Preparation of the dough. Grind butter with sugar and cocoa powder. Add the eggs and stir.

To sour cream add soda and stir. Wait until the cream will foam and increase in volume by half. Add it to the dough.

Add to the mixture the sifted flour and stir. At this stage add the spices: cinnamon and ground ginger. Form for baking (diameter 24 cm) to lay the paper and brush with oil. Fill the form dough and place in a preheated 180 degree oven. Bake on low heat for 35 - 50 minutes depending on the oven.

Cooking custard. Mix the sugar and eggs. In this mix pour in the milk, stirring constantly. Put the mixture on a slow fire. Heat until bubbles, stirring constantly.

To cool the cream. Add the butter at room temperature. Mix well.

Sugar and water make syrup. Cool, add brandy and stir. The cooled cake cut into two halves. The resulting syrup to soak the cakes.

The bottom cake grease and a half of custard. On top of the cream put the cut half a cocktail cherry.

Put the second cake on top. Lubricate the whole cake with remaining cream. Put into the refrigerator overnight.

Trade figures from mastic. Take the white fondant and roll out of her balls for the torso, head and arms of the snowman. Balls for hands to roll out and give them the desired shape. From the red mastic roll is long and thin stripes. To do exactly the same with the white fondant, roll out of a long strip. Twisting two thin strips between them. Get the scarf. To cut away the small piece and roll out thinly - you get a ribbon for the hat of the snowman. Of black mastic to make a hat, eyes and buttons.

From the red mastic roll the ball. Continuing to roll out, give it an elongated shape. Similarly, to make the hands. Two raskatannym white streaks mastic to make the frill for the coat. Turned the torso of Santa Claus. Similarly, to make the body of the snow Maiden, giving it a feminine shape. To mix pink, yellow and white putty until a uniform color. From this mass roll into two balls - the head of Santa Claus. White putty to make eyes and a beard with a mustache, black - eyes, red lips snow Maiden.

For the manufacture of Christmas Trees, take a sheet of paper, roll it in a cone and staple it with a stapler. Of green putty to make a thin triangular part. Tool for mastic to print. This spruce branches. Take five of these parts and bonding their ends with each other. Will be circle. Put it on top of the paper cone. And just a few laps, gradually reducing the number of parts in a circle up four, three, two. On the top of the tree to put the star of mastic and decorate the Christmas tree colored balls of putty or decorative elements. Make squares of fondant in different colors. Decorate top with thinly rolled strips (tapes).

White fondant to roll out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 3 mm. Cover the top of cake, smoothing the sides. At the bottom of the cake to put the balls"snowballs" of mastic. Figures and tree cover food khandurina silver color to create the effect of sparkling frost.