Reindeer Cake
'Tis the season! This is the kind of cake that brings back so many wonderful memories of spending Christmas with my family. During the holidays, I used to dress up as Santa and my sister would be a reindeer. To this day, we still laugh about how we used to run around the house pretender to deliver presents. A traditional spice cake is a welcome addition to any festive feast or holiday party. Not only is this recipe delicious, it's also super cute.
Yield: Makes one 6-inch three layer cake
Things you'll need
Ingredients- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- Swiss buttercream
- Brown food coloring
- Edible white candy pearls
- 1 round chocolate candy (Milk Dud)
- Fondant: brown, dark brown, cream, black, white, green and red
Equipment
- Teardrop cookie cutters: 1 ¾ inch and 2 ½ inch
- Antler template
- Eye template
- Holly leaf template
- Decorating tips: Two #824, #4b, 2A
Fondant Prep!
- Work with fondant on wax paper sprinkled with powdered sugar.
- For the antlers, roll out the brown fondant to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out 2 antlers using the template.
- For the ears, roll out the dark brown and cream fondant to 1/8 inch thick. Use the teardrop cookie cutters to cut 2 large dark brown outer ears and 2 small cream inner ears. Using water, attach the small teardrops to the large teardrops.
- For the eyes, roll out the black fondant to ¼ inch thick. Cut out 2 eyes using the template. Roll 2 small balls of white fondant for the eye reflection and attach to the eyes.
- For the holly, roll out the green fondant to ¼ inch thick. Cut out holly leaves using the template. Use a fondant tool or toothpick to make leaf details. Roll ¼ inch balls of red fondant for the holly berries.
- Set aside to harden for about 24 hours. Once dry, the antlers should stand upright without bending.
Let's get started!
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease three 6-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and honey until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in the vanilla.
- On low speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and bake until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 42 minutes.
- Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Level off the tops with a cake leveler or a large serrated knife to create three 2-inch cake layers.
Time to decorate!
- Make the Swiss buttercream frosting. Tint half the frosting light brown.
- Stack the cake layers on top of one another with a thin layer of light brown frosting in between the layers. Frost the entire cake with light brown frosting.
- Divide the remaining frosting among 3 bowls: Bowl 1: Tint light brown and scoop into a decorating bag fitted with a #824 tip. Bowl 2: Tint dark brown and scoop into separate decorating bags fitted with a #824 tip and a #4B tip. Bowl 3: Leave untinted and scoop into a decorating bag fitted with a #2A tip. Pipe the frostings on top of the cake for decoration.
- Place the fondant decorations on the cake: antlers, ears, eyes, and holly
- Sprinkle pearls on top.
- Place the Milk Dud on for the nose.
Written By Rosanna Pansino
