Christmas Eve Cake
This naturally colored Christmas Eve Cake is a fun and festive way to celebrate the holidays! I share all my finds for organic and natural holiday cake decorations for this adorable little cake!
If you're looking for more naturally decorated holiday dessert recipes, check out Vegan Christmas Tree Brownies, Christmas Lights Gingerbread Snack Cake, Simple Christmas Shortbread Cookies, or Tree Sugar Cookies Without Artificial Colors.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Christmas Eve Cake
- Ready In: 55 minutes
- Makes: 3 layer 6-inch cake
- Main Ingredients: butter, cane sugar, Dutch cocoa, cake flour, chocolate Santa
- Flavor Profile: rich chocolate, creamy vanilla buttercream
- Dietary Info: gluten free swap available
- Difficulty: Medium
- Why You’ll Love It: fun and simple decorated Christmas cake
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Festive and Fun: This organic Santa cake is both festive and fun. It would make an adorable centerpiece for a holiday dinner or even as the dessert for a holiday party!
- Naturally Decorated: This cake is made with organic ingredients and is completely free of artificial colors.
- Easy: While this organic Santa cake may look impressive, it's really easy to make! I use an organic chocolate Santa from Lake Champlain for a festive and simple topper. The cake is decorated like a house, so it looks like Santa just dropped in!
- Crowd Pleaser: This is a simple chocolate layer cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, so it will please everyone with its classic flavor and holiday cheer.
This naturally colored Christmas cake will be a show stopper this holiday season at any holiday party! Make this organic Santa cake for your next holiday party or make it for Christmas Eve for your family.
If you are looking for more festive holiday desserts, check out Chocolate Peppermint Christmas Tree Cupcakes, Festive Gingerbread Snack Cake Without Frosting, Peppermint Bark Snack Cake, or my favorite Mint Meltaways!
Ingredients
- Cake Flour: I use my recipe for Homemade Organic Cake Flour but you can use store-bought cake flour pastry flour.
- Cocoa Powder: I use NuNaturals Dutch Cocoa Powder. Natural is also fine, but I prefer Dutch for a rich chocolate flavor that is not bitter.
- Mini Candy Canes: I use YumEarth Organic Mini Candy Canes for the door and the trees.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: I love Nuts.com Organic Mini Chocolate Chips as they are naturally vegan and free of soy! I use these for around the house.
- Chocolate Nonpareils: I use Lake Champlain Organic Dark Chocolate Nonpareils for the roof!
- Chocolate Santa: I love Lake Champlain Organic Milk Chocolate Santa!
- Sprinkles: I use India Tree Nature’s Colors White Sprinkles, India Tree Nature’s Colors Blue Decorating Sugar, and India Tree Nature’s Colors Snowflake Sprinkles.
- Chocolate Bars: I use Lake Champlain Organic Candy Cane Crunch Bars to make chimney!
*For a full list of ingredients and measurements, visit the recipe card below.
Baker's Tips
- Always weigh ingredients for the best results.
- Make sure butter, eggs, milk and cream are all at room temperature. This really helps get a smooth cake batter that won't be dry. If you have cold dairy the butter can seize up, forming holes in your cake, which will then make it dry.
- If you don't want peppermint frosting, feel free to use vanilla or almond extract instead.
- To learn how to crumb coat a cake, read my tutorial How to Crumb Coat a Cake.
- Gluten Free — Replace the cake flour with 142 grams (¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons) gluten free flour blend. I used Namaste Organic Perfect Flour Blend for testing.
- High Altitude — Bake at 350°F for 17 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
How to Make a Christmas Eve Cake
Step 1: Make the Batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line three 6-inch cake pans with parchment paper.
To make the batter: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, cane sugar, and vanilla extract and mix no low until combined and there are no chunks of butter. Add the eggs, milk, and heavy whipping cream and mix on low until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
In a separate bowl, add the cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, and sea salt and whisk together. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Continue to mix on low until you don’t see any specs of flour, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans, about 226 grams each.
Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the cake pans.
Step 2: Make the Frosting
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar, water, and peppermint extract. Mix on low until combined, then speed the mixer up to high and mix for at least 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and mix on high for another 1 to 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Crumb coat the cake and then frost it smooth. Leave a boarder of extra frosting on top of the cake to act as snow banks.
Step 3: Make the House
Add the door on first, as this will be the center of the house. Use 3 pieces of candy cane to create a door. Add 1 mini chocolate chip for the doorknob.
Use the Nonpareils to create a roof. Create the roof second. Add one Nonpareil centered above the door, then more at an angle on each side, until about half way down the cake.
When the Nonpareils stop, add mini chocolate chips, flat side up to go down from the roof to the bottom of the cake to create the sides of the house.
Break off 4 squares of the Peppermint Crunch Chocolate Bar. Add a little extra frosting onto the bottom of each, and then place them in a square shape on the top left of the cake. This will create the chimney. Don’t worry if there are some small gaps, as you can fill it in later with extra frosting (snow)!
Place some extra frosting on the bottom of Santa, and place him just in front of the chimney, to the right a little bit so you can see the chimney behind him.
Step 4: Finish the Cake
Use the white sprinkles and place them all around the bottom portion of the cake, to act as snow.
Add the remaining frosting into a piping bag with Ateco tip #864 (or any closed star tip). I used this larger one, as it was the only one I had. But you are welcome to use a smaller closed star tip too, that will also work!
Going around the house, place one dollop of frosting almost all the way up the cake, then place two dollops centered below, then three dollops, and if you can fit then four dollops. This creates a triangle shape, or a tree! Add the snowflake sprinkles and the small blue sugars onto the tree. Repeat with more trees around the cake. To finish the trees, break off small pieces of candy cane. Add a small amount of frosting onto each one, and place them as a tree trunk.
For the extra snow piles on top of the cake an on the roof, just use the piping bag and star tip and place a few dollops around Santa and the chimney. If you have gaps in the chimney, then pipe a little bit of snow to fill in those gaps. Top this snow with snowflake sprinkles or blue sugar.
Recipe FAQ's
Yes, absolutely! You can use any 6-inch three layer cake recipe, so long as the frosting is white. You will just have to double the frosting recipe as you need more for decorating.
Yes, you can absolutely make this cake ahead of time. I would suggest making it one day in advance. You can let it sit out on the counter without covering it (as Santa is so tall, it won’t fit in a cake dome!). Or you can store it in the fridge if it will fit.
Once cut, this cake needs to be stored in an airtight container or in a cake dome. Because cake is moist, it needs to stay moist, so that’s why it needs to be stored in an airtight container. Or you can put the whole cake in a cake dome, which is my favorite way to store it.
Yes, you can make the trees green by coloring the extra frosting with some natural green dye, like organic matcha powder. If you do this, just be sure to do the snow piles before you color that extra frosting green!
More Christmas Dessert Recipes
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Christmas Eve Cake
Equipment
- Digital Food Scale
- Stand Mixer
- 6-inch Cake Pans
- Cake Turntable
- Cake Spatula
- Piping Bags
- Ateco Tip #864
Ingredients
Batter
- 113 grams salted butter (softened)
- 170 grams cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- ½ cup milk (room temperature)
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream (room temperature)
- 142 grams cake flour
- 57 grams Dutch cocoa powder (sifted)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Frosting
- 339 grams salted butter (softened)
- 680 grams powdered sugar (sifted)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
Decorating Items
- YumEarth Organic Mini Candy Canes
- mini dark chocolate chips
- 1 bag Lake Champlain Organic Dark Chocolate Nonpareils
- 1 Lake Champlain Organic Candy Cane Crunch Bar
- 1 Lake Champlain Organic Milk Chocolate Santa
- India Tree Nature’s Colors White Sprinkles
- India Tree Nature’s Colors Blue Decorating Sugar
- India Tree Nature’s Colors Snowflake Sprinkles
Instructions
To Make the Batter
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line three 6-inch cake pans with parchment paper.
- To make the batter: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, cane sugar, and vanilla extract and mix no low until combined and there are no chunks of butter. Add the eggs, milk, and heavy whipping cream and mix on low until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- In a separate bowl, add the cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, and sea salt and whisk together. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Continue to mix on low until you don’t see any specs of flour, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans, about 226 grams each.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the cake pans.
To Make the Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar, water, and peppermint extract. Mix on low until combined, then speed the mixer up to high and mix for at least 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and mix on high for another 1 to 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
- Crumb coat the cake and then frost it smooth. Leave a boarder of extra frosting on top of the cake to act as snow banks.
For the Door
- Add the door on first, as this will be the center of the house. Use 3 pieces of candy cane to create a door. Add 1 mini chocolate chip for the doorknob.
For the House
- Use the Nonpareils to create a roof. Create the roof second. Add one Nonpareil centered above the door, then more at an angle on each side, until about half way down the cake.
- When the Nonpareils stop, add mini chocolate chips, flat side up to go down from the roof to the bottom of the cake to create the sides of the house.
For the Chimney
- Break off 4 squares of the Peppermint Crunch Chocolate Bar. Add a little extra frosting onto the bottom of each, and then place them in a square shape on the top left of the cake. This will create the chimney. Don’t worry if there are some small gaps, as you can fill it in later with extra frosting (snow)!
For Santa
- Place some extra frosting on the bottom of Santa, and place him just in front of the chimney, to the right a little bit so you can see the chimney behind him.
For the Snow
- Use the white sprinkles and place them all around the bottom portion of the cake, to act as snow.
For the Trees
- Add the remaining frosting into a piping bag with Ateco tip #864 (or any closed star tip). I used this larger one, as it was the only one I had. But you are welcome to use a smaller closed star tip too, that will also work!
- Going around the house, place one dollop of frosting almost all the way up the cake, then place two dollops centered below, then three dollops, and if you can fit then four dollops. This creates a triangle shape, or a tree! Add the snowflake sprinkles and the small blue sugars onto the tree. Repeat with more trees around the cake. To finish the trees, break off small pieces of candy cane. Add a small amount of frosting onto each one, and place them as a tree trunk.
For the Snow Piles
- For the extra snow piles on top of the cake an on the roof, just use the piping bag and star tip and place a few dollops around Santa and the chimney. If you have gaps in the chimney, then pipe a little bit of snow to fill in those gaps. Top this snow with snowflake sprinkles or blue sugar.
Notes
- Always weigh ingredients for the best results.
- Make sure butter, eggs, milk and cream are all at room temperature. This really helps get a smooth cake batter that won't be dry. If you have cold dairy the butter can seize up, forming holes in your cake, which will then make it dry.
- If you don't want peppermint frosting, feel free to use vanilla or almond extract instead.
- To learn how to crumb coat a cake, read my tutorial How to Crumb Coat a Cake.
- Gluten Free — Replace the cake flour with 142 grams (¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons) gluten free flour blend.
- High Altitude — Bake at 350°F for 17 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Nutrition
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This makes a beautiful centerpiece to a holiday table, that you can eat!