Looked better in my imagination

We have friends coming over for lunch, so while the lemon tart for afternoon tea is in the oven I will quickly post some photos of the Christmas Tree Surprise Cake I made yesterday.

I made this for no other reason than I had an idea in my head of a Christmas tree cake and I wanted to see how it would turn out.  Unfortunately it didn't turn out quite how my imagination hoped and when we took it to a friend's place last night my friend initially thought it was guacamole!  Oh well. 

It was inspired by the recent Darlek Tank Cake, but I didn't do any research before creating it.  You should always research before creating a new cake.  It does help.

It is a chocolate cake with white chocolate ganache icing laced with Cointreau and green food colouring.  And why is it a 'surprise' cake?  See what's inside...

The template.

The leftovers for later!

Surprise!

The chocolate tree.

A strawberry star, marshmallow lights and smartie baubles.