Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Complexity: easily
Servings: 8

Cut this luxurious chocolate cake into eight pieces, arrange them on plates, and let your guests marvel at the Santa's reindeer in each one. To decorate the cake, you'll need M&Ms (brown or red), pretzels, and candy eyes.

Ingredients:

Cake

• 1 cup cocoa powder (natural or alkalized)
• 2.5 cups premium flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 0.5 cup sour cream
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Cooking spray

Ganache

• 340 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tbsp light corn syrup

Decoration

• 1 tbsp. white chocolate granules
• 7 chocolate dragees in brown glaze
• 1 chocolate dragee in red glaze
• 16 small candy eyes
• 16 pretzels, cut into the shape of reindeer antlers
• Special equipment: A 20cm cardboard cake circle; a pastry bag with a medium round tip or a zip-lock bag.

Substituting ingredients
Measuring containers used

1 glass (st.) - 250 ml.
3/4 cup (st.) - 180 ml.
2/3 cup (st.) - 160 ml.
1/2 cup (st.) - 125 ml.
1/3 cup (st.) - 80 ml.
1/4 cup (st.) - 60 ml.
1 tablespoon (tbsp) - 15 ml.
1 teaspoon (tsp) - 5 ml.
1/5 teaspoon (tsp) - 1 ml.

Recipes with similar ingredients

premium flour, cocoa, white chocolate, eggs, sour cream, cream, chocolate sauce, salted straws, dragee

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Preparation:

Step 1
• Preheat oven to 175°C.
Step 2
• Cake:
  
  Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and 1.5 cups boiling water until smooth; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs, vegetable oil, sour cream, and vanilla and beat with a mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and fold in the chocolate mixture in a steady stream until combined, then fold in with a rubber spatula.
Step 3
• Divide the batter among the prepared pans and tap them on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn the cakes out onto the racks to cool completely. Remove the parchment. Using a long serrated knife, trim off any domed tops of the cakes to make them even.
Step 4
• Ganache:
  
  Place the chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream and corn syrup to a simmer. Pour over the chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth. Let the ganache sit until cool and thickened to a spreadable consistency, 20–30 minutes.
Step 5
• Place one cake layer on a cardboard cake circle on a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Spread about 1/2 cup of ganache on top and place the second cake layer, cut side down, on top of the ganache. Top with half the remaining ganache and spread it with a large offset spatula so that the cream covers the top of the cake and slowly drips down the sides. Repeat with the remaining ganache, spreading it with a offset spatula. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour to set.
Step 6
• Decoration:
  
  In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the white chocolate in 15-second intervals at 50% power, stirring until melted. Let sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a medium tip. Alternatively, transfer to a zip-lock plastic bag and snip off the corner. Draw a straight line down the center of the cake from top to bottom, then another line down the center from left to right, dividing the cake into quarters. Pipe two more lines to divide the cake into eighths. Pipe a circle of white chocolate along the edge of the cake.
Step 7
• Form a small circle where the dots intersect in the center of the cake. Place chocolate candies near the tips of each piece; these will be the reindeer's noses (one of which will be red). Add two eyes above each nose. Attach two pretzel pieces above each pair of eyes to create antlers.

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