Have yourself a Merry little christmas, with this Christmas tree cake recipe! It has been what feels like a long time since I blogged (only a week, but Wowsa). I have been EXTREMELY busy with my new at home baking business that I am left with little time to bake for my blog! My hot chocolate bombs are flying off the shelf! So do yourself a favor and make them, they are delish! Thank you Tiktok for this trend!
However, I really wanted to make a cake out of cupcakes and it worked really well with an Xmas tree. It is simple, yet really neat looking. Fifteen vanilla cupcakes piped with festive buttercream frosting to resemble a decorated Xmas tree!
Let me tell you, the kids LOVED this activity and it for sure got me out of making a dreaded Gingerbread house!
Ingredients
- Flours: All-purpose and Cake flour
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla
- Eggs
- Milk: 2% or whole
- Confectioner's sugar: sifted
Steps for a Christmas tree cake
- Make Vanilla cupcakes: Line cupcake pans with liners and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the batter and fill each liner about ⅔ full. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let the cupcakes completely cool before assembling and piping.
- Make festive buttercream frosting: Make frosting and divide the frosting into 4 different bowls. Add desired food coloring to each bowl and place in piping bag fitted with desired tips.
- Assemble Christmas tree cake: Line 15 cupcakes up into the shape of a Christmas tree. Pipe with green frosting. Spread with offset spatula to look like a sheet cake. Add desired ornaments and garland with other frosting (red, blue and yellow). Add on the Christmas blend sprinkles. Pull apart and enjoy!
Tips and tricks
- Assemble the cupcakes close enough together, so when you frost it they look like a sheet cake.
- Making an extra batch of frosting is helpful, so you don't run out with piping and frosting.
- You may have left over cupcakes (recipe mades 24, I only used 15 for the tree) so frost away or save for another day or even cake pops!
- Make sure cupcakes are the same height and and cooled enough before frosting. Making them 1-2 days in advance helps!
Substitutions and variations
- Use different flavors of cake mix to make tree
- Add more sprinkles to the tree
- Make smaller trees with mini cupcakes
- Make a tree stump to spruce it up
FAQ's
How do I store this Christmas tree cake?
Since the cake is made out of cupcakes, you can store them as a large cake or as individual cupcakes.
Christmas Tree cake
A Christmas tree cake made out of 15 vanilla cupcakes. Piped with festive buttercream frosting.
Equipment
- Electric hand mixer
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment
- Two standard cupcake tins
- Cupcake liners
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring cups and spoons
- spatula
- Piping bag and 3-4 tips
Ingredients
Vanilla cupcakes
- 1¾ cup cake flour
- 1¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter cubed at room temperature
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Buttercream frosting
- 4 cups confectioner's sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- pinch of salt
- green food coloring
- blue food coloring
- yellow food coloring
- ¼ cup sprinkles
Instructions
Vanilla cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line two standard cupcake pans with liners. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together both flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Next, with electric mixer on low add in the cubed butter. Mix until it resembles coarse sand.
- Keeping the mixer on low, add in the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed between additions. Slowly, pour in the milk and vanilla extract until combined. Increase speed to medium and mix for two minutes or until the batter is smooth.
- Fill the liners ⅔ full and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in to the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then remove to pipe on frosting.
Buttercream frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium for about 2 minutes until smooth. Add in the confectioner's sugar, heavy cream, salt and vanilla and mix until throughly combined or until desired consistency is reached.
- Separate the buttercream into four separate bowls (with the green color being added to the mixing bowl itself). Add in the red, yellow and blue colors to the other bowls. Place each frosting in a piping bag fitted with desired tips to decorate the tree. Pipe on tree and enjoy!
Nutrition
Serving: 24cupcakesCalories: 361kcalCarbohydrates: 48gProtein: 3gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 75mgSodium: 161mgPotassium: 50mgFiber: 0.4gSugar: 36gVitamin A: 564IUVitamin C: 0.03mgCalcium: 50mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Festive recipes to enjoy!
Fun fact of the day!
Apparently, Santa didn't always dress up in red clothes. Coca Cola is the one who dressed him up in red and it just stuck! Who knew!
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