Peppermint Christmas Cake

I love making cakes for friends or activities because it gives me a chance to try out new things and it doesn't have to be perfect. 

This time, I decided to try a different Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe. The last one tasted very strongly of butter and I had the feeling that the ratio of egg whites to butter wasn't quite right. This recipe had much higher egg to butter ratio. I almost felt like it was too high. It was quite liquidy after adding the butter.
 I just kept beating it and maybe 5 or 6 minutes later it finally came together.
 I liked the taste better and I think I'll go back to this recipe. It tasted almost like marshmallows. Until, of course, I added the peppermint flavoring. Then it just tasted like candy canes.
 I colored about a quarter of the buttercream red and filled the chocolate cake with a spiral pattern. It should look like a candy cane when it's cut into.
 I added the second layer. I'm experimenting with big, thick layers of cake.
I crumb coated the cake with almost all the rest of my buttercream. I must admit, this may be my best icing job yet.
I covered the cake with red fondant. For whatever reason, I tend to slightly underestimate how much fondant I need to cover a layer. So I had to patch a bit. Again.
So I made a paste with fondant and water to help hide the seams.
I have to admit, it was harder to use than I expected. But the patch was harder to see afterwards.
I decorated with snowflake cut outs, green leaves and red berries to look like holly. I actually bought a holly leaf cut out, but it didn't arrive on time. I used a rose leaf cutter instead. It kind of works.
Overall, I am happy with the result. It's Christmasy without being too much and tastes like chocolate and peppermint.
I was going to put crushed candy canes in the filling, but I hadn't noticed that the candy canes I bought were strawberry flavored. Where did I find candy canes in Germany? Believe it or not, Toys R Us. Which may explain why they're strawberry flavored...
A view of the inside. It was delicious!

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