November 27, 2021
Christmas Tree Cupcakes!
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Delicious and easy Christmas tree cupcakes with a chocolate cupcake base, vanilla buttercream frosting, and cute Christmas tree style decoration!
Christmas tree cupcakes
It’s been a while since I had so much fun baking some cupcakes. Honestly, these are my most favourite cupcakes in a long time, so I hope you all love them as much as I do! JUST LOOK AT THEM! They are little Christmas trees!!
I wanted to do something that would be a fun bake for everyone this time of year, but something that is still quite easy, and basically using what you will all already have in your cupboards – cupcakes are always the most straightforward idea, and I just really do love a good cupcake.
Sponge
I went for a chocolate cupcake because I wanted it to be brown like the ground – I wanted it to be ‘dirt’ – for the tree to sit on! You could argue it also represents the stump of the tree, but that’s entirely up to you. I just really like chocolate cupcakes okay…
I went for a classic chocolate sponge that I use in so many of my cupcake recipes, but you can use my chocolate fudge cupcakes base if you want something a little more indulgent – you will need to stick to this decoration though!
Cases and decoration
I used some standard brown muffin cases for my cupcake cases this time as I didn’t want the cases to distract from the decoration – but that is entirely up to you. With a simple 5 ingredient cupcake mix, they are so easy to bake and make that you will have no problems!
For the decoration, it’s obvious what it is meant to represent – a Christmas tree! I used my favourite 2d closed star piping tip as always because I just adore the swirl that it creates on the cupcake. I purposefully pipe slightly more towards the middle of the cupcake so you can see some of the sponge underneath, and then it also makes the buttercream taller!
Star topper & baubles
For the decoration of the cupcakes I tried to use simple things – I had some white chocolate stars that I used for the toppers, from this packet! I also used these cute and brightly coloured sprinkles for baubles because they are so cute!
You can easily use something such as smarties or similar, but they can be a little big – so any sprinkles work, but I love the rainbow chocoballs the most! With a little dusting of icing sugar, they are done! Honestly, I am so obsessed it’s insane.
Food colouring and flavouring
I used this green food colouring to make the tree colour – and my gosh it worked! The good thing about using such a good quality food colouring is that you can use so little to get such a deep colour. I used maybe 1/2tsp to get a deep green, which is so good! I really do believe in good quality food colours, so please try and use them!
If you wanted to have a little fun with the flavours you can easily flavour the cupcakes using 1 tsp of extract in the sponge and/or the frosting – you could use orange, peppermint, almond etc… it’s up to you!Or you can leave it vanilla and plain as I have. I hope you love this fun and festive recipe as much as I do! Jane x
Christmas Tree Cupcakes!
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 200 g light brown soft sugar
- 150 g self raising flour
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 4 medium eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 200 g unsalted butter (not stork) (room temperature)
- 400 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp green food colouring
Decoration
- Chocolate stars
- Sprinkles
- Icing sugar dusting
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and prep 12 cases.
- Beat the unsalted butter/stork and light brown soft sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add in the self raising flour, cocoa powder, eggs and vanilla extract.
- Beat the mixture until its thick and lovely.
- Split the mixture evenly between the 12 cases and bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes.
- Once baked, leave to cool fully.
Buttercream
- Beat the room temperature unsalted butter on its own for a few minutes to loosen it and make it smoother.
- Add in the icing sugar and vanilla extract and beat again until smooth - I mix for a good few minutes.
- Add the green food colouring and beat again until combined.
Decoration
- Pipe green food colouring on to each cupcake using a 2d closed star piping nozzle - try to keep some of the cupcake sponge exposed, and pipe the buttercream taller than usual.
- Carefully press some brightly coloured sprinkles in to the cupcakes to resemble christmas baubles.
- Add a chocolate star to each cupcake, and lightly dust with icing sugar. Enjoy!
Notes
- For this recipe:
- I used these brown cases
- I used this green food colouring
- I used this cocoa powder
- I used these rainbow sprinkles
- I used the white chocolate stars from here
- I used this piping tip
- I used these piping bags
- These cupcakes will last 3-4 days, at room temp.
- You can freeze these cupcakes for 3+ months.
- You can flavour the cupcakes orange, peppermint, etc by using 1tsp flavouring in the cupcake and/or frosting.
ENJOY!
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J x
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If I want to make 24 of these cupcakes, do I simply double the quantity of the above ingredients?
Yes, that works!!
My piping skill are not great, could you do a tutorial on piping?!
Jane- so yummy you’ve outdone yourself this time! Yes very nice, piping a bit tricky tho 😫! Anyway, good job 🤤😀🌹
Made these for my sons school cake sale and I was so proud at how they came out. Looked and tasted amazing, I used the cream cheese recipe and added peppermint which I feel complimented the chocolate cupcake.
These look amazing! I would love to make them for my daughter to take to school, any top tips on individual wrapping/transport that doesn’t cost a bomb?
We got some individual cupcake bags. Pack of 10 for like £1 at Morrisons. They have a cardboard base so you can literally pack one at a time x
Can you freeze these cupcakes once they have been decorated…..thank you
Hiya! Yes absolutely – you can freeze them for up to 3 months! x
I did these over the weekend and came out looking lovely but I had an issue with the buttercrean as it tasted artificial and bitter and wondered if the food colouring could have caused this as never had a problem with my buttercream before 🙁 so although looked great did not test very nice
Hi Jane, could I freeze the mixture pre bake or do they have to be cooked to be frozen? Thank you
Hiya! Jane personally always recommends freezing the cupcakes once baked. Hope this helps! x
I love this recipe!! If I wanted to add chocolate chips to the sponge, do I have to change the ingredient amounts? Thank you!!
Hiya! You could add 200g chocolate chips – but decrease the other quantities by 1/4 to compensate for the weight! Hope this helps! x
I love your recipes but my decoration never looks like yours! Are you able to do tutorial on piping?!