Easy Christmas Baking Ideas
I’m sharing my favourite easy Christmas baking ideas that require nothing fancy at all. Most of them are delicious and easy cakes (sometimes even from a box! I KNOW!). They are all simple and flavourful, and use tastes of Christmas like eggnog, cinnamon, nutmeg, and of course chocolate, to evoke that holiday feeling.
‘Tis the season for baking, and lots of it! While being in the kitchen at this time of year can be fun and satisfying, it can also be very stressful. So many Christmas baking recipes are fiddly, complicated, and require a lot of time and fancy ingredients. But you won’t find anything like that in this post! There is at least one recipe here that is perfect for your comfort level, and your Christmas gathering!
Cranberry Orange Cake
This Cranberry Orange Cake would be perfect for Christmas morning brunch, but it’s also sweet and delicious enough that it would make a wonderful holiday dessert. This loaf is SO delicious. Tender, moist and full of beautiful and bright orange flavours…with tart pops of cranberry in every bite. A definite must for your holiday baking!
Chocolatey German Chocolate Cake
Oh my, this cake. It’s a dream. German Chocolate Cake has to be one of my most favourite cakes of all time. A rich chocolate cake with a delicious coconut pecan caramel frosting, this is a real showstopper dessert that’s perfect for Christmas! Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream and you are all set.
Cherry Cheesecake Cupcakes
If there’s one of my easy Christmas baking ideas that reminds me of Christmas as a kid, it’s these Cherry Cheesecake Cupcakes. My mom used to make them every year and I love them so much! Creamy smooth cheesecake on a vanilla wafer crust, topped with delicious cherry pie filling. Yes, they really are as good as they sound. These cupcakes are also really easy to make, much easier than a full cheesecake! They’re basically fool-proof. Another thing I love about them is that they are actually better the day after you make them, because they set nicely in the fridge overnight and can even be served slightly cooler than room temperature. This and the fact that they are easy to transport makes them the perfect treat for holiday dessert trays, potlucks, and bake sales too! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.
Classic Butter Rum Cake
This recipe for Classic Butter Rum Cake with Butter Rum Caramel Sauce tastes just like Grandma used to make! This Butter Rum Cake is made up of 3 layers: the butter rum cake, the chopped pecan topping, and the butter rum caramel sauce. All the essentials of the most delicious holiday cake ever. While my version is mostly homemade, I did use two shortcuts that I don’t apologize for in the slightest: golden cake mix and instant vanilla pudding mix. These mixes make a moist, flavourful, and super delicious cake that I know your family and friends will enjoy.
Easy Eggnog Bread Pudding
I think we all need more suggestions for dessert or fancy breakfasts that can be made overnight. And I’ve got such a great one for you today! While it’s not technically baking, it’s sweet and warm and includes caramel sauce, so let’s say it counts. This Easy Overnight Eggnog Bread Pudding is simple to make, rich in flavour and texture, and tastes delicious. It has all the wonderful flavours of Christmas that everyone loves…eggnog, cinnamon, and nutmeg. And to top it all off, instead of offering syrup, I made an easy homemade caramel sauce to drizzle over the top. Yes, it is as delicious as it sounds!
Sticky Toffee Pudding Bundt Cake
This Sticky Toffee Pudding Bundt Cake is one of the most perfect easy Christmas baking ideas, and my personal take on the traditional sticky toffee pudding. The cake is tender, rich and so flavourful, and tastes amazing with the homemade toffee sauce and a dollop of whipping cream. It’s the perfect ending to a delicious holiday dinner. One pan, one cake, and easy to serve!
Eggnog Sheet Cake with Frosting
I don’t know about you but sometimes I put pressure on myself to make everything from scratch, especially for the holidays. But as I get older, and the more I cook and bake and entertain, the more I realize that we don’t need to do everything from scratch. There are perfectly delicious recipe shortcuts we can use that take away a lot of the stress we put on ourselves. This Eggnog Sheet Cake is a great example of mostly homemade.
The recipe uses a boxed Golden cake mix and a pre-made buttercream frosting as the base, with extra and delicious flavours added in. Then to give this cake some festive holiday flavour, I added creamy eggnog, rum, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the batter. I also added a little rum and a bit of nutmeg to the icing mix to give it that eggnog flavour. This easy frosting pairs perfectly with the cake. The end result of your mostly homemade baking is a delicious and flavourful holiday cake! Eggnog-y, sweet, rich, moist and super tasty. The perfect holiday dessert, with very little work or stress!
Eggnog Bundt Cake with Glaze
If you’re looking for a delicious and festive dessert for the holiday season, this Eggnog Bundt Cake with Eggnog Sugar Glaze is it! This warm and spicy cake has all the festive deliciousness of eggnog in a tender vanilla cake. And the combination of the eggnog cake with the eggnog sugar glaze is a match made in cake heaven! The glaze adds THE perfect amount of extra moisture and sweetness. It’s so lovely and should not be left out! Of course, we all know I love the shape of a bundt cake, and I think it adds something festive and fancy to what is really a very simple recipe. Enjoy!
Don’t forget the Christmas Cookies!
That’s it! A generous handful of easy Christmas baking ideas to choose from: all tasty and sure to please wherever you go. Tag me @aprettylife with your Christmas baking creations, I love to see them!
PIN IT for inspiration later!
Happy baking!
