Christmas is almost upon us once again and I am ridiculously excited as always. I find it such a magical time of the year and I also love it because I have sooo many ideas – baking and crafts – that I get to try out. This cupcake decoration being one of them and I was really pleased with the result so I wanted to share it with you all on here so you can try too. It is simple yet effective – give it a go, it’ll be fun!
The Cupcake Recipe:
🎄 4oz of softened butter
🎄 4oz of sugar
🎄 2 eggs
🎄 4oz of self raising flour
🎄 1.5oz cocoa powder
🎄 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
🎄 A dash of vanilla essence
Method:
🎄 Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4
🎄 Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cases of your choice
1)In a mixing bowl combine the butter and sugar together. Mix until light and creamy
2) Add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly between each addition
3) Now add your dash of vanilla
4) Sieve in your flour, cocoa and baking powder and fold gently until you have a smooth, chocolate cupcake mixture
5) Spoon in to your prepared cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the sponge bounces back slightly when touched. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Now you can make your butter cream.
You need (roughly, it always varies for me):
🎄 2 tablespoons of butter
🎄 8-10 tablespoons of icing sugar – sifted
🎄 A dash of vanilla
🎄 Green food colouring – you can add a little or a lot depending on which shade of green you’re going for. I went pale green.
Method:
1) Put your butter in to a bowl, cream it a little then sift in 2 tablespoons of icing sugar at a time until you’re happy with the consistency and the taste. (Tasting is very important…)
2) Here’s where you should add your colouring and vanilla – mix again.
3) If you lose your previous consistency – add a little more icing sugar until you get it back.
4) Pipe or spread on to the cooled cupcakes
To make the trees you need:
🎄 Mint/Orange Matchmakers or something similar
🎄 Little white chocolate stars
🎄 Icing sugar
1) To begin with cut a tree trunk out of a Matchmaker and then starting small cut pieces to go down the sides, gradually getting a little bigger, to form the shape of a tree. Part of the fun, in my case, was that all the trees looked slightly different.
2) Transfer each tree on to a cupcake and add a star at the top
3) Dust with icing sugar to finish.
Tada! You did it and I bet they look beaaaautiful. 🎄
With a Hint of Lemon 