Walmart.

Fun and Silly – This Christmas cake will bring a few laughs to your party or family. It mimics the iconic Ugly Christmas Sweater that is worn around the holidays.

Ingredients Needed

Red Velvet – we made a red velvet cake. We will post the recipe for the cake in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

Frosting – Store bought or homemade works. We cut a corner and used fluffy white store bought frosting.

Gel Food Coloring – we colored half our cake red and the other a bluish turquoise. You can color your cake any way you want.

Candies – Milk Dud buttons, candy icing decorations, sprinkles, etc.

Breakdown of our Cake Layout

Full directions on how to make an ugly sweater cake is in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a quick walk through on this Christmas Cake.

Collar Frosting We did a “v” shape at the top with white frosting to mimic a sweater collar.

Cake Frosting – we then frosted both sides. One red another turquoise. We tried to not touch the two colors in center so the colors wouldn’t mix.

White Frame – Then we piped with a star shaped tip around color and then made a line down the center. Then on one side we piped two lines to create blocks.

Next we piped around the cake to hide the edge. Again we are not a pro so our cake isn’t.

Buttons – Milk Dud buttons. You could use any round candy

Christmas Bell – we placed a Christmas cookie cutter at the bottom of the full side and pressed in gently. Added small sprinkles to create a bell shape. Then lightly lifted up.

If need be, press the sprinkles in gently to ensure they stick to frosting. We did this while the cookie cutter was still on cake.

Red String for Lights – Then we added swirls down the side of the cake to look like a Christmas light string. Then added cake icing Christmas light decorations.

Pipe around Bell – with the red frosting you will pipe around the bell, helping to give it a stand out look.

Christmas Icing Decorations – For the top left corner we added more icing decorations of Santa, reindeer, and an elf

Gummy Candies – Then we added gummy Christmas presents (got at Dollar Store) in the middle sections wit a few snowman icing candies on side.

Mini Candy Canes – Lastly for the bottom left we place two mini candy canes.

Variations

There are so many ways to change up your cake to make it your own! Here are a few ideas!

• Change the color of sweater. Do a singe color or split like we did.
• Use Junior Mints Sweet Tarts or other round pieces for buttons.
• Any flavor of cake works! Store bought or homemade.
• Decorate each area differently. Find fun candies to place to make your cake your own.
• Etc.

Storing Cake

Room Temperature – Your ugly sweater cake can be stored at room temperature. Now if you use a buttercream frosting or even cream cheese that requires refrigerating then do so.

Make sure your cake is covered or it will dry out the cake. You can keep the cake in the pan if you don’t want to place on a serving tray

Freezing – Go right ahead and freeze any cake you don’t eat right away. Store in a freezer container for 2-3 months.

Depending on decorations on top they might bleed a little color or can become soggy once thawed.

Practical notes

Here are some frequently asked questions about this ugly Christmas sweater cake recipe.

What makes a Christmas sweater ugly?

Ugly Christmas sweaters are heavily decorated, tacky or even considered gaudy. Ugly Christmas sweaters have become popular for themes for parties to see who can wear the ugliest sweater.

Can we use a boxed cake mix?

Go right ahead and bake a 9×13 cake from the box or homemade! Both works. It is your preference on what you want.

Can you pipe with store bought frosting?

We used fluffy white frosting and scooped it into a piping bag. It worked just fine at framing the sweater cake and edges! It held shape just fine

Can we change up the look of this holiday cake?

Go right ahead and use your creative freedom to decorate as you wish. Have fun and create a custom cake!

More holiday desserts to consider serving up this Christmas. Pair some items with this holiday cake recipe.

Have you tried the recipe? If so, please leave a star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the recipe card below or drop a comment. Also stay in touch with us through social media by following us on Facebook Pinterest or our Facebook Group

Ingredients

Makes 9 x13

Red Velvet Cake Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons white distilled vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Red gel food coloring

Decorations

• 3 containers of fluffy white frosting, 12 ounce containers
• 1 tube Betty Crocker red icing foliage in red, 4.25 ounces
• Christmas light icing decorations
• 1 package Santa icing decorations
• 1 package Snowman icing decorations
• 1 package Christmas gummies
• 4-5 Milk Duds
• 2 mini candy cakes
• Food coloring
• ¼ teaspoon sprinkles

Equipment

• Wilton Christmas Santa and Elves Icing Decorations
• Wilton Icing Decorations Snowman Dot
• Wilton 710-0235 Icing Decorations Light Bulbs
• Wilton Icing Colors, 12-Count Gel-Based Food Color
• Piping Kit
• 1M Open Star Piping Tip

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 cake pan and place parchment paper on bottom for easy removal of cake when done.
2. Next you will sift, cake flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. Whisk the mixture to combine, then set aside.
4. In a stand mixer or with hand mixer, mix butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 3-4 minutes on medium speed.
5. Add in the oil, eggs, and vanilla and make sure fully incorporated.
6. Next add in the food coloring. If you want a bit darker you can add more food coloring.
7. Now you will alternate adding buttermilk then flour mixture until both are incorporated into the cake batter.
8. Add in the vinegar.
9. Pour the red velvet cake batter into a prepared 9×13 and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake is fully cooked. You want to stick a toothpick in the cake and it comes out clean of wet cake batter.
10. Place the cake on a cooling rack to fully cool.

Decorating Cake

1. Place a container of white frosting in a piping bag with a large piping tip. Create a “V” shape of white frosting to mimic the collar of the sweater. Spread to create even layer.
2. With 2 frosting containers color one red and the other container turquoise.
3. Spread some of the frosting on half of the cake.
4. Then repeat with the other side with the other color of frosting.
5. With the white frosting pipe around the v collar and create a line down the center between the two colors of frosting.
6. Now pipe around outside of cake with white frosting and on one side of cake create two lines to create blocks to break up the sweater.
7. Add a few milk duds for buttons down the center.
8. With the cookie cutter place on the bottom of the cake that is turquoise. Add in sprinkles and lightly press into cake with finger to ensure sprinkles will stick. Lift up the cookie cutter.
9. Then grab the red icing and pipe swirls to mimic Christmas light string. Pipe around the bell cookie cutter design to create a frame.
10. Next you will add the light candy icing decorations on the string.
11. Then on the other side of cake, add candies and decorations in each block.
12. Once done slice and serve or store covered until ready to serve up this ugly sweater cake!

Kitchen notes

Cake

– Store bought or homemade work. Any flavor of cake can be used. Frosting– You will have some leftover frosting, we just stored it in the fridge and ate it with graham crackers as a fun snack. Decorations– Buy any type of decorations you want. Have fun creating your cake.