Happy National Cupcake Day
Easy peasy Christmas Tree Cupcakes and oh so cute to boot! Ok I will quit being cheesey :) but these cupcakes truly are easy.... my secret, I used a box cake mix for the cupcakes.
The nice thing is I can use 1/3 of the box cake mix and make 4 to 6 cupcakes. Now that is a good idea seeing how Bill and I are home alone most of this week, I am on vacation and I would keep eating them if I had them.
I made 4 cupcakes but I also filled the cupcake liners pretty full because I wanted an overflowing cupcake top. I liked that after I frosted them with the white buttercream icing that it looks like snow is falling over the sides. The cupcake is nice and round and the Christmas Tree sits pretty right on top!
After I iced the cupcakes white I rolled the sides of the cupcake in tiny white ball sprinkles. I wanted this to look like snow. Then piped the Christmas Tree on top with a Wilton 1M icing tip. The stars on top are stars cut from glitter paper and glued on the ends of toothpicks. I did buy my star picks on Etsy but if you have a star cutter these could easily be made.
This is a picture of the Carillon Tower. The city of Dayton Decorated it this year for Christmas. The Christmas Tree is 200 feet tall and has 20,000 white lights. Bill, Cally and I went and saw the tree a few weekends ago. We have been experiencing really warm weather for December in Ohio and because of this we had high winds yesterday morning with rain. The high winds have damaged the tree and the lights are now out. Today it has been decided that the tree can not be fixed and has been turned off for the rest of the Christmas season. It is expected to be back up next Christmas. I sure hope the city does put it back up as the tree was a site to see!
Christmas Tree Cupcakes
cupcakes:
1 cup Duncan Hines cake mix
1 egg
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/4 teaspoons oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Put cupcake mixture into cupcake pans with liners. I made 4 cupcakes but you should be able to make 6 cupcakes.
Bake for 17-20 minutes or until cupcakes test done. Cool completely before icing.
Icing:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Crisco
1 teaspoon almond
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk
3 1/2 to 4 cups powder sugar
Beat the butter and Crisco until well combined. Add the almond and vanilla and beat. Slowly add the milk and powder sugar alternately until all is added and desired consistency is reached.
Icing the cupcakes:
Ice cupcakes first with white icing, roll edges of cupcake in white ball sprinkles. Next tint the remaining icing green. Pipe Christmas Trees on top of the cupcakes with Wilton 1M tip. Decorate trees as desired.
