Christmas Tree Cupcakes & Brownies

I want to thank everyone for the kind comments and condolences you left on my last post- I read every single one. We are trying to adjust to our Dunkie-less life. I am left with profound gratitude that this sweet, giant dog bounded into our lives and filled our home and our days. He taught me a lot about having an open heart, being kind and tolerant, and taking each day- each minute- as it comes, enjoying whatever life brings. 

Christmas tree cupcakes

We have been doing loads of holiday baking this month. It has been a welcome distraction if I am being honest. The project I am sharing today came about when my daughter was looking for a treat to sell at the school holiday market, where kids get to set up stalls and be market vendors for a couple of hours. 

I consulted Pinterest and dug out a gem- an idea that's truly seasonal, cute, and most importantly, very doable for non-experts: chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla frosting- a crowd-pleasing combo- topped with adorable little decorated Christmas trees. 

The sweet little trees are the star of this cupcake. I saw this idea on several blogs. We gathered:

• Thin pretzel sticks (supermarket snack aisle)
• Green candy melts (found these in Michaels)
• Sprinkles- I bought a couple of boxes of assorted holiday sprinkles and we used them all month for different projects. The ones used here are white/green/red dots and silver stars 
• Piping bags (no tip needed- we used a disposable bag and snipped the tip)

1. Lay out pretzel sticks spaced apart on a parchment covered baking sheet.
2. Microwave (50% power in spurts, stirring in between) candy melts to, well, melt them. We used half the bag. 
3. Spoon melted candy into a piping bag. 
4. Pipe pine trees as shown in the pic, freehand style. If you overlap piping lines the trees will be thicker and less fragile. 
5. Candy hardens quickly, so go ahead and add a star and "ornament" sprinkles as you pipe. It helps to do this project as a team of two- a piper and a sprinkler.

Trees will harden at room temperature. After an hour, lift them off carefully off the parchment and store in a box at room temperature- they will last for several days. It was our first time working with candy melts and it is dead easy. Also, we have no piping experience and that's not a problem for this project- messy trees look organic. By the way, the trees are yummy little treats on their own. 

Cupcakes: The recipe we used is here- Truly the best chocolate cupcakes. I love this recipe because it calls for pantry ingredients, is truly an easy, one-bowl recipe, and makes 24 cupcakes (I think we got 27, actually) which is a nice number for a sale situation. Be aware that the recipe calls for adding hot water into the batter and that makes the batter alarmingly thin. Don't panic! The cupcakes turned out beautifully. 

Frosting: My daughter is particular about frosting and does not like typical American buttercream which tends to be cloyingly sweet and heavy. I made this less sweet vanilla frosting instead. It was gorgeous- fluffy and tasty and daughter-approved. Piled on the chocolate cupcake (we used an offset spatula), it looks like snow on the ground. The best thing about this frosting is that it does not need refrigeration for a day or two, which is of practical importance when you are making 24 of these in a home setting. One batch of frosting was more than enough for 24 cupcakes. 

Stick a tree or two into each cupcake just before serving. Oohs and ahs will commence. 

* * *

Buoyed by the success of the little trees, and with half a bag of green candy melts and quantities of pretzel sticks and sprinkles still on hand, we made these brownie Christmas trees. (I saw the idea here).

My daughter and her friend used a standard box of brownie mix and instead of baking in a 8 or 9 inch pan as the recipe indicates, they baked it in a 9x13 pan for a shorter time, for thinner brownies. Any brownie recipe (mix or from-scratch) and any size pan will do for this project. All you're looking for is brownie triangles. We got about 24 little brownie triangles (plus off-cuts for the bakers to snack on.)

9x13 brownie slab: Cut into thirds horizontally,
then each third into triangles

To make the trees, stick a pretzel stick into the base of the triangle (cutting the harder crust off the brownie edge pieces helps to poke the pretzel stick in), then pipe on green melted candy, and add the requisite ornament sprinkles and star topper. Ta da! 

Brownie trees

Another item my daughter sold at the holiday
market: handmade cards

My son and I made these melted snowman cookies to sell at the market (I have made them in previous years and posted them before on the blog). He would sell a cookie, earn a dollar, and immediately run off to spend it, leaving me to manage the stall. We made minus 7 dollars. He has decided he prefers shopping to selling and I am OK with that! 

Melting snowman cookies

Gingerbread house from
the Trader Joe's kit

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season! To all who celebrate it, Merry Christmas! 

Bonus Christmas reading- A Christmas Memory, a short story by Truman Capote. Read it in its entirety here. My son and I also watched a couple of Christmas movies- the classic 2003 Elf (Netflix) and the 2019 animated Klaus (Max), which I found delightful.