Sunday Sweets: Christmas Charm
December 16, 2012 "Well, ho ho hello! What a surprise! Welcome to the North Pole!"
;)
"As you know, I'm a bit busy with last minute preparations this time of year, but what the hey, I suppose you can tag along!
"Let's head over to the train depot and check on the latest shipment of toys."
;)
"Looking good!"
;)
By Charmaine Wood of Sweet Frostings Cake Design
"You know, I'm considering doing all my deliveries by freight this year. So much cheaper than air travel, am I right? Totally retiring the sleigh.
"Just kidding, here's the sleigh!"
;)
"And may I point out the gold pinstriping and poinsettia decal? Santa's got a tricked out ride, holla!
"Now, where's Rudolph?"
;)
Submitted by Emma W. and made by Cake Avenue
"By golly, he just gets cuter every year. I could gobble him up!" (Which isn't weird, because he's edible! Just in case you forgot these were cakes, because sometimes I do!)
"And let's not forget a little something sweet for our Jewish friends!"
;)
"I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure this is what dreidels and Stars of David SHOULD look like.
(Remind me to add certain other bakers to the naughty list, by the way.)
"And look at this colorful peacock menorah!"
;)
By Yael Ashey
"Perfect for Hanukkah celebrants, employees and/or affiliates of NBC, and anyone else who prefers cookie cakes over cupcake-cakes - which is to say, everybody.
"And do you know who else likes cookies? I'll give you a hint: this is not a trick question."
;)
By bubolinkata
"Yep, I'll take a dozen - and with a triple espresso, please. Santa's got a long night coming up...
"OK, now back to my to-do list: Are the stockings stuffed?
;)
Submitted by Carrie B. and made by Beyond Imagination
"Check, and check! (I do it twice, it's true.)
"But I'll let you in on a little Santa secret: I don't actually see you when you're sleeping. That would be creepy. Not to mention boring. However, I DO know when you've been bad or good...
;)
"...so be good and help me hoist this massive cake ornament onto my massive cake tree, won't you?
"What? Not everybody has a giant Christmas tree made of cake?"
;)
"Well, they should; it's rad. Who wouldn't be pining for one of these? Haha! Sorry, Santa likes to make bad jokes when he's stressed. And talk about himself in the third person.
"There's just snow much to do, get my drift? So I best be on my way...
;)
"...and I'll see some of you on Christmas Eve!"
Have a Sweet to nominate? Then send it to Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com!
Reader Comments (33)
Aww so sweet and cheery :D
Oh my snow and whiskers, Lindsey, that Rudolph! He looks like how I imagine the deer in Frank L. Baum's _Life and Adventures of Santa Claus._ Adorability.
The Rudolph cake got an audible AWWWWWW! outta me. Like the sound usually reserved for really adorable baby animal videos. Love it!
Beautiful as always!
I must share my favourite cake with you, since it's christmas theme. This was one of my early cakes but I still love it: http://mariastartor.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/mustartan-en-favorit/
I want those little mushrooms around Rudolf. For the garden. Or maybe as monitor toppers. Or maybe just for outdoors and I can spread them around my woodlot to confuse the neighbors.
"Mushrooms? In December? Huh, these winters are getting stranger and stranger."
On second thought, maybe it's best I don't have any.
The train!* It's adorable. :)
*I totally did that line twice in my head a la "Tattoo" from "Fantasy Island." (giggles)
Do red spotted mushrooms just make everything cuter? Rudolph this week, the gnome last week... To be on the safe side, I'm going to read next week's Sunday Sweets in the bathtub, so when I turn into a puddle of goo the cleanup is easier...
These are all perfect.
ME your mouse cake is perfect!
I love the Christmas tree and the Hanukkah cake, they are both too good to eat...
I am in complete awe over the work it took to make that Christmas tree cake, especially the perfectly curling pine needles. Incredible!
While the craftsmanship is great as ever, I can't help but notice that that is either a massive -- and yes, the adjective came to mind before I got to the ornament -- toy soldier (and for that matter, stocking) or a tiny everything else in it. ;)
Ummm... I'm a bit confused. Isn't a menorah supposed to have seven arms?
Yet all your featured bakers seem to produce nine arms.
Is there a good reason for this?
I'm from Europe, maybe there's a different Jewish tradition in the U.S.?
I would be really glad If you could lighten up my confusion!
thanks
jea
I have to decorate my Christmas cake this week...after seeing this lot, I might as well throw mine in the bin as I could never compete with these beauties!
The peacock menorah is a REVELATION. Just beautiful.
I love that snowman cake!
The Santa cake at the top of page is so incredible! The Santa is perfect and can't wait to see what's in those presents! Great job!
I totally giggled at the Hanukkah cake. Mostly because it even looks like Hanukkah is spelled correctly!
Off to get the last load of stuff from my storage so I can finish decorating for Christmas in my new home! I wish I had that cake tree! It would be so much easier to decorate!
Oh, but Santa DOES see you when you're sleeping... http://cheezburger.com/6835256576 (from Pinterest, of course!)
And on a less stalkerish note, I LOVE the last snowman cake - soooo cute!
I would totally welcome that Hanukkah cake in my house. It is gorgeous! I'd take the Christmas tree too. That one made my jaw bounce off the keyboard. Ouch.
The penguin and that snowman! Too adorable for words.
These cakes are so beautiful! I actually squeeed at the little penguin on Willow's cake :)
...am I the only one who heard Santa from "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" (the classic with Burl Ives) when I was reading the post?
Those dreidels are certainly better, but the letters are on the wrong faces... or at least the letters aren't in the right order. /nitpick. (Really the cake is beautiful.) That last cake makes me all sorts of happy.
wonderful, as always. that train is amazing, and way to give props for hannukah! the xmas tree at the end was particularly impactful! thanks again!
I love that adorable Rudolph! I'll take him and that last little snowman cake.
I LOVE the peacock menorah (I immediately thought of NBC, before I had scrolled down to read the text.) I also really like the other Chanukah cake, and the first Santa one. Yes, it IS difficult sometimes to remember that they are all actually cakes.
I'm noticing a marked absence of any Nightmare Before Christmas cakes here, Jen. FOR SHAME.
By gosh, by golly, I needed a pick-me-up in these grim times. Thanks for posting these, they put a smile back on my face :^)
jea, I homeschool my children- my 7 year old son is 1/4 Jewish by birth (He's adopted, his birthmother's racial heritage is 1/2 Jewish) so this year we chose to study Hanukkah as part of our December holiday celebration. We got some of our information from this site: http://www.akhlah.com/holidays/hanukkah/hanukkah.php
From what I have always understood, the Hanukkah menorah has 9 arms- 8 to represent the 8 nights that the oil lasted when it should have only lasted one, and one arm for the Shamash. The menorah from the Temple had 7 arms. I'm not sure why there would be any difference between the American and the European Hanukkah menorahs. I hope this helps.
A few Hanukkah comments, to shed some light on the subject. A menorah is actually just a candelabra and the number of arms isn't set. A menorah used specifically for Hanukkah is called a Hanukkiah and it has 9 arms--8 for the 8 days of the holiday, and 1 helper or "shamash" candle. The only other requirement of a Hanukkiah is that the shamash be somehow different or set apart from the rest. And here's the spin on drediels: While the ones shown here certainly are gorgeous, theyr're not totally accurate. As Mimiheart mentioned, the Hebrew letters are in the wrong order. Each later stands for a word in a saying that translates to "A Great Miracle Happened There." (In Israel, the dreidels have one different letter because they say "A Great Miracle Happened Here.") So by putting the letters in the wrong order (read right to left, not left to right), you might be saying something like "A Happened Great There Miracle."--which is why the order matters. I hope I didn't wax too long on the subject, but perhaps kindled some interest. ;-)
Love love LOVE the peacock menorah!!!
Also, to add to CompletelySusan's accurate note, these dreidels still have a chet rather than a heh. Why the decorators insist on making the two legs of the letter touch its top, I don't know. Maybe they're inspired by Stonehenge. Or maybe they can't understand the difference since Americans also pronounce the two letters the same. Sigh.
But the stars of David get full marks.
Ok, I know nobody will see this, but I had to share anyway. Just as I started reading the caption for the oh so adorable train cake - and I mean LITERALLY just as I started - the train which runs through town tooted it's horn!
I LOVE that little rudolph with the mushrooms! I was thinking any of these photos would make great holiday cards, you know, in case you are looking for ideas for next year...