sweet inspiration & fun baking ideas

I went to a Christmas party last weekend that ended up being the inspiration for these decorated cupcakes. The home of the party was filled with sugar and pink and the absolute sweetest decorations. Wait until you see. I’ll show you soon. Maybe tomorrow. I still need to edit all the photos I took because it really deserves it’s own post.

But back to cupcakes. I was playing around with decorating, so I just used a cake mix for these cupcakes. But if you decide to try them, use a recipe that is more dense, more pound-cake than fluffy because the weight of the trees can cause them to tumble if you’re not careful.

Anyway… Christmas Tree Cupcakes. You’ve seen them before, I’m sure.

They use sugar cones for the base of the tree. But all the ones I’ve seen use the entire cone and then rest it on the top of the cupcake like these from Martha Stewart. This would obviously make sense if I was smart.

But no, I wanted them to be smaller … (go figure)… and stand above the cupcake with candy cane stems.

Just like this. Pretty cute.

But, just a little plain I think.

So, I tinted some fondant and made little presents to go under the tree. And these snowflake sprinkles made perfect little bows.

See…

I think I could have stopped here and they would be just fine.

Instead, I added some pink, blue and white confetti sprinkles for decorations.

What do you think? Too much? or Too cute?

To decorate, you’ll need:

Cupcakes
Sugar Cones
White Candy Melts
White Sugar crystals
Frosting
Pink Sugar crystals
Candy Canes
Fondant
Icing colors (I used Wilton Dusty Rose & )
Snowflake Sprinkles
Confetti Sprinkles

• Cut off ends of the sugar cones, so the tree section is around 3 inches long. Use a serrated knife to carefully saw through without shattering the cone.
• Dip cone sections in melted white candy coating. If you use a tall plastic cup, it will be easier to coat the entire cone.
• Remove and let excess coating fall off.
• Sprinkle white sugar crystals or sanding sugar over entire surface of the cone. Sprinkle over a large bowl and you can reuse the sprinkles.
• Set on wax paper to dry completely. When dry, you can redip the bottoms to make sure the cone is completely coated.
• Use 6 inch long candy canes and break the handles off so you are left with a straight piece that’s around 5 inches.
• Cover cupcakes with tinted pink frosting.
• Fill a small dish with the pink sugar crystals or sanding sugar and press cupcake tops into the dish until the entire surface is covered with sugar cyrstals.
• Dip one end of the candy cane in some of the melted candy coating and insert the other end straight into the cupcake.
• Place a Christmas Tree on top of the candy cane and let the candy coating dry and work like a glue.
• If you want decorations, it would be a good idea to add them before you attach the tree. Just dot a small amount of coating on the surface and attach a colored sprinkle.
• For presents, tint white fondant and shape the fondant into small squares by hand. Then use some of the white fondant, roll it out and use a knife to cut thin strips for ribbon. Attach the white fondant ribbon to the presents with a small dab of water. Then attach the snowflake sprinkles the same way.
• Remember, use dense cupcakes instead of light and fluffy ones so the trees will not want to tip.
• Or skip the candy canes, use the entire sugar cone and make big trees. Then you won’t have to worry.

Either way… enjoy!

P.S. The baking cups are from confectioneryhouse.com in case you’re wondering,