We have a new Christmas cupcake in town! These Easy Christmas Tree Cupcakes have light and moist vanilla cupcakes, topped with easy to make, festive iced Christmas tree’s made from ice-cream cones, buttercream, sprinkles and a dusting of icing sugar for snow.
I wanted to make something that would be a extremely fun bake that everyone with any baking ability could make this time of year.
Most of the ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen cupboards too, so…. let’s get baking!
I love Christmas. We usually put up the Christmas tree in mid / late November. Super early, I know, but there’s no harm in getting into the Christmas spirit a little earlier.
My dad head’s up into the loft, drops down the tree to me and my mum, and then we put it up. Well, when I say we, my mum will set up the tree and I’ll help put on the decorations. My patience for putting up the tree just isn’t the best – haha!
As much as I LOVE Christmas tree’s, I noticed, I literally don’t have any Christmas tree recipes on my website. I did just post Christmas Brownies which have one Christmas tree, but I wanted to create a recipe where the tree is the star of the show. These are most definitely it!
Check out my Easy Christmas Tree Brownies here.
Why you need to make these Christmas tree cupcakes:
- 100% vegan
- They’re easy to make
- They look incredible
- Fun to make
- Great for kids to make & decorate
- Simple yet effective design
Simply imagine an entire forest of these edible Christmas trees lining your festive dinner table, or surrounding a Gingerbread house. It would look dreamy, like your own little, personalised winter wonderland.
You’ll be surprised at HOW SIMPLE these easy Christmas tree cupcakes actually are to make! You basically just pipe little stars of buttercream all over an ice-cream waffle cone with a piping tip. That’s it. The effect it gives is incredible. Who ever you make these for will be immediately impressed!
Looking for more Christmas recipes? Look no further:
No-Bake Mini White Chocolate Snowman Cheesecakes
I hope you have as much fun as I did when making these delicious cupcakes. Enjoy!
Christmas Tree Cupcakes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Learn how to make easy Christmas Tree Cupcakes, with a ice-cream cone tree, decorated with ‘snow’ (icing sugar) and vegan sprinkles.
Ingredients
Ingredients for the cupcakes
- 240ml of dairy-free milk
- 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
- 210g of self-raising flour
- 100g of caster sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract / vanilla bean paste
- 60ml of sunflower oil
Ingredients for the buttercream
- 200g of dairy-free butter
- 40ml of chickpea brine (aquafaba)
- 240g of icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of peppermint flavouring
- Green food gel
Decorations
- Ice-cream cones
- Icing sugar (for dusting)
- Vegan sprinkles [ white nonpareils, white crunchy sprinkles, star sprinkles ]
Instructions
Method (cupcakes)
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c fan and line a cupcake tin with cupcake cases.
- In a small bowl, combine the dairy-free milk with the apple cider vinegar and whisk until fully combined.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well to combine.
- Add the vanilla and oil to the ‘buttermilk’ and whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until a smooth batter
- Fill the cases 3/4 full with the batter. Make sure to tap the tins on the worktop to remove any air bubbles.
- Pop the cakes into the preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes. You will know they are done when you put a knife or skewer in and it comes out clean and they are springy to the touch.
- Place the cupcakes on a cooling rack and allow to cool fully before frosting.
Method (buttercream)
- In a large mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter and whip until creamy. I use a stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment, a hand mixer will work great too.
- Sift in the icing sugar and peppermint flavouring, whip together. The buttercream will be very thick.
- Pour in the aquafaba and whip for 5 minutes until it turns light and creamy. Don’t over whip it or it can become too soft. If it does, just add in more icing sugar until it’s thick and creamy.
- Your Swiss meringue buttercream should be thick, very creamy and silky smooth. If it feels too heavy, add chunks more butter / splashes of aquafaba until it’s very light.
- Take out a little but of white buttercream and add it into a small piping bag.
- Add a few drops of green food gel to the remaining buttercream and whip to combine.
- Transfer the green buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip nozzle. I use a Wilton 2D tip.
- Pipe a thin, flat swirl of white buttercream on top of each cupcake. Dip the buttercream into white sprinkles or desiccated coconut. This resembles snow.
- Turn an ice-cream cone upside down and press into the white buttercream
- Pipe star-shapes of the buttercream onto / around the entire surface of the cone beginning at the bottom and working all the way up to the top, until its fully covered.
- Sprinkle vegan sprinkles all over the ‘tree’, and add a star sprinkle at the top of the tree.
- Dust with some icing sugar, to resemble snow. Repeat for all of the cupcakes.
- If you end up needing more buttercream, re-make a second batch and repeat.
Notes
How to store?
Store these cupcakes in a sealed container. Best tip is to store the cupcakes in a sealed container and decorate with the cone, day of making. This will prevent the cone from getting soggy from the moisture.
Best eaten 2 days of making.
What is aquafaba?
Aquafaba is the water from a can/tin of chickpeas. The chickpea water or brine as it’s called, acts as an amazing egg substitute for cakes, cupcakes and delicious meringue buttercream. You can also get aquafaba in a carton for easy use. Check it out here.
What vegan block butter to use?
My favourite vegan / dairy-free block butters are ‘Naturli Vegan Block’ or Flora Plant Based Block Butter Alternative (salted or unsalted).
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Category: christmas recipes
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: Christmas recipes
