Kawaii Reindeer Cake Tutorial

The holidays are here, so I’ve created this kawaii reindeer cake tutorial to celebrate! When I was a kid, I believed in Santa Claus and his mighty team of reindeers HARD, probably much longer than many other teens (I MEAN CHILDREN) very well should have. When my sisters and I would come downstairs on Christmas morning to peek at our presents, there would be a conspicuously scrawled note left next to a glass of milk and a plate of half-eaten cookies, and geez wasn’t it all just a coincidence that Santa’s handwriting looked exactly like Dad’s hand-writing, if Dad happened to be writing with his left hand and was mildly illiterate??

My son Teddy is semi-freshly five years old, now subject to the whispers of fellow Kindergarten classmates or older-grade buddies who might tell him that… GASP… Santa and his reindeer are not real!!! I’m kind of on the fence about how majorly to tout the “Santa is coming, you better be good” stuff – I found myself telling him that “Santa has all sorts of helpers” but I didn’t really know where I was going with that. All I know for sure is that the holidays are the best ever when you’re a kid. We grew up in a close family and each of us loved Christmas, with sweet memories of my mom’s signature white snow-flocked tree (which is back in style!) sparkling with lights and baubles and homemade decorations, Christmas carols, cartons of creamy egg nog in the fridge, hilarious family times with beloved cousins and friends, my Grandma’s Christmas-time only chocolate chip butterscotch pudding cookies washed down with a cool cup of milk. This year, I thought I’d come up with a new holiday dessert for our family – the kawaii reindeer cake! The whole time I was photographing the cake, Teddy kept coming into the kitchen to see when I was done – of course I promised him a piece of cake and the mini bottle of milk with the cool straw, if he remained out of my workspace, haha – he loves the taste of his “milky.” I fell in love with how the reindeer cake turned out! It’s fun and easy to make and is certain to bring some smiles, chuckles and giggles to your holiday. Teddy loved it, and gobbled up his piece and slurped up his milk as happy as can be.

To begin with, I baked a classic yellow cake in three 8 x 2 inch round cake pans. Then I made a very simple chocolate buttercream frosting: 2 cups of unsalted butter are beaten on high speed until light and fluffy, the bowl is scraped down and 3 ¾ icing sugar is added, along with ¼ cup high quality cocoa powder and two teaspoons of pure vanilla extract. Beat this on low speed until combined, then crank the mixer to medium-high speed until it has doubled in volume. Note that the chocolate frosting will darken in colour as the cake sits.

Once your baked cake layers are completely cool, fill and frost your cake with the chocolate buttercream.

Frost your cake to the crumb coat stage.

Use the remaining buttercream to fill a piping bag fitted with a large multi-opening tip – I use Wilton #234. Starting from the bottom of the cake and working your way upwards, pipe strands of buttercream fur in lines.

Cover the entire cake in chocolate buttercream fur! Take a break if you need to! Crank those holiday tunes!

Using fondant or your favourite candies, assemble the face. For the eyes, I used pre-coloured black fondant rolled out and cut into circles using the circle edge of a piping tip. The muzzle is made by punching out a piece of white fondant with a medium circular cookie cutter and gently pulling it into a more oblong shape. The reindeer antlers are made of fondant held up by wooden BBQ skewers cut to size. I mixed a small amount of cocoa powder into the fondant to create brown ears!

To add some festive berries and leaves, make a small batch of simple vanilla buttercream -½ cup unsalted butter, 1 cup of icing sugar, ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract. Divide into bowls and tint using gel food colouring. Place the red buttercream into a piping bag fitted with an open circle tip and the green buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small leaf tip. Pipe little red dots for berries, and add some green foliage with the green buttercream! You could also use sprigs of fresh rosemary, or pipe small buttercream roses.

This kawaii reindeer cake would be the cutest addition to your holiday party or Christmas Day dinner!

This post was sponsored by Dairy Farmers of Canada! Check out this super cute video they made for the holidays that inspired by reindeer cake tutorial, and visit the Dairy Farmers of Canada YouTube channel to see how you can incorporate delicious quality Canadian milk into your holiday season!