Dust off the pretty dessert glasses and make room on the Christmas table for something fun! These Christmas Dot Cake Desserts combine layers of soft hot milk cake, silky Russian buttercream and crunchy Christmas sprinkles.
The recent Dot Cake craze traces back to The Dot Cakes, a New York business run by mother and daughter Sondra and Alex Posner. Alex made her first Dot Cake in 2017 as a gift for a friend. Their smaller cake cups, known as Dotcups, later became a social media sensation, with the crunchy coating of tiny round sprinkles giving the cakes their distinctive look.
I’ve already put my own spin on the idea with my Dot Cake Slice. This Christmas version brings the cake back into individual cups, using glass dessert dishes to show off the layers and festive sprinkles to dress everything up for the season.
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Ingredients
You’ll find the full ingredient quantities in the recipe card below. Here are a few notes to help you get started.
Plain flour, baking powder and salt: Use plain flour with the baking powder listed in the recipe. The pinch of salt helps balance the sweetness.
Caster sugar, eggs and vanilla extract: These are beaten together to form the light, fluffy base of the cake batter.
Full cream milk: The milk is heated with the cake’s butter before being added to the batter. That’s where the name “hot milk cake” comes from!
Butter: You’ll need butter for both the cake and the icing. For the Russian buttercream, it should be softened enough to beat easily while still holding its shape.
Sweetened condensed milk: The buttercream uses one 395g tin. Have it at a similar room temperature to the softened butter so they combine smoothly.
Christmas sprinkles: Tiny round hundreds and thousands give the classic dotted finish. Choose colours to suit your Christmas table, whether that’s traditional red and green or the pink, green and gold combination shown in the step photos. I purchased the lovely sprinkles I've used here online from Sprinks.
Choosing your Dessert Cups
How to make Christmas Dot Cake
Start by making the hot milk cake. Beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy, stir in the dry ingredients, then add the hot milk and melted butter mixture. Bake in the prepared tin for 15–20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean, and allow the cake to cool completely.
For the Russian buttercream, beat the softened butter until pale and fluffy, then gradually beat in the condensed milk until smooth.
The recipe card below has the full mixing and baking instructions.
Assembling your Festive Dot Cake
To assemble your lovely dessert, you need to:
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Cut the cake rounds. Use a round biscuit or scone cutter to cut four rounds from the cooled cake. Choose a size that will fit inside your dessert glasses (photo 1).
Chop the remaining cake. Put the rounds aside and cut the remaining cake into small pieces for the bottom layer (photo 2).
Make the cake base. Add a layer of cake pieces to the bottom of each glass (photo 3). You'll use only about half of the pieces.
Pipe the buttercream. Pipe a layer of buttercream over the cake, keeping enough aside for the tops (photo 4).
Add the first sprinkles. Sprinkle a ring of hundreds and thousands around the edge of the buttercream, against the inside of the glass (photo 5). Save some sprinkles for the final layer.
Add the cake rounds. Gently place a cake round into each glass, on top of the buttercream and sprinkles (photo 6).
Finish with buttercream. Add another layer of buttercream, bringing it to the top of the glass, then smooth the surface with a butter knife (photo 7).
Decorate. Cover the tops with Christmas sprinkles (photo 8), then refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.
Tips for lovely layers
- Make sure the cake is completely cool before assembling so it doesn’t soften the buttercream.
- If your glasses taper, check the cutter size against the part of the glass where the cake round will sit.
- Keeping the middle sprinkle layer close to the glass makes those colourful dots easy to see.
Storing and serving
Store the assembled desserts covered in the fridge for up to 2 days. Remove them about 30 minutes before serving to allow the buttercream to soften.
If you’re making them ahead, you can leave the final sprinkle topping until shortly before serving to help keep it crunchy. Freezing the assembled desserts is not recommended.
More Christmas Magic
Ready for more festive fun?
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Christmas Dot Cake Cups Recipe
Equipment
- 1 slice tin (27 x 17cm)
- 4 glass dessert cups (approximately 1¼ cups / 310 mL capacity each)
- round biscuit/scone cutter
- piping bag
- stand mixer
Ingredients
Hot milk cake
- 1 cup plain flour (1 cup = 140 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt
- ¾ cup caster sugar (¾ cup = 160 grams)
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup full cream milk (½ cup = 125ml)
- 3 tablespoons butter (3 tablespoons = 60 grams)
Russian buttercream icing and decorations
- 250 grams butter (at room temperature)
- 395 grams sweetened condensed milk (at room temperature) (395 grams = 1 tin)
- ⅓ cup festive 100s & 1000s or sprinkles
Instructions
Hot milk cake
- Grease a slice tin (17 x 27cm approx) and line with baking paper, leaving excess on the sides to lift out cake.
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius/355 degrees fahrenheit (fan-forced).
- Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- Beat sugar, eggs and vanilla extract together using an electric mixer for a few minutes or until pale, thick and fluffy.
- Add flour mixture to sugar and egg mixture and stir until just combined.
- Heat milk and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter is melted and the mixture begins to simmer, remove from heat and add to cake mixture. Stir until combined.
- Pour cake mixture into prepared slice tin and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into middle of cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes and then remove the cake from the tin using the overhanging baking paper.
- Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.
Russian buttercream icing
- Beat butter in a stand mixer on high (using a whisk attachment) until light and fluffy. This should take about 7 minutes.
- Continue to beat on medium speed and add the condensed milk in a slow and steady stream. Once all the condensed milk has been added, scrape down the sides and base of the bowl and then continue to beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes.
Assembly
- Once cake has cooled, use a round scone or biscuit cutter (matched to the size of the inside of your serving glasses) to cut out 4 rounds. Chop the remaining cake into small pieces.
- Using about half of the chopped cake, add a layer of cake pieces to the bottom of each serving glass.
- Use a piping bag to add a layer of buttercream to each serving glass.
- Sprinkle a ring of 100s and 1000s over the buttercream, against the inside of each glass.
- Add the cake rounds as the next layer.
- Add another layer of buttercream to fill the rest of the serving glass and use the flat edge of a butter knife to smooth across the top.
- Cover the buttercream in sprinkles and place in the fridge until you're ready to serve.
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