Christmas Chocolate Bites

Hello guys! Hope your all well?

Today im going to show you how to make these mouth watering chocolate bites! A rich, moist, light chocolate sponge topped with creamy chocolate buttercream and edible decorations. Perfect for the holidays especially for those who aren't a fan of traditional christmas cakes and mince pies these are a great alternative and are bound to get your chololate loving guests coming back for more! 

  

You will need:

For the sponge:

6oz granulated sugar

6oz butter or margarine

3 eggs

4oz self raising flour

2oz cocoa powder

1tbsp hot water

For the frosting and edible decorations:

1tbsp butter or margarine

500g (aprox) icing sugar (you may need more or less depending on consistency)

2-4tbsp milk

1tbsp cocoa powder

Green fondant

Red fondant

Holly leaf cutter (or cut by hand)

Edible decorations of your choice im using christmas coloured sprinkles and edible silver pearls

 

Method:

For the sponge:

Cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy

 

Beat in your eggs one at a time 

Add in your flour and cocoa powder and gently mix until combined

 

Add in your hot water and mix until combined! Dont over mix at this stage only mix until combined

Grease a 7inch square cake tin with butter, spinkle a tablespoon of cocoa powder into the tin and shake the tin until there is an even layer of cocoa powder covering the tin

Place in your batter and bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 4 for aprox 25-30mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean, once cooked leave to cool for 10 mins in the tin, turn it out and leave to cool for a further 30 mins

 

For the frosting:

Mix together your butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of milk, your looking for a smooth thick consistency, you may need more milk to thin it out or more icing sugar to thicken it

Next roll out your green fondant, using the holly cutter cut 16 holly leaves and roll small balls of red for the centre of each leaf

Once your cake has cooled, spread on the top a thin layer of the buttercream 

Cut the cake into 16 small squares, TIP everytime you run yoir knife through the cake wipe it clean that way crumbs dont end up stuck to the buttercream

Using a piping nozzle create a swirl in the centre of each cake! No piping nozzle no problem.....spoon a small amount of buttercream in the centre of each cake and use a fork to give it swirl effect

Stick on your holly leaves into the centre of the swirl (you dont have to use holly leaves you can use sweets, mini candy canes, chocolate buttons, whatever you have on hand)

Finish with some edible sprinkles and decorations, top with icing sugar to give a snow effect

What i love about this recipe is you can really decorate it with whatever you like, you dont even have to decorate it, sprinkle some icing sugar on the top and they will look amazing and taste even better!

Hope you are all enjoying my festive recipes! Have you tried any? Any recommendations? Let me know in the comments or follow me on twitter @BeautyandBakes thanks for stopping by :) 

Happy baking

Xxx