Reindeers, don’t you just love them!
We’re not even in December yet and I’ve already created 2 reindeer treats- oops!
WATH ME MAKE THESE REINDEER TEA CAKES HERE!
These delicious bites are filled with a light ginger biscuit base, a creamy whip swirl, dunked in dairy-free chocolate decorated with fondant details and edible glitter. They’re fun and effective, great to make with children!
What would you call this dessert?
- Chocolate Marshmallow Tea Cakes
- Mallow Whips
- Chocolate dunked cream swirls
- Chocolate dunked swirls
- High Hat Whips
I’ve seen a lot of names of these treat around and it’s hard to give them a label, all I know is that they’re delicious and go great with a cup of tea / coffee- haha!
My Reindeer High Hat Cupcakes went down a storm on Instagram and i had so many people make them last year which was so fun. I wanted to make the high hat part, minus the cupcake
I wanted to make these treat so easy, so I hunted high and low for vegan marshmallow fluff, and to my luck, couldn’t find one.
I was originally going to opt for a vanilla buttercream filling but remembered the most delicious vegan Italian Meringue my talented friend Christina from Addicted To Dates made/ created and thought it would be perfect as it’s not too sweet but has a similar texture to a marshmallow cream.
Me and Christina collaborated on the most delicious Vegan Raspberry + White Chocolate Cupcakes not long ago and she came up with the most perfect meringue, which I thought would be the perfect topping for these little reindeer treats. I made a couple of tweaks to it for this recipe. Massive shout outs to Christina, love ya girl! Check out the original Vegan Italian Meringue she created here.
So much to love to Christina Leopold, I’m in love with all of her incredible bakes, check out her IG here and her website here.
She also has a book out for order, make sure to grab a copy for Christmas.
Preparation: 20 minutes
Baking time: 8-10
Makes: 8
Level: Medium
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Ingredients for the base
- 100g of plain flour (you can use gluten-free)
- 40g of coconut oil (melted)
- 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
Ingredients for the cream filling
- 115g of chickpea brine (aquafaba)
- 150g of granulated / caster sugar
- 30ml of water
- ¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 125g of dairy-free butter or vegan shortening
- 1 vanilla pod (seeds only) or 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
- 20g of icing sugar
Ingredients for the chocolate topping
- 250g of dairy-free dark chocolate
Decorations
- Red fondant
- Mini pretzels
- 15g of dairy-free dark chocolate (melted)
- Edible glitter
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Method (biscuit bases)
1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees c fan and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the plain flour, melted coconut oil, maple syrup and ground ginger.
Bring together with a wooden spoon or your hands until a dough forms.
Add more flour if the dough is too wet or add more melted coconut oil if too dry. You want it to be a stiff but smooth dough.
3. Roll out the dough then using a 2 inch cookie cutter, cut out the circles and place onto the lined tray.
If you don’t have the correct cookie cutters, you can use a knife to cut out the shapes. You can print off the shapes you want and use that as a guide.
4. Place the biscuits into the oven and bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden in colour. The edges of the biscuits will turn a light golden colour.
5. Once baked, carefully place them onto a cooling rack and allow them to cool fully before adding on the cream swirl.
Method (cream filling)
1. Place the chickpea brine (aquafaba) into a small saucepan and place onto the hob, over medium heat. Allow to reduce to half of the original mixture Check if you have the right amount by pouring it into a bowl over some scales, you want 57.5g of reduced aquafaba. Once ready, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
2. Add 100g of the sugar and all the water into a small saucepan, place onto the hob over medium heat and allow it to simmer/boil. You want the mixture to ready 116°C (240°F). This will take around 10 minutes.
3. In the meantime, pour the reduced aquafaba into a clean bowl and add in the cream of tartar. Whisk on high for 5-8 minutes until soft peaks form. I use a stand mixer with balloon whisk attachment but an electric hand whisk works great too.
4. Add in the remaining 50g of sugar, continuing to whisk. It should turn glossy.
5. When the sugar syrup has reached its temperature, slowly drizzle it into the bowl and whip until is incorporated. You’ll want to whisk the aquafaba mixture until the sugar syrup has cooled down.
6. Add in the dairy-free butter, little chunks at a time until it’s all in the bowl, along with the vanilla pod seeds.
Once all the butter has been added the mixture be thick like buttercream, continue to whisk on low for 5 minutes.
7. Add the vanilla extract and icing sugar and whisk again on low for another 2 minutes.
8. Transfer the cream filling into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip nozzle and pipe a high swirl onto each biscuit.
Place them into the fridge or freezer to set whilst you melt the chocolate. You want them to be firm enough that they don’t slide off the base when dunked into the warm chocolate.
Method (chocolate)
1. Fill a small saucepan 3/4 full with water and place onto the hob over low/ medium heat.
Finely chop the dark chocolate and place 3/4 of it into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl on top of the saucepan and allow to melt. You’ll need the other 1/4 of the chocolate to temper it.
You’ll want to temper this chocolate.
Check out this amazing tutorial on how to temper chocolate.
2. Once you have tempered the chocolate, you’ll want to work quite fast as the chocolate will start setting.
Holding the bottom of the biscuit, dunk the swirls deep in the chocolate and place onto a plate or tray to set.
If you didn’t temper, place them back onto a tray and pop in the freezer to set.
Decorate
1. Melt a little more dark chocolate, this will be your glue to add on the decorations.
2. Break some mini pretzels in half and press them on either side of the chocolate whip. These will be the antlers.
3. Roll out a small ball of red fondant, dot on some melted chocolate and press onto the chocolate swirl.
Repeat fo the eyes with the white fondant and dot on some dark chocolate in the middle (ad seen in the photos).
Go all out and add on some edible glitter to the antlers and nose for decoration and festive touch.
Store in the fridge, best eaten within a few days of making.
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Follow Christina’s recipe here.
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Thank you – I made these today (without the decorations) and they were DELICIOUS!!
Hi 🙂 can the marshmallow filling be used as a buttercream to frost a cake ? I live in a super hot climate place and this looks thickkkk 🙂
My filling came out very runny, too runny to pipe. I have it in the fridge right now hoping it will firm up. Where did I go wrong, I followed the directions and measured all of the ingredients.