Chocolate Christmas Tree Cupcakes and 13+ Other Cupcake Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How do you make a Christmas tree on top of a cupcake? ›

Tint the vanilla frosting green; transfer to a piping bag with an open-star tip. Starting from the bottom of the triangle and working your way up, pipe the green frosting all over the cupcakes in small downward strokes to cover completely. Add candies for ornaments.

Sift cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes.

Transfer frosting to a piping bag. Working perpendicular to the top of each cupcake, pipe green frosting around the edge, working inwards in a circular motion to create a tree shape. Repeat with remaining cupcakes. Decorate Christmas trees with sprinkles, colored sugar, or candies as the "ornaments" on the trees.

To ice them, make up the royal icing according to the packet instructions, or for the US, mix the confectioner's sugar and meringue powder in a bowl and add 3 tablespoons warm water. Beat with an electric mixer until icing forms soft peaks. Cover the tops of the cupcakes thickly.

CUT 1 large triangle from cake from the top center of shorter side to the 2 bottom corners of opposite shorter side. Place the 2 cut-off pieces on large tray, rounded side up, to form a second triangle the same shape as the whole one. Spread with chocolate fudge frosting. Place whole triangle on top.

Brush the warm cupcakes with a small amount of simple syrup. This is optional, as they are already moist and delicious without it. But I always recommend simple syrup for cupcakes as it soaks into the cupcakes, seals in the moisture and makes them extra-moist!

Additionally, professional bakers may use certain ingredients such as meringue, whipped cream, or fruit puree to keep the cake moist, or they may bake the cake at a lower temperature for a longer period of time.

Spray the tops of the branches with flocking spray ($12, Amazon), using a steady back-and-forth motion. Continue layering the spray until you're happy with the coverage. (The closer and more thickly you spray, the heavier the snow will appear.)

BUTTERCREAM – GREEN, WHITE, and Brown

I used a mixture of Moss and Leaf Green. A little goes a long way for the green, and the color will intensify over time, so a couple drops should do. For the brown, I added in a little cocoa powder and brown gel coloring.

How do you make snow effect on Christmas cake? ›

When the marzipan is dry, make the royal icing. Spoon a good dollop into the piping bag and set aside. Spoon the rest onto the cake and use a palette knife to smooth it thickly all around the top and sides. Once it's evenly spread, use the palette knife to form swirls and peaks to make a snowy scene.

This technique is like piping a cupcake swirl; however, the tree shape starts with a narrow base piping almost directly on top of the previous rotation to build a cone shape. Finish the tree with nonpareils and a Gold Star Sprinkle.

Starting with the largest broccoli and broccoflower heads place on foam starting at the base and work your way up securing with toothpicks. Push 1/2 the carrots randomly into the foam. Take the rest of the veggies cut into small pieces and fill in the empty spots and brighten up the tree.