This adorable and simple design for a mini Santa Cake is made out of small cake circles and buttercream. Choose your cake flavor and cut it out with small round cookie cutters (I used a 2.6" cookie cutter). Or make a larger version with larger cookie cutters or cake rings.
Servings 1mini buttercream Santa cake(2)
Prep Time 45 minutesmins
Total Time 45 minutesmins
Ingredients
3 small round cake layersCut out of your favorite moist cake recipe baked in a ¼ sheet pan. You can get up to 4 mini 3-layer cakes when using a 2.5 or 2.6" round cutter.I used the Golden Cake in my Moist Golden Chocolate Cake
Cut out 3 small round cake layers (I used a 2.6" round cutter), and layer 1 mini 3-layer cake with your preferred buttercream. I used a 4" mini cake board as the base of the cake. Crumb Coat the cake in white vanilla buttercream, then allow it to set up in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Prepare Your Buttercream Colors
Divide the remaining vanilla buttercream and dye with a few drops of gel food color as follows (I describe what drops of color I use below. You can find all of these colors in this gel food color set, but any gel food color should work. It only takes a few drops to achieve a bright color, although black and red will require more dye).--Reserve 1 cup(s) white for Santa's beard and hat--¾ cup(s) buttercream dyed bright red (I used Super Red)--¼ cup buttercream dyed your preferred skin color (I used Flesh Tone and a little bit of the prepared red buttercream to create a peach color)--2 Tablespoons buttercream dyed bright green (I used Leaf Green and Lemon Yellow)-1 Tablespoon(s) buttercream dyed black (I used Coal Black)
Spread a layer of your prepared skin-colored buttercream on part of the cake for Santa's face.
Use the black buttercream with a #10 Round Tip for Santa's black eyes. Use the white buttercream with a #12 Round Tip to make many white dots for Santa's beard. Add a white mustache with the #822 Star Tip.
Use a #809 Round tip for piping on the red portion of Santa's hat, then smooth it out with a small offset spatula. Pipe white rosettes around the hat rim and for the hat's pom-pom with the #822 Star Tip. Use the green buttercream and #352 Leaf Tip for the holly leaves on his hat, then pipe red holly berries with the #4 Round Tip. Add a white "sparkle" dot on Santa's eyes using white buttercream and a #4 round tip.
Refrigerate, then allow the cake(s) to come back to room temperature before serving. Watch me make this Santa Cake in my Video to see each step in action!