Amanda Rettke of iambaker.net shared this Christmas ornament surprise cake tutorial with us, and we love the endless possibilities it inspires!

On her blog, she shares two ornament surprise cakes that she made— one with a Christmas color theme, and one (the pink and purple one) that morphed into a cake for her daughter! Here, we share her completed Christmas-themed ornament surprise cake along with the tutorial she created for the same design (but in different colors). The great thing about this cake tutorial? You can choose any colors you want!

This is how Amanda decorated her Christmas surprise ornament cake, and you can check out her other tutorial for creating ruffles here!

Materials

3 bowls
2 cake layers
2 colors of food coloring
Glass cup

1. First, start off by baking your cake. I like a sturdy white cake, and this recipe has done me well.
Since we were actually planning on eating this cake, I wanted to make it an appropriate size for our family, so I used a 6-inch pan. This left me plenty of batter to make some pink and purple cupcakes, my little girls favorite colors.

2. Place your cake on your stand. Find something that will give you a circle imprint on your cake. Trace around it so you know where you are carving.  Do this on both sides of your cake.

3. Carve out a half circle.  This will be one half of the ornament we are putting inside.

4. I chose pink and purple for my ornament colors.  I just put four cupcakes in a bowl for the pink and two for the purple, then added some on my white frosting to create a sturdy consistency.

5. Cut out a tiny dot for the tippy top of the ornament.  I went ahead and cut through all the way to the cake stand. This will actually help me to remember which layer goes on top!

6. Start adding your cake ball mixture, and be mindful of the edges.  We are going for straight lines in our ornament, so I also used a glass to help me get a uniformly straight line.

7. Alternate your colors (you can use as many or as few colors as you want!) until both layers of cake are level.

8. Flip your ‘top’ layer on to your bottom layer and do a quick crumb coat. Since this is going to be a ruffle cake, your crumb coat does not have to be perfect in the slightest!

Check out Amanda’s neat ruffle frosting tutorial for a beautiful, festive way to decorate your surprise cake!