Design It: Winter Wonderland

A giant mega flurry landed in my unsuspecting eyeball last week. But don't worry, I'm okay! Once I blinked the snow out and wiped dripping mascara from my eyelid, I noticed how amazing the sky looked. It was like I was walking in a snowglobe! So much for that 3% chance of rain. This cake is for you, unpredictable snowy winter storm weather.

Now hold up. I know what you're thinking: That cake looks too fancy and hard for me, I'm not a superhuman cake designer! Trust me. This cake looks a lot harder to create than it really is. The design is relatively simple to pull off and comes out looking quite impressive! You'll definitely wow a few people with this one. So, to get started, bake up a two-layer round cake using your favorite white cake recipe. Allow it to cool completely and crumb coat with white frosting; allow to set. Meanwhile...

Tear a piece of wax paper, about a foot long, and lay flat on the table. Sketch about 12-15 skinny pine trees of different heights, including trunks, with a permanent marker. You don't need to be a professional illustrator for this, just a basic outline is good enough! Flip the wax paper over.

Microwave about 1 cup white chocolate chips in 30 second bursts, stirring between each nuke. (It will take longer to melt these than regular chocolate chips since white chocolate has a higher melting point.) Scoop chocolate into ziploc bag and snip off a tiny corner. Following your sketches, pipe melted chocolate over outlines and fill in shapes. Slide tree covered wax paper onto cookie sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Now you're gonna frost the cake. Put on a nice thick layer of fluffy white frosting. I like a basic vanilla buttercream. (Use clear vanilla extract, if you're making your own, to keep it a brilliant white.) Remove wax paper from fridge, turn upside down on clean surface and carefully peel back wax paper to remove from chocolate. Gently press each tree into cake frosting, lining up the bottom of each trunk with the base of the cake. Dust top of cake with silver edible glitter.

Source: Inspired by Modern Cupcake and Desserts for Breakfast