I put together some quick and easy DIY ideas for those of you looking to add a festive holiday touch to your desserts this Christmas. The majority of these ideas can even be added to store-bought cakes, which is nice for those of you who don’t have a lot of extra time to spare. Wait, that’s all of us right now, yes??

Chic Cranberry Topped Cake: How elegant is this cake?! Black buttercream frosting, some spare greenery (I cut those sprigs from our tree!), and a handful of cranberries rolled in sugar is all you need for this one! Lightly mist the cranberries with water before rolling them in sugar. Once your cake is frosted, just top with the sugar-covered cranberries and add some greenery to your cake plate.

Holiday Arch Cake: Use floral wire to make an arch, fit to the best size for your cake. Double or triple the wire (depending on the gauge), so that the arch is sturdy. Use separate strands of floral wire to wrap greenery around the wire, working your way from one end to the other. Added touches like mini pine cones or cranberries can be added with hot glue, just make sure not to add too much weight so that your arch can stand upright. Side note – frosting the sides of your cake using an upward motion with your spatula can slightly resemble the lines of a log, which adds an extra winter-y touch.

Bottlebrush Topped Cake: This is a very easy one. Mini bottlebrush trees (which you can get from any craft store) make for some lovely little cake toppers. Rumor has it, Joanne’s even has them in cute retro colors right now!

Popcorn + Cranberry Garland Cake: Another easy one! Use a needle and thread to string a 10-12″ version of the classic popcorn and cranberry garland. Tie the ends to the top of skewers, add a dab of hot glue to keep them in place, and stick the skewers into your cake!

Pretty Piped Cake: Pipe the side of the cake using a buttercream petal technique (follow along with THIS YouTube tutorial to learn how) and add large dollops of cone-shaped piped buttercream to the top. The top was my very subtle take on snow-covered trees. You could also use green buttercream for the dollops, and then dust with confectioner’s sugar to be a bit more literal.

Hope you were able to get an idea or two from this post. Happy holidays everyone!!