Magic Belles

Yippee! It’s almost Christmas and it’s Cupcake Belle‘s busiest, yummiest time of the year! When she’s not making mince pies and her famous Gingerbread Bells for everyone, she’s whizzing around Cupcake Chalet, trying to invent new recipes for her Secret Recipe Book.

This year, she’s come up with these delicious Christmas Tree Cakes! They’re fun and easy to decorate - so everyone can join in. Here’s how to make them…

Cupcake Belle’s Christmas Tree Cakes

For the Chocolate Cake:

225g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
4 medium eggs
175g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
1 tbsp water

For the Decorations:

50g icing sugar and 2 tsp water
Green food colouring
Smarties or M&Ms
Candy canes or chocolate sticks

Equipment:

2 x 18cm (6in) square cake tins
Greaseproof paper for lining
Electric mixer with large bowl
Sieve
Wooden spoon
Wire rack
Bowl and spoon for icing
Plastic food bag and scissors

• Preheat your oven to gas mark 4/180ºC/350ºF and grease and line your square cake tins.
• Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. When they’re light and fluffy, add the eggs, one at a time. Beat the mixture after each egg is added.
• In the same bowl, sift in half your flour and cocoa powder. Fold them in gently with a wooden spoon.
• Sift in the rest of the flour and cocoa and fold those in, too.
• If your mixture feels a bit dry, add up to 1 tbsp of warm water and stir it in.
• Now scoop the mixture out of the bowl, dividing it between the two lined tins. Smooth over the top of the mixture with the back of your spoon.
• Bake for 18 to 25 minutes – they’re ready when you can stick a knife in the centre of each one and it comes out clean. Let them cool on a wire rack.
• When cool, transfer the cakes to a chopping board and cut them into triangles - make them quite small as they’ll look cuter!
• Make up a bowl of icing so that it’s not too runny – it shouldn’t dribble off the spoon too easily. Drop in some green food colouring and stir it in well.
• Spoon the icing into a plastic food bag and snip off one of the bottom corners to make a small hole. This will be your piping bag.
• Now pipe zig zags across half of your chocolate triangles to make them look like Christmas trees. Pipe tree outlines on the other half of your chocolate triangles.
• While the icing is still wet, stick on Smarties or M&Ms to look like bright Christmas baubles.
• As an extra-special finishing touch, break candy canes into four sections and stick a section into the bottom edge of a Christmas Tree Cake to look like a tree trunk. You could use chocolate sticks for this instead.

Why don’t you make Christmas Tree Cakes for your local Christmas fair or for a tea party with your friends or family? We hope you have fun making them and enjoy eating these scrumptious treats!

We’d love to see your Christmas baking, so don’t forget to email it in! Merry baking and lots of yummy love from Cupcake Belle and friends! xxx