Deep within the winter forest, in a snowy field lit by golden stars, sits a beautiful and wondrous Christmas Forest cake. This special holiday cake is a moist and delicious three layer Chocolate Carrot Cake with Vanilla Butter Frosting for the filling, crumb coats, and finishing decorations. Rolled fondant is used to cover the cake and to make the tree and star decorations. I modified my basic Vanilla Butter Frosting recipe by replacing half of the butter with vegetable shortening because I wanted the frosting to be whiter than all butter would have produced. This seems like a lot of frosting to make but it all gets used. After filling the cake and applying 2 thin crumb coat layers, the cake is covered with rolled fondant. Extra frosting is used to create the snow drifts on top of the cake and to attach the trees and stars. This cake takes some planning and preparation; you will probably want to allow up to 4 days for making and assembling this cake so that is an enjoyable and stress-free project. See the decorating list and timeline at the end of the recipe for assembling and decorating the Christmas Forest Cake.