Blogmas #20 Christmas Tree Cupcakes


Ok so they're not the most traditional looking Christmas trees in the world, but I tried! Despite my icing majorly lacking in height (on the original designs the icing swirls up quite tall) they were really easy to do, and if you're an inexperienced baker like me these are a good little project to try. In order to make them look like Christmas trees I used a mixture of edible decorations as the baubles and fairy lights, and finished it off with a big white chocolate star. I looked everywhere for edible star decorations but couldn't find what I was after, so in the end just made my own little wonky ones. I melted white chocolate, poured it onto foil and used a skewer to create the star shape and left them to set in the fridge. This recipe makes twelve little cupcakes, if you want to give it a go here's how I made them!

For the Cupcakes                              For the Icing                          To Decorate
110g butter                                         150g butter                              edible decorations 
110g caster sugar                               300g icing sugar                     star toppers 
2 eggs                                                  1-2 tbsp milk                           green cupcake cases
half tsp mixed spice                         green food colouring              piping bag & nozzle (I use this)
110g self-raising flour
2 tbsp milk

Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and line your muffin tin with cupcake cases
  2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and smooth
  3. Beat in the eggs, then gradually add the flour a little at a time to avoid lumps
  4. Add a teaspoon or two of milk to loosen until the mixture turns into a smooth batter
  5. Add your mixed spice. Mix everything  together well- for a few minutes at least
  6. Fill your cases half way, and bake for around 15 minutes until golden brown
  7. Onto the icing- beat the butter with a wooden spoon until soft and gradually add the icing sugar
  8. If the mixture is too stiff, add 1-2 tsp of milk. Then add your green food colouring
  9. Carefully spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a star tip nozzle
  10. Swirl on the icing, and decorate to your heart's content!
For the icing I recommend buying a piping bag set with a selection of nozzles included as it gives you more flexibility when you're doing things like this. The one I have (linked above) was so cheap and is all reusable, the bag can even be put in the washing machine after each use which saves having to keep buying disposable piping bags. Finally you can go to town on the decorating! Supermarkets have loads of edible decorations to choose from, I also recommend checking out B&M as they often have them massively reduced.

Have you done any Christmas baking yet?