From the Front Porch: The Sweet Life Holiday Edition
Hello from the front porch, friends. Welcome to December and the Sweet Life Holiday Edition of this weekly series!
I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving and your transition back into the swing of things has been an easy one.
I spent most of the week catching up on laundry, household chores, trying to get ahead work wise and making sure all our ducks are in a row for what promises to be a wildly busy month.
We’re kicking off the season with our annual Christmas party this weekend and I’m looking forward to spending time with my pod and extended family.
This is the first time my Mom has hosted the event and I’m excited to see how it goes.
We typically have to drive to 3 different cities in 2 days every year to celebrate so it felt like a huge gift when my Mom said she would host it.
Thankfully, everyone brings a dish to help and since I’m a total disaster in the kitchen save for baking and gumbo my Mom asked me to bring a dessert.
There’s always an abundance of delicious options to make so I wanted to share this super easy cake wreath idea in case you need something that travels well too.

I wanted to make something that had the look of gingerbread but wasn’t nearly as time consuming.
So, I made a carrot cake using a vintage cake pan.

Next, I used cream cheese icing and a #67 tip to make the ruffles.

Then added stems of fresh rosemary around the base of the cake to make it look like a wreath.
Just a heads up, I wouldn’t eat or leave the rosemary on the cake plate if you plan to use a cake dome.
You don’t want the icing or the cake to take on the essence of rosemary.

My best tip for flipping the bundt cake pan is to let the cake rest for about 10 minutes after you take it of the oven, then flip it onto a cake plate or cake stand.
As always, use caution and care as the cake and cake pan will be hot.
I know we’re all busy this time of year so I hope this quick and easy idea helps!

A Few of Our Favorite Posts from Around the Web this Week…
Seasonal Inspiration and Home Tours:
- Wait until you see Laura Solensky’s bright and colorful Traditional Christmas Home Tour with a Twist via The Glam Pad. There are so many cheerful details to love!
- Speaking of cheerful, have you seen the way Maison de Cinq uses burgundy and silver in her Traditional French Inspired Christmas tour this year? It’s so elegant.
- Loved this mini Christmas home tour from Sincerely Marie.
- Michael from Inspired by Charm has a talent that never ceases to amaze me. I recently saw Wicked (it was amazing) so it was fun to see his Christmas Tree Fit For the Emerald City and I love his Nostalgic Charm Christmas Tree too!
Seasonal Project Ideas:
- Wait until you see this amazing DIY Greenery Tree idea from Rachel at The Ponds Farmhouse. It’s a fabulous way to dress up your porch!
- Anna from Sky Lark House made the prettiest Spun Cotton Pear Ornaments this week.
- Kim from Shiplap and Shells shared How to Make Dried Orange Slices and I love that you can use them in multiple seasons.
Health and Wellness Inspiration:
- 13 Daily Rituals of Highly Successful People (via LifeHack-a great post if you want to get started on next years goals)
- How to Be Accountable to Yourself and Your Well Being (via Intelligent Change-love these practical tips)
- 9 Actionable Tips for a Digital Detox (via This Evergreen Home-if you want to be more intentional about your time)
Style and Travel Inspiration:
- 5 Meghan Markle Approved Holiday Looks (via The Everygirl)
- The Most Enchanting Holiday Window Displays in NYC (via Town and Country Magazine)
- 8 Christmas Markets in Europe to Get You in the Holiday Spirit (via Afar)
If You’ve Missed Anything from the Archives or the Blog, Here’s a Peek At What We’ve Been Up To…
How to Make Flower Covered Wooden Ornaments


Sweet Shop Inspired Christmas Tree

How to Craft Watercolor Gift Tags

Sweet Shop Inspired Holiday Home Tour

Fun and Festive Marshmallow Bar

Our Best Holiday Gift Guide (Over 275 gift ideas to explore)

That’s all for now!
As always, we appreciate you so much and we hope your weekend is peace filled and relaxing. We’ll can’t wait to share even more with you this week!
Many blessings,
CoCo
You’re sweet Linda, thank you! There were definitely some frustrating parts of the week. But in the big scheme of things I just keep reminding myself they could have been much worse and we’re all ok which is most important. Filbie is on the mend as much as he can be considering. We were struggling to get him to take his meds but it seems like mini blueberry muffins are doing the trick 🙂 Hopefully, this round of meds 4 x a day for 3 weeks will help him get back on track. Sending you lots of hugs for the happiest week, CoCo
Hi CoCo! Your cake looks so pretty, I adore the vintage cake pan! Have fun at your party! What a marvelous way to kick off the Christmas season! Can’t wait to dive into your links this week! Have a good one!
Your Carrot Cake is gorgeous…the ribbing cream cheese icing is perfect. My family isn’t crazy about icing, and doing this..even in strings would be just enough. Happy Holidays, thank goodness for all the fun food we make for them. Sandi
This cake is beautiful! I love the rosemary touch!! Enjoy your Christmas party.
CoCo- What a smart idea to use a carrot cake! (I’m sitting here thinking – why didn’t I think of that??). Yes, gingerbread is so involved. This is an elegant and practical alternative. So perfect for the holidays! The Christmas links you shared are stunning. I can’t get over Michael’s Christmas trees! Of course, I am partial to the vintage tree. THANK YOU for sharing my spun cotton pear ornaments. They were so fun to make. I can’t believe we are in the final countdown to the big day . . .
This carrot cake is stunning CoCo, I tried my hand at decorating cookies last year, and it went ok. I was hoping to try something new this year, but I am running a bit behind, so I may not make it. Carrot cake is a huge hit in our family, so it does make sense to give this a try for the holidays, we love all of the spices. Thank you as always for all of your inspiration!