Natural vegan and gluten free edible Christmas cake decorations

Hi there!

Here at Honeybuns Bakery HQ our thoughts have taken a decidedly festive turn. We thought we’d share a behind the scenes peek from our annual Christmas photo shoot with you. Discover our tips and tricks for creating natural, gluten free and vegan cake decorations for the festive season.

We recommend using our gluten free Celebration Cake Stack Kits. These are available online for you to build your very own show stopping cake centre piece.

Alternatively you can opt for one of our classic, hand made tray bakes.

Then just follow this DIY edible cake decoration guide to make your cake stack look sensational.

Honeybuns checklist for fun, food safe and easy decorations

Each featured cake decoration is:

Gluten free.
Vegan and dairy free.
Titanium dioxide free.
Inspired by the natural world.
Some can be eaten, others designed just to look pretty. All are non toxic.

Preparing to make your edible Christmas cake decorations

You will need:

1 x Honeybuns tray bake (16 portion traybakes in a variety of gluten free, vegan and dairy free options).
Sprigs of fresh rosemary.
Whole star anise – 8 or more.
Edible lustre. We love Renshaw’s Rainbow Dust. It’s gluten free, vegan and titanium dioxide free. Available in reds, golds and ambers including Flame Frenzy.
Glace marron cherries, or any glace cherries to be honest!
Jam.
Icing sugar and dredger.
Shallow mini bowls or saucers.
Cocktail stick.
Butcher’s string or twine.
Baking parchment.

How to create your easy glittering star anise flowers

Decant some jam into a shallow bowl.
Decant your Renshaws Rainbow Dust into a shallow bowl.
Pop some baking parchment down on a tray.
Each star anise has a flat bottom and a curved top side. Dip the curved top side of your star anise in the jam to coat. You are using the jam as a smooth glue so avoid any blobs.
Dip the jam side of the star anise into the glitter dust and tap to remove any excess glitter.

To “glow up” your cherries

Pop a cherry onto a cocktail stick and roll it directly in the glitter. Being glace, they should be sticky enough for you to skip the “jam step”.
Place the finished cherries your parchment lined tray.

Next, here’s how to make the rosemary bunches

Snip your sprigs of fresh rosemary. I use 2-3 sprigs per bunch. You are aiming for a bunch 4-5cm in length. Tie around the bottom of the mini bunch with string or twine.
For optional glitter, you can do the jam and glitter steps as above.

DIY mini orange peel stars

You will need:

A small star shaped plunger cutter. We found inexpensive ones by Cake Star online.
Fresh orange peel.

It couldn’t be simpler…

Layout your orange peel flattened out on a work top.
Using your plunger cutter, cut out your tiny star shapes. You need to press hard to cut the star outline into the orange peel. Then simply push the cutter plunger to release each star.
You can place them directly onto your cake, or freeze them and use them later.

TOP TIP

Use shiny red and green apple peel for great festive coloured stars. Apple peel is challenging to cut through though so you need to apply a lot of pressure with your plunge cutter.

Create your own, gluten free Snowy Woodland Scene

OK, so these cute little reindeer are not edible but they are recycled from Christmases past.

You will need:

Vintage reindeer. We found our mini herd on Ebay.
Sprigs of fresh rosemary.
Icing sugar and dredger.

Step by Step on how to create this Scandi cake effect

Pop each sprig of rosemary stalk first into the top of your Honeybuns cake stack.
Arrange your herd of Christmas deer.
Dust the scene liberally with icing sugar “snow”.

More festive table decoration inspo

In this photo we asked a friend with a saw to create some rustic log discs for us. You can then dredge your wooden disc with icing sugar around the edges before loading with cake pieces on top.

Try scattering gold star anise, red berries and orange peel stars directly onto your table cloth.

TOP TIPS

You can assemble these bouquets ahead of time and freeze them until you need them.
Remember to check your glitter is vegan, gluten free and edible. Here at Honeybuns bakery we use the titanium oxide free lustres available by Renshaws.
Red hawthorne berries are a great non toxic alternative to holly berries.
Rose hips also look great and can be frozen until you need them.
Sloes are in season in September to October and can also be frozen. Use with the above to make gorgeous fruity borders to your cake.

If you do make your own festive natral decorations at home, we’d love to see your photos. If you have any questions, do get in touch via this blog in the comments section, or via facebook, email or telephone.

Comment below and share what your favourite part of this blog is, and be sure to share this blog with a friend too. Thanks for reading!

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