Red & Green Christmas Checkerboard Cake

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, we can finally move on to preparing for the next yummy holiday – Christmas! You've probably seen plenty of Christmas desserts in your day, but this delightfully festive checkerboard cake is sure to impress during the holiday season.

You'll Need:

For the cakes:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1¼ cups sugar
  • 2 sticks butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 pinch of baking soda
  • red and green food coloring
  • 2 round 6-inch cake pans

For the buttercream frosting:

  • 2½ sticks butter, room temperature
  • 1⅔ cups powdered sugar, sieved
  • 1 cup cream cheese, room temperature

For the Christmas trees:

  • 3 waffle cones
  • melted dark chocolate
  • gold and silver sugar pearls
  • white fondant stars

Here's How:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and beat the eggs and sugar until frothy. Add the flour, baking powder, and butter and mix until smooth. Divide the cake batter between 2 bowls.

2. Add green food coloring to one bowl and red food coloring to the other.

3. Pour the green cake batter into one greased cake pan, and the red cake batter into another greased cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.

4. Let the cakes cool, level off the tops, and cut off the baked brown crust surrounding the cakes. Cut both cakes in half horizontally so that you are left with 4 equal cake pieces. Use different sized round cookie cutters to cut the cake pieces into 3 circles.

5. Put the colorful cake rings back together, but alternate the colors, and stack one cake on top of the other.

6. Prepare the buttercream frosting, spread it over the cake, and refrigerate for 1 hour. 

7. Level the open ends of the waffle cones so they are straight across.  Dip the cones in melted chocolate, decorate with sprinkles and sugar pearls, top with fondant stars, and let the chocolate set.

8. Drizzle melted chocolate around the edge of the cake so that the chocolate flows down.

9. Top the cake with the chocolate Christmas trees.

Santa Claus sure won't be able to resist this colorful cake! You can find the recipe for the Zebra Christmas Cake featured in the bonus video here.

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