Description
These festive Christmas Tree Cupcakes are a delightful holiday treat featuring moist vanilla cupcakes decorated with green buttercream frosting piped in a swirl to resemble Christmas trees. Adorned with colorful sprinkles, candy strings, and a star on top, they're perfect for holiday parties and celebrations.
Ingredients
Scale
Cake
- 2 cups cake flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ cup salted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup milk
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ tablespoon vanilla extract
Decorations
- 16 oz. green buttercream frosting
- ¼ cup sequin-style rainbow sprinkles
- 2-3 Twizzler Pull 'n' Peel Candy, peeled into strings
- Star shaped sprinkles
- Confectioners sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Pan: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside to prepare for the batter.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking soda, and baking powder to combine evenly. Set this aside for later.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a medium bowl, cream the softened butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, creating the base for your batter.
- Add Wet Ingredients: Add the eggs one at a time to the butter and sugar mixture, whisking well after each addition. Then incorporate the milk and vanilla extract, whisking until smooth and well combined.
- Combine Wet and Dry Mixtures: Gradually add the wet ingredients into the bowl with your dry ingredients, mixing until the batter is smooth and free of lumps.
- Fill Cupcake Liners: Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, filling each about two-thirds full to allow room for rising during baking.
- Bake the Cupcakes: Bake in the preheated oven for 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, indicating they are fully cooked.
- Cool the Cupcakes: Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.
- Pipe the Frosting: Scoop the green buttercream frosting into a piping bag fitted with an open star tip. Starting by making a quarter-size circle in the center of each cupcake, pipe the frosting in a swirl pattern beginning from the outside edge, overlapping layers as you work inward. Finish by pushing the tip down and quickly pulling up to create the tree tip.
- Add Decorations: Wrap a string of the peeled Twizzler candy around the bottom of each cupcake to mimic a tree skirt. Sprinkle sequin-style rainbow sprinkles over the frosting and place a star-shaped sprinkle at the top to complete your Christmas tree look. Optionally, dust with confectioners sugar to resemble snow.
Notes
- If you don't have a piping bag or cake decorating tool, you can use a ziplock bag with a corner snipped off as an alternative for frosting.
- Ensure cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting to prevent melting or sliding of the frosting.
- You can substitute milk with a non-dairy alternative if preferred.
- For a gluten-free version, substitute the cake flour with a gluten-free flour blend and ensure baking powder is gluten-free.
- Twizzler Pull 'n' Peel candy strings can be replaced with thin strips of fruit leather if desired.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 320 kcal
- Sugar: 25 g
- Sodium: 150 mg
- Fat: 16 g
- Saturated Fat: 9 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 40 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 55 mg
