Description
Celebrate the festive season with these charming Christmas Tree Cupcakes, featuring moist vanilla cake topped with luscious green buttercream frosting piped into a tree shape, decorated with colorful sprinkles and Twizzler Pull 'n' Peel candy for a fun and whimsical holiday treat.
Ingredients
Scale
Cake Ingredients
- 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
Decoration Ingredients
- 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: Set your oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners and set it aside.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, baking soda, and baking powder, then set aside for later.
- Cream butter and sugar: In a medium bowl, cream together the softened salted butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time, whisking to combine fully after each addition.
- Add liquids: Whisk in the milk and vanilla extract into the butter and sugar mixture until well blended.
- Combine wet and dry: Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients bowl, mixing until the batter is smooth and fully combined without overmixing.
- Fill cupcake liners: Pour the batter evenly into the cupcake liners, filling each about two-thirds full to allow room for rising.
- Bake cupcakes: Place the muffin tin in the preheated oven and bake for 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool completely: Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let them cool completely on a wire rack before decorating to prevent melting the frosting.
- Pipe frosting: Scoop the green buttercream frosting into a piping bag fitted with an open star tip. Start piping a quarter-size circle in the center of the cupcake, then move outward in a swirl pattern, layering the frosting slightly overlapping to build a tree shape. Finish by pressing the tip down and pulling up quickly to form the tree's pointed top.
- Decorate tree skirts and toppers: Wrap a string of peeled Twizzler Pull 'n' Peel candy around the cupcake bottoms to form the tree skirt. Sprinkle rainbow sprinkles and place a star-shaped sprinkle at the top of each tree. Optionally, dust with confectioners sugar to simulate snow for an extra festive touch.
Notes
- If you don't have a piping bag or cake decorating tips, a ziplock bag with a small corner cut off can be used as a substitute for piping the frosting.
- To peel the Twizzler Pull 'n' Peel candy into strings, gently separate the strands before wrapping them around the cupcake base.
- Letting cupcakes cool completely before frosting prevents the buttercream from melting and sliding off.
- You can tint your own buttercream frosting green using food coloring if not using pre-colored frosting.
- For a stronger vanilla flavor, consider adding an additional ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 320 kcal
- Sugar: 28 g
- Sodium: 150 mg
- Fat: 15 g
- Saturated Fat: 8 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 40 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 65 mg
