Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Morning Friends! 

On Monday I shared a few new Christmas recipes I'am trying out this week. If you missed that post you can find it here. I made these christmas cupcakes featured in that post for girls dinner yesterday and they where a huge success! Although mine may not have looked as good as the picture ;) they where mighty delicious. Check out the recipe below! 

You Will Need 

175g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar
2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
125ml buttermilk

200g caster sugar
3 egg whites
250g unsalted butter, softened and chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method 

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well between each addition and scraping down the side of the mixing bowl from time to time. Add the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and add to the mixture in alternate batches with the buttermilk. Mix until smooth.

 Place 12 brown paper cupcake cases in a muffin tin and fill the cases two-thirds full with the Buttermilk Sponge mixture. Put the muffin tin on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden, well risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

Icing 

Put the sugar and egg whites in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until it reaches at least 60˚C/140˚F on a sugar thermometer. Pour into a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or use an electric whisk and bowl). Beat until the mixture has doubled in volume, cooled and will stand in stiff peaks – this will take about 3 minutes. Gradually add the butter to the cooled meringue mix, beating constantly, until the frosting is smooth. Fold in the vanilla and use immediately.

Using a piping bag with medium-sized, star-shaped nozzle filled with the green frosting work from the centre of the cakes and pipe pointed branch shapes towards the edges of the cupcake. Keep doing this, turning the cupcake as you go, until you have created the bottom of a tree. Repeat with the next layer up, making the branches shorter. Do more layers, making the branches shorter as you get to the top. Decorate with the glitter, sugar balls and top with a sugar star.

Enjoy! 

Lou 

xxx