Name: Christmas Pudding Teacakes Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: English
Ingredients: Rolling Pin; Small Holly Plunge Cutter; Plate; Small Bowl; Spoon; Baking Tray; Green Fondant Icing; Red Fondant Icing *; 60g (1/2 Cup) Icing Sugar; 1 x pack of 6 Chocolate Teacakes

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This is how to turn the classic Tunnocks teacake into a SUPER CUTE Christmas pudding! A tasty, easy peasy no bake treat, that’s perfect for making with little ones. Christmas pudding teacakes also make a lovely homemade gift, or a great festive treat for your Christmas party!

Close up of a single Christmas pudding teacake topped with a holly and ivy sugar decoration.

Why you’ll love this recipe

Tunnocks tea cakes are a nostalgic staple for anyone growing up in Britain. With a soft biscuit base, a pillowy marshmallow centre, and a thin coating of milk chocolate to really bring it home.

Turning these beauties into Christmas puddings is something I’ve done with my daughter many times. It’s a fun festive activity, and a treat we love eating and sharing with loved ones. I know you’ll love them too!

Ingredients

Confused about what ingredients to buy? Not sure about a substitution? Here’s everything you might need to know…

Fondant Icing – You can usually pick this up from supermarket in various colours. Alternatively, you can buy white fondant icing, and colour it yourself using gel food colours. (Just add a little colour with a cocktail stick, then gently knead it through until the colour is consistent.)
Icing Sugar – Also known as confectioners or powdered sugar, you can’t substitute this as granular sugars won’t work.
Teacakes – I used Tunnocks chocolate tea cakes, but any brand will do.

4 Tunnocks teacakes made to look like Christmas puddings, with holly and ivy sugar decorations around them.

Emma’s top tips

Here are tips you’ll find helpful when making this recipe.

If you’re colouring your own fondant icing, you’ll need to allow at least a few hours for your sugar decorations to dry before using them. If you use them while they’re still soft, the colour could run into the white icing, which won’t look very good.
When making the icing, add the water gradually. You can always add more, but you can’t take it out!
If your icing gets too thin, add more icing sugar and mix again. If it’s too thick, add a tiny bit more water and mix.

Timings

Have limited time? Struggle with recipe timings? Or juggling around other things? Here’s some time managing info to make your life easier!

You can make the sugar decorations up to 2 weeks in advance. Make sure you store them in a metal tin though, as sugar sweats in plastic and that could ruin all your hard work!
It will take about 10-15 minutes to make the holly and ivy sugar decorations.
It’s best to allow homemade sugar decorations to dry/harden for a few hours before using them. But if you’re using shop bought coloured icing, it should be fine to use them straight away.
Decorating the teacakes will only take 5 minutes.
Setting the icing will take around 1 hour.

A Christmas pudding teacake on a black surface.

Product suggestions

Life in the kitchen is SO much easier when you have the right equipment! Here are the tools I used and recommend…

Holly leaf plunge cutter – These are very handy! Easy to use and ideal for lots of Christmas treats. (Including these festive ham and cheese cracker snacks!)
Non stick plastic rolling pin – These are great for rolling out icing, as it doesn’t stick and is very smooth.
Red sugar balls – If you want a shinier finish, these are the way to go. You’ll need to attach them with edible glue though, as water won’t stick them to the fondant icing.
Edible glue – Not essential, but good to have in if you do a lot of sugar decorating.

3 Tunnocks Christmas pudding teacakes on a black surface with the traditional red and silver wrapper at the side.

Christmas Pudding Teacakes – Step by Step Picture Recipe

(For a printer friendly version, see the recipe card at the end of this post)

Ingredients

Here is what you will need to make 6. (Easily multiplied to make however many you need.)

Please note, this recipe includes both UK metric and US Cup measurements.

Green Fondant Icing
Red Fondant Icing *
60g (1/2 Cup) Icing Sugar
1 x pack of 6 Chocolate Teacakes

*Or you can use red sugar balls and secure them with edible glue instead.

Essential Equipment

Rolling Pin
Small Holly Plunge Cutter
Plate
Small Bowl
Spoon
Baking Tray

Instructions

On a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar, roll out the green icing to about 3mm thick. Then cut out as many holly leaves as you need using your plunge cutter. (One per teacake.)

Green fondant icing being shaped into holly leaves with a plunge cutter.

If you’re using red fondant icing, roll lots of little balls for the berries. You’ll need 3 for each teacake. Then use a very small dab of water to stick them to the holly leaves.

Alternatively, use edible glue to stick 3 red sugar balls to the middle of each holly instead.

Then place your holly and ivy onto a plate or tray, and leave them uncovered to one side to dry.

Homemade holly and ivy sugar decorations on a white plate.

Meanwhile, add the icing sugar (60g | 1/2 Cup) into a small bowl. Then, a little at a time, add around 2tsp of cold water. Give it a good stir, you want it smooth and lump free. It should be quite thick but still a tiny bit runny.

Remember, you can always add more, but you can’t take it out.

A small bowl filled with runny white icing.

Next, unwrap the teacakes (x 6) and place them onto a tray. (This is just to catch the excess icing for easy clean up.)

Then spoon about 1tsp of icing onto the top of each teacake, and encourage a few dribbles down the sides.

Tunnocks teacakes on a baking tray, with drizzled runny white icing over the top.

Finally, place a sugar holly decoration onto the top of each teacake.

Tunnocks teacakes on a baking tray topped with runny white icing and holly and ivy sugar decorations.

All that’s left to do is leave your teacakes to set for an hour (or overnight if you prefer).

Tunnocks Christmas pudding teacakes with gold curling ribbon around it.

How to store Christmas pudding teacakes

Store your tea cakes in a metal container at room temperature. They will last for 1-2 weeks.

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Tunnocks Christmas pudding teacakes on a black surface with gold curling ribbon and homemade holly and ivy sugar decorations at the side. A text overlay says "Tunnocks Christmas pudding teacakes".