DOMDocument cannot change parentNode

I cannot change the DOMDocument parentNode from null. I have tried using both appendChild and replaceChild, but haven't had any luck.

Where am I going wrong here?

   error_reporting(E_ALL);

   function xml_encode($mixed, $DOMDocument=null) {
      if (is_null($DOMDocument)) {
          $DOMDocument =new DOMDocument;
          $DOMDocument->formatOutput = true;
          xml_encode($mixed, $DOMDocument);
          echo $DOMDocument->saveXML();
      } else {
          if (is_array($mixed)) {
              $node = $DOMDocument->createElement('urlset', 'hello');
              $DOMDocument->appendChild($node);
          }
      }
  }

  $data = array();

  for ($x = 0; $x <= 10; $x++) {
      $data['urlset'][] = array(
         'loc' => 'http://ift.tt/1FXudUi',
         'lastmod' => 'YYYY-MM-DD',
         'changefreq' => 'monthly',
         'priority' => 0.5
      );
  }

  header('Content-Type: application/xml');
  echo xml_encode($data);

?>

http://ift.tt/1FHzXCe