Rudolph’s Red Nose Chocolate Cake

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This fun and festive Rudolph’s Red Nose Chocolate Cake would make a great centrepiece over Christmas. Layers of delicious chocolate sponge and frosting with some surprise red noses hidden inside.

This adorable festive Rudolph’s Red Nose Chocolate Cake is such a fun cake to make for Christmas and perfect for those who prefer chocolate to a fruit cake or mince pie. Hidden inside the cake is layers of moist chocolate sponges,  a chocolate buttercream and some red noses, aka red velvet cake pops, which adds a little surprise once the cake is cut into .  

With it being the 1st December, it is well and truly countdown to Christmas time. I have to be honest, as much as I love Christmas and get very excited by it all, I have not been impressed that Christmas songs have been played on the radio for the last few weeks. Far too early for me, and I have actually switched of my radio in protest!

However, despite this I have been busy baking some festive recipes to get ahead with what is always a busy month for us all. I love baking Christmas inspired food because I love thinking up some new ideas, giving them a go and hoping they will work out.

Now I appreciate that my reindeer cake is not a new idea. There are lots of images of this type of cake all over the internet, and no doubt  Pinterest. However, I have not seen one which contains red noses hidden inside the cake. Therefore, my Rudolph’s Red Nose Chocolate Cake idea was created. 

Making the red noses proved a little tricky though. The first batch came out pink, which was not planned at all.  Therefore, I cheated a little and made the next batch using a store bought red velvet cake mix. These cake pops looked much better than my pink creations.

The cake contains a mix of dark and light chocolate sponges. This is purely because I ran out of one of my cocoa powders and used another I had at home instead.

Of course, there is no need to add red noses inside the cake. After all, the chocolate decorations on the outside of the cake are very cute and fun by themselves. However, I thought it would make the cake stand out from the other chocolate reindeer cakes currently on the internet. 

The chocolate antlers, ears and eyes were made using melted chocolate, a self made template and some edible gold glitter for some extra festiveness.

 

The nose was a chocolate teacake which ,at this time year, happened to be encased in a red foil wrapper. 

It was great fun to make, and I hope you agree that it looks pretty effective once finished. 

Here is the recipe if you fancy giving it a go yourself. 

Rudolph's Red Nose Chocolate Cake
 
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Author:
Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • *For the red noses of which you need 20*
  • 1 box of Betty Crocker's red velvet cake mix (plus 3 eggs, vegetable oil and water as per the instructions on the box)
  • *For the chocolate sponges*
  • 400g butter
  • 400g sugar
  • 350g flour
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 8 eggs
  • *For the chocolate frosting*
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 400g icing sugar
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • a little cold milk
  • *For the chocolate decorations*
  • - the antlers & ears requires 250g dark chocolate
  • - the eyes require 50g white chocolate plus 2 large chocolate buttons
  • - the red foil nose is a chocolate teacake (bought as part of a multi pack )
  • Plus edible gold glitter for some festive sparkle
Instructions
  1. Pre heat the oven to 180oC / 160oC (fan)
  2. Make the red velvet cake batter as per the instructions on the box
  3. Lightly grease a cake pop baking tin, place a generous tsp of mixture into the cake pop tin holes and bake in the oven for approx 12-15minutes. (You need to make 20 of these, and my cake pop tin makes 12 at a time so I needed to repeat this once my first batch were cooked and remove from the tin.)
  4. Next:
  5. Grease and line 4 x 8cm cake tins (or if like me you only have 2 cake tins this size, you will need to bake in 2 batches)
  6. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl to cream together.I used my Kenwood Chef Elite for this as it is perfect for mixing cake batter. Beat well for about 5 minutes until pale and soft
  7. Add the eggs and a spoonful of the flour and beat for a few more minutes
  8. Fold in the remaining flour and the cocoa powder
  9. Divide the batter between the tins
  10. In 2 of the tins only, add 10 of the red nose cake pops in to each one and press down
  11. Bake in the cook in the oven for 22-25 minutes approx
  12. And then leave the cakes to cool
  13. While they are cooling, you can make your chocolate decorations:
  14. **Antlers and Ears:
  15. Melt the dark chocolate and on a sheet of grease proof paper, draw two antlers and two ear shapes. Pour the melted chocolate into a piping bag, and carefully pipe your chocolate on to your drawings. Use a knife and smooth over
  16. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
  17. For the **eyes,
  18. melt the white chocolate and spoon out two rounds onto some grease proof paper then place a large chocolate buttons into the middle and leave to set in the fridge
  19. Now make your chocolate frosting:
  20. Place the buttercream and icing sugar into your mixer bowl, and beat together (slowly to start with else you will get icing sugar everywhere!) until soft and creamy
  21. Add the cocoa powder and a splash or two of milk to make the frosting more creamy, and beat together again
  22. Now to assemble your cake :
  23. Sandwich the cake using the buttercream.You want to layer it with the two sponges that contain the red noses in the middle.
  24. Once the sponges are sandwiched together, cover the cake around the sides and on the top with more of the frosting.
  25. Now there should be a little of the melted white chocolate left, use this as glue to stick your eyes and nose on to the cake
  26. The antlers and ears should slot into the top of the cake
  27. Finally, using the edible gold glitter (this is optional) spray the cake for some added festiveness 🙂

Pin for later x 

Kenwood Chef Elite Review 

To assist me in making this cake I used a Kenwood Chef Elite . I have been sent one to test run while making some festive recipes. I LOVE it. Not only does it look so stylish, but it makes cake making effortless and easy, because all of the hard work is done by the Kenwood at a touch of a dial. With a powerful 1200W motor, this mixer can beat cake batter very quickly. Although, be careful not to turn it on too fast too soon otherwise flour will fly out everywhere!

I will be making a couple more recipes using my Kenwood Chef Elite, so be sure to check back over the next week or so to see what else I have baked with the help of my new baking best friend.

I have been sent a Kenwood Chef Elite for the purpose of reviewing it while baking some festive themed recipes. 

Linking to:

Hijacked By Twins

Hosted by Monica

Link up your recipe of the week
Only Crumbs Remain

Brilliant blog posts on HonestMum.com

and We Should Cocoa 

28 Comments

  2. joskitchenlarder

    I will choose chocolate over fruit cake any time. Your Rudolph looks wonderful and love the idea of hidden red noses. Perfect festive bake! x

    Reply

  6. This is such a cute cake, I can’t imagine how long it took you to make it but it must have been fun to do! Thank you for bringing it to #CookBlogShare:)

    Reply

  10. What a fun looking cake and such a great idea to add the red noses inside the cake! Children would love the look of the cake and surely everyone loves a chocolate cake!

    Reply

  12. John Malcon

    Hello, Jenny!
    Thank you for the perfect recipe! I sent to my wife a link on your blog!
    John
    Weedit.photos

    Reply

  15. Love, love, love this Jenny. It’s a super cute cake and the hidden red noses inside are very clever. Thanks for sharing with #WeShouldCocoa (although I couldn’t spot the link in your post?) and I wish you a very Happy New Year.

    Reply

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