Santa Claus Design on a Cake (and a break)

I totally enjoyed decorating this cake which I made for a Christmas party at a friend's place. It's actually very easy to make if you know how to. Refer the Wilton's method and you will know how simple it is.

I made a 9" double layer round cake and iced it with buttercream icing (make more batches as needed). If you do not want to make the icing at home, you can use store bought icing.

For the red and black icing, I used store bought Wilton's decorating icing. You get them in 4.25 oz tubes. I have given up on making both these at home since they do not turn into the colour I want and leave a hideous taste which I can definitely do without.

I used Wilton red decorating gel (.75 oz tube) to trace this design.

I wish I had done a better job of covering the tracks of the piping gel with the icing!

The Wilton tips I used to decorate the cake :
Hat - #18
Beard and hair - #18
Face - #18 (I mixed some red icing with white icing. You can also mix pink colour with white icing)
Mustache - #5
Eyes - #5
Lips - #3
Border - #21
Writing - #3

I'm travelling to India next week and may not be able to update my blog for sometime. On this note, wish you all a Merry Christmas!!