This season, we’re all about Making Magic—a series of simple upgrades that transform already lovely things, from cookies and gifts to holiday trees. Today, we’re baking cakes that feed—and wow!—a crowd: Slide back and forth on the image below to see the transformation.
I sometimes worry that cake feels overlooked during the holidays. It seems like cookies, hot chocolate, and warm yeasted breads steal the spotlight (not that that’s a bad thing). But cakes, especially layer cakes, are a fantastic choice for any festive gathering. They’re tall, dreamy, and perfect for serving a group. However, time is always tight—baking multiple cakes, cooling them, slicing into layers, filling, frosting, and decorating takes considerable effort. It feels far more involved than whipping up a batch of your favorite sugar cookies.
But as with any dessert dilemma, there’s a sweet solution. Enter: the naked cake. These cakes have become wildly popular for good reason—they’re simple to make and don’t require full frosting or intricate decorations. Plus, less frosting means less of a sugar overload, something I’m often grateful for during the holidays, when it’s normal to consume sugar from morning to night. My go-to combination is a straightforward cake, like my sour cream sponge cake (I multiplied the recipe by 2 and baked it in two 9-inch pans), paired with an easy frosting, such as American buttercream (I doubled that, too). A few essentials for the perfect “naked” cake:
Take care cutting your layers
Since they won’t be fully covered in frosting, you’ll get the best, cleanest look if your layers are uniformly flat. Remove any domed top from your cake—you want all layers to be level. Then, cut each cake into two layers. I use a serrated knife to gently “score” the cake in an even line around the circumference, then follow those score marks to make the final cut.
Keep your frosting even, too
I make sure to use the same amount of frosting on each layer, so those layers look as neat and even as the cake layers I carefully sliced. My favorite tool for this is an ice cream/cookie scoop. I count the number of scoops I use on the first layer, then repeat that amount on the rest!
Frost all the way to the edges
The best naked cakes have visible frosting that sits nearly flush with the cake layers. To achieve this, spread frosting all the way to the edge of each cake layer. When you place the next layer on top, press down slightly—this stabilizes the stack and helps the frosting ooze a bit more toward the edge!
If you want to add a little extra magic to your holiday layer cake, that’s easy too. Build a simple cake (like the naked cake described above), and instead of finishing with more frosting, coat it in fluffy meringue. For this recipe, I followed the amounts and instructions for my Italian Buttercream, but omitted the butter (and the steps where it’s added) to make just an Italian meringue. Then I frosted the cake with it—it’s glossy and perfectly white, and creates the most luxurious (yet easily achievable!) swoops all over the cake. For a little extra magic, I toast that beautiful meringue with a torch (hey, Julia Child said every woman should have one). It’s warm, wintry, and the lightly caramelized flavor is unbeatable. But above all, it’s easy, and that’s about as magical as it gets.
