Recipe of the Week - Chocolate Reindeer Cake

Christmas cake can be a bit rich for children to eat. As well as that, our Calum doesn't like raisins, which is a fairly major obstacle to enjoying Christmas cake! So one year a few years back I came up with this idea, and it has become something of a tradition in our house ever since.

This fellow here is last years cake. We spent last Christmas at my parents' but the reindeer cake still had to feature!

The cake is basically my Old fashioned chocolate cake recipe but instead of cooking it in round sandwich tins, cook it in a long rectangular tray-bake tin. It will need slightly longer to cook, although not too much longer.

You will also need:

2 cinnamon sticks (the antlers)

a pinch of dried cranberries, or a glacier cherry (the nose)

2 dairy-free white chocolate buttons (the eyes)

Once the cake has cooled it is time to start cutting the shapes. These measurements are very rough. I don't measure them!

Place the cake with the longest sides across the top and bottom. Using a sharp knife cut off a chunk, from top to bottom, of about  a quarter for the head, leave 2/4 for the body and cut the final quarter into four slices (across the way) for the legs. 

I hope that makes sense!

If you think your cake is thick enough to do so without it crumbling, slice each section through the middle so that you can sandwich them together with some of the chocolate butter icing. If your cake isn't thick enough it won't need this extra layer of icing anyway as it will be covered in the stuff!

Now arrange your pieces on a large plate, or foil covered tray if you don't have a plate large enough, and cover the whole cake with the rest of the chocolate buttercream.

Add the antlers, nose and eyes, using a dot of buttercream on the buttons to make the pupils.

I know he looks too cute to eat but once you have a taste of the chocolate cake you will feel better about it!

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