Mini Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cakes

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Lightly grease the Mini Sandwich Tin.
2. To make the cakes, cream the butter with both of the sugars until pale and light. Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well between each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Add the vanilla extract.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa and salt into the mixture and mix until almost combined. Add the buttermilk and boiling water and continue to mix until smooth.
4. Divide the mixture between the holes in the tin so that each is two thirds full. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 20 minutes, until well-risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of one of the cakes comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool in the tin for 2 minutes then ease out onto a wire rack and leave until completely cool.
5. Once cool, cut each of the cakes into three equal parts. Top the bottom layers with a teaspoon of raspberry jam. Place the middle layers on top, add another teaspoon of jam then add the top layers.
6. To make the ganache, put the chopped dark chocolate in a bowl. Add the cream to a small saucepan and heat until just below boiling point. Take the cream off the heat and pour over the chocolate. Stir until fully combined and smooth, then set aside until cooled to room temperature. Spoon over the tops of the cakes, letting it drizzle down the sides.
7. For the holly leaf decorations, add a little black and brown colouring (we used the ones from Wilton’s 8 Icing Colours) to the green ready-to-roll icing and knead until fully combined and the desired shade of green. (Alternatively, you can colour white ready-to-roll icing with PME Moss Green Food Colouring.) Roll out your icing to about 5mm thick, then stamp out holly leaves using the cutters. Cut into individual leaves and arrange a couple on top of each cake. Finish each cake with a couple of red currants.