Gretchen’s Bakery old Skool is in da house!
I am revisiting my cake decorating days with a Simple Grinch Cake for Christmas, you only need two recipes and no special tools.
I promise with this technique even the most non artistic of you can pull this off!
Before there was such a thing called Edible Sugar Printers for cake photos, and even before most people even knew what fondant was (yes that’s how old I am) there were buttercream hand drawings.
No airbrushing, no fondant appliques and certainly no edible images!
I am going to show you how to recreate this simple and fun design for Christmas this year! (And by the way you can use this technique with any picture you like for any occasion!)
The Grinch is hands down, my all time favorite Christmas character.
But as you notice the picture I chose of him for my cake is not a mean Grinchy picture, but rather when he realized that “Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” and the Grinch’s small heart grew 3 sizes that day.
Just writing that line gave me chills! Call me a softy but I sure do love the story of the Grinch.
It is timeless and definitely heartwarming and we can all use a little bit of that, am I right?
So go ahead and give it a go, try your hand at this simple Christmas Grinch Cake, I promise you won’t need anything but the following 2 recipes and some parchment paper cones to decorate the whole thing (Oh yeah and some food coloring, but that’s it!)
- Ground Flax Seeds 2 tablespoons (16g)
- Hot Water 5 tablespoons (75ml)
- White Vinegar 1 Tablespoon (15ml)
- For the cake:
- Soy Milk 1 cup (237ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoon (10ml)
- Cake Flour 2½cup (300g)
- Granulated Sugar 1½ cup (300g)
- Baking Powder 3 teaspoons (15g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon (3g)
- Vegan Butter 12 Tablespoons (175g)
- green & Yellow food color as needed
- For the Buttercream:
- Canned Chick Peas* 2- 15ounce cans for 1¾ cups bean water
- Granulated Sugar 1 cup
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
- Confectioners Sugar 1 cup
- Cream of Tartar ½ tsp
- Vegan Butter 3 sticks (1½ cups) (339g)
- Hi Ratio Solid Vegetable shortening 1 cup (226g)
- Food color as needed to decorate
- For the cake:
- Grease and parchment line the cake pans and preheat the oven to 350°F
- Combine the flax meal with the hot water and let stand for about 5 minutes to thicken
- Add the vinegar to the soy milk to sour
- Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt
- Cream the vegan butter with the sugar until light and fluffy and this may take about 3-5 minutes on medium to high speed
- Add the thickened flax paste while mixing on medium speed, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to incorporate evenly, add the vanilla extract
- Add about ⅓ of the flour to the creamed mixture then add half of the soured milk
- Add another ⅓ of the flour and then the remaining sour milk
- Add the last amount of flour and mix just to combine evenly.
- Divide the batter evenly into the 3 greased and parchment lined cake pans and bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until springy to the touch when you gently press the centers
- For the buttercream
- Combine the sugar with the chickpea water in a saucepot and bring to a full boil.
- Boil for 5 minutes then transfer to a mixer bowl to cool completely
- With the whip attachment of the kitchen aid (a hand beater will work but it will take a very long time) whip the aquafaba on high speed until it is thick and glossy and has firm peaks
- Combine the cream of tartar with 2 Tbs of confectioners sugar and then add that to the whipped, firm peaked meringue, continue whipping and add the remaining confectioners sugar
- Add the shortening and softened vegan butte and continue whipping on high speed to a smooth emulsion
- Add vanilla last, then divide the buttercream into 4 small bowls for the color decor
Excellent tutorial. Thank you for sharing your decorating tips.
I would definitely buy this Grinch cake if I saw it in a window bakery for Christmas, I can already see my children and guest glaring the the cake. It’s just a very festive cake decor. Thanks
Hi Gretchen
what a cute cake for Xmass!
I BELIEVE I CAN SUB REGULAR BUTTER ETC. FOR A NON VEGAN CAKE ?
Yes that’s right and thanks! You can actually choose any cake you like for this I still have the non vegan recipes at http://www.gretchensbakery.com
When the kids were little, I made so many character cakes for birthdays using this method. Works like a charm. Now that cascading dots are in favor, I pre-mark them as well so they line up the way you want them too. Great clips really enjoyed it.
Thanks Dan!
This is a great tutorial! I’m going to try this with family. Thanks so much!!
What a beautiful cake. I’m making this for a Christmas potluck at my work. To make sure I do it right, I started with a practice cake first. And it turned out even more delicious than I expected! One note: I couldn’t find a good picture like yours, so I took yours and expanded it… Which did work with some minor corrections to the perspective. But if you happen to have a source, that would help others I’m sure.. Anyway, thanks for the detailed instructions and inspirational cake idea! Yes, I know it’s a little odd to call a Grinch cake ‘inspirational’, but it is! 😊
LOL! Thanks for the feedback and I’m so happy you tried it! and with success! YAY YOU! I just did a google search for ‘The Grinch” and hit IMAGES there were tons to choose from!
I love the look of this cake! My 4 year old is requesting it for his bday in March. I was wondering if the icing is really sweet & how you get such a nice red icing without putting too much food coloring in so that it doesn’t change the taste? Thanks in advance for your help!!
Hi Thanks! AS for the icing “really sweet” is a matter of opinion. It is sweet yes, like most buttercreams will be. So it’s hard to say whether you will think it is or not. Most people LOVE this recipe, it’s easy and delicious. SO I guess I’d say try a small recipe to see if you like it. I do have more recipes for icing CLICK HERE (but this one takes color the best that leads to your second question. I use Chefmaster colors, I find it is best to color the day before decorating since the colors will darken as they sit and you can use less that way. I have never found an “off” taste from colored icing, again this could be more sensitive from person to person though
Thank you very much for your reply!
What shortening do you recommend?
I was using Hi Ratio (like Sweetex) when I could find it, but that is a rare occurrence as of late. I do not like Spectrum as it is way too soft, and the point of shortening in the first place is to keep it stable and pipe-able.
That said I have resorted back to Crisco with a larger amount of vegan butter (so like 2/3 vegan butter: 1/3 crisco) you can also use all vegan butter