Winter Pine Tree Cakes
December 12th, 2008
Stumble it!
This is a super cute dessert idea for winter-themed parties, and it isn’t much harder than making and frosting cupcakes. If you have a sharp knife, some toothpicks, a piping bag and a star tip, you’re good to go. It’s even more fun to make than it is to look at, or eat!
All I did was bake some cupcakes, cut them into cone shapes, stack them (secured with toothpicks) and then frosted them in such a way so that they looked like pine trees. Powdered sugar adds a little snow. At first I was bummed that my powdered sugar had so many HUGE lumps in it, until I realized they looked like little snow boulders. Score! You could get really creative and make little marzipan pine cones, or birds, or squirrels… you get the idea. Why not make a sweet little forest for your friends and family to devour?
Oh man, I just realized I could have built an igloo out of sugar cubes. Next time, I guess!
I used gel food coloring, both green and blue mixed together to get the shade right. Using only green was too light and minty for what I was going for – so make sure you have some blue on hand to darken it up. But there’s no reason your trees need to be green. White trees would be stunning on a darker plate, or other non-standard colors like pink or brown to play up their cutesy, cartoony look.
Basic Sponge Cake
Makes 15 cupcakes (a few extra for practicing)
1 1/3 Cups Soymilk mixed with 1 tsp Apple Cider vinegar
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 Tbs Cornstarch
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Oil
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Almond Extract
Preheat oven to 375º F.
Mix soymilk and vinegar. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch and salt and mix well. Add oil and extracts to soymilk mixture and whisk. Add wet to dry and fold until just combined. Fill each lined, sprayed cupcake mold with 1/4 cup batter. Bake cupcakes at 375º F for 20 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool completely.
Frosting
Enough for 5-7 trees
1/2 Cup Earth Balance Margarine
1/2 Cup Non-hydrogenated Shortening
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
About 3 Cups Powered Sugar, sifted, more if needed
Food Coloring (green and blue for standard trees)
In a stand mixer, whip margarine and shortening until light and fluffy. Whip in extract. Slowly whip in powdered sugar until icing is fairly stiff. Add coloring bit-by-bit until desired color is reached. Transfer icing to a piping bag fitted it a small/standard sized star tip
Creating the Trees
Bake the cupcakes!
Unwrap the cupcakes and turn them upside-down. With a knife, carve the cupcake into a cone. If needed, flatten the base so the cupcake cone sits without wobbling.
Stack the cupcakes to make basic tree shapes. Three high for tall trees, two high for short trees. Secure with toothpicks. You may want t make the base of your trees squatty so that they help the tree stand.
Create your forest!
Begin icing your trees. If you don’t have a revolving cake platter to ice on, use a small cutting board that you can easily turn as you work. Start from the bottom and ice around and around up towards the top. Use long-ish strokes that end in an upward sweep to create branches. You can go back and fill in holes or weird spots later.
Finish off with shorter, horizontal or upward pointing branches, and then one directly on top pointing straight up. Take a look at your tree and add branches where needed.
Use a spatula to gently and carefully transfer the trees to your serving plate. Add lumps of powdered sugar if you have them, and anything else to finish up the forest scene. Sprinkle with powdered sugar to add snow to the trees.
Happy winter!
Entry Filed under: baked goods, cupcakes, dessert, how to, parties, recipe
46 Comments
1. Marianne | December 12th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Those are beyond adorable! And look pretty easy to make. Awesome!
2. Shelby | December 12th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Two Words.
Too Cute!
3. VeganPower | December 12th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Waouw amasing ! Beuatiful !
C’est vraiment sublime, vous êtes si douée…bravo !
4. VeggieGirl | December 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I’m awestruck.
5. Anne | December 12th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Cute! And this is an icing to cake ration I can get behind. Loooove icing.
6. bex | December 12th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
those are super cute. I’m definitely going to try and add these to my house building project. At least for the final touch before I eat them.
7. Indian Girl | December 12th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Lauren you are super creative ! Unbelievably good !
8. annette | December 12th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
This is ridiculously cute. I love it!
9. lisbet | December 12th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
You’re so creative! I think I may have to bake these for my mah jongg group on Tuesday :)
10. Mardi | December 12th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Okay, this is the best Xmas food thing I’ve seen ever!
11. Pearl | December 13th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Love the detailed step-by-step photos! So adorable :)
12. Navita | December 13th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Hey First time her…love ur pine trees….they are so adorable. u are very creative.
do stop by my lil place too,(once in a while) i would like it :)
13. Ella | December 13th, 2008 at 9:01 am
they are soo cute.
i just have one question!!! i´m from austria and have no idea what non-hydrogenated shortening is? could you please explain it to me??
thanks a lot (especially for your adorable recipes)
daniela
14. Gina | December 13th, 2008 at 9:18 am
These are so adorable, not to mention that they look totally delicious!!
15. lisa (show me vegan) | December 13th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
creative and gorgeous presentation!
16. Jenny | December 13th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!!! :-D
17. Tofufreak | December 13th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
wohohoho. those are like amazingly cute :D
18. Erin | December 13th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Well these are just about the cutest things ever! You’re so creative!
19. Eve Love | December 13th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
AAAAAAAAAAAhh!
these are SO cute!
you’re brillant!!!!!!!!!!!
20. Ela | December 14th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Those are absolutely adorable.
21. zuzu | December 14th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Cute!
My grandma used to do something similar with ice cream cones turned upside down. I think she used silver dragees to decorate them as well.
22. Sanja | December 14th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
So cute!
23. Delyla | December 14th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
These would be so fun to make with kids!
24. Kala | December 14th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
So cute, I must make some of these!
25. Laurel from Simple Spoonful | December 14th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Very cute, super-fun, but I just can’t do food coloring. :( It makes me sad, and I don’t like the bitter aftertaste. Do these look as cute in white? Inquiring minds want to know… ;)
26. Kate Horowitz | December 14th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
psssst! http://thingswrittendown.blogspot.com/2008/12/well-braid-my-hair-and-call-me-betsy.html
27. Johanna | December 15th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Wonderful trees and you make it look so simple!
Also wanted to say I posted on my version of your rice and beans – loved the recipes and found them flexible enough for my needs – thanks
http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com/2008/12/rice-and-beans.html
28. jd | December 15th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Honestly!
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by how amazing your food looks anymore, but I just can’t help myself…
Those trees are A-MAZING!
29. Kitteh | December 15th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Eeek. I hate frosting. This desert looks like my worst nightmare.
30. Frosted Forest « Bi&hellip | December 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
[...] are a number of other similar ideas for tree cake out there, each very creative and cute, so look around, get inspired, and make one of these for each guest at your holiday dinner. [...]
31. Bianca- Vegan Crunk | December 15th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Vegan Yum Yum, you are the coolest! I love this idea, especially because it means eating a lot of frosting. Yum! I wish I could make a batch to bring to my grandma’s for Xmas, but I doubt I’d be able to transport them without an unfortunate deforestation incident (aka spilling them everywhere).
32. DJ | December 15th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
So adorable!
33. NAOmni | December 15th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I’m linking to you! These are too cute!
NAOmni
notanotheromnivore.blogspot.com
34. pupa | December 16th, 2008 at 2:57 am
well it certainly looks nice and a sponge cake is allways yummy, but so much frosting? honestly, i do not understand, how americans may eat tons of frosting, made basically just out of fat and loads of sugar! on cakes, cupcakes … don’t take me wrong, I have a sweet tooth too, but this kind of frosting in such amounts just make me overdose with sugar…
For cakes etc., I make frosting of fat, sugar (much less though) and basic (vanilla, strawberry…) pudding.
But anyway love the site as allways :) looking forward for your cookbook!
35. Sara | December 16th, 2008 at 3:09 am
This looks totally amazing, but I don’t think I could handle all that frosting! I would still like to try it, but I think if I did I would just get big green blobs of frosting with bits of cake in it. I know my limits…
36. Lauren | December 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
cute!!
37. Sandy | December 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Aww…these are super cute!
38. Katie | December 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
That’s just like my favorite cupcake recipe from VCTOTW!
39. Rebecca | December 16th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Sweet tennenbaum! A vegan icing that doesn’t melt all over the place! These are so so lovely. This is my first time at your site and I’m really excited to read through your old entries.
40. JessieG | December 17th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Cute! Really cool technique for building the trees. I love the forest floor with the snow and boulders too!
41. Veg Blog Round-Up: News F&hellip | December 17th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
[...] Yum Yum: Winter Pine Tree Cakes by Lulu “This is a super cute dessert idea for winter-themed parties, and it isn’t much harder [...]
42. The Veggie Guy | December 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 am
How creative! These look like a wonderful treat. Well done!
43. Supriya Raman | December 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Oh My god, These are so adorable! So crafty and impeccable!
44. Libby | December 24th, 2008 at 2:13 am
I made these for my friends for christmas – huge success :) Even though most were doubtful of vegan baking they all admitted they tasted fabulous and look cute to boot…
I love this recipe with all of my vegany heart.
Thanks you>!<
45. Vegan | January 4th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Your creations are always very unique and fun! I appreciate the time you put into making vegan food enjoyable.
46. Cupcake denneboom en snee&hellip | December 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
[...] Inspiratie van Yum Yum Vegan. [...]