Recipe: Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Happy Tuesday. It's crazy to think that this time next week, we'll all be getting up to open our presents, stuff our faces and spend some quality time with our loved ones. As Christmas is only a week away, I thought I'd share my take on a Christmas Tree Cupcakes with you all. The icing doesn't resemble a Christmas Tree much but I'm still working on my icing which can sometimes look a bit lacklustre. However if you can create a tree with your icing then brilliant, you'll have some spectacular looking cupcakes. 

Ingredients
For The Cupcakes 
110g Caster Sugar
110g Plain Flour
110g Stork, softened
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Baking Powder
30g Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

For The Buttercream 
200g Butter, softened
320g Icing Sugar
2 Tsp Peppermint Extract
1 Tsp Holiday Green Food Colouring
1 Tsp Milk

Method
1- Pre heat your oven to 180c. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2- Place the sugar and stork into a large bowl. Beat until creamy, pale and fluffy in texture. Depending on how soft your stork is, depends on how long this will take. It can take a while but patience is key when it comes to this part.
3- Sift your dry ingredients together and add to the mix.
4- Beat your eggs in a seperate bowl then add to the mix. Beat until everything is combined, taking time to scrape the sides of your bowl so nothing left unbeaten or gathering on the edges of the mix.
5- Spoon your mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
6- Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
7- For the buttercream place your softened butter into a large bowl and beat until creamy and smooth in consistency. This bit is the bit that takes forever but it's worth the work at the end.
8- Once your butter has reached the right consistency, sift in half your icing sugar and beat again. This can take a while as you want to make sure that your buttercream is smooth and there are not pockets of icing sugar.
9- Once smooth, add the other half of your icing sugar. Beat again until fully incorporated and smooth.
10- Now it's time to add your colouring and flavouring. Once you've added both, beat until fully incorporated, adding more colouring if necessary. This is also a great time to add your milk so that your mixture is pipeable.
11- Once you're happy with your buttercream, spoon into a piping bag and pipe onto your now cooled cakes. I used a waved edge nozzle for this but you can use any style of nozzle you prefer.
12- When all your cakes are iced, leave them to set. Then all that's left to do is enjoy them.