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| Oh Christmas Tree |
Last year I made gingerbread Christmas trees for Elizabeth's teachers. I decided to go one step further this year, and make 3D edible Christmas trees.
Gingerbread Ingredients - I got this recipe from the cookbook that came with my Andrew James food mixer
- 1 medium egg
- 305g plain flour
- 1tsp bicarb of soda
- 3tsp ground ginger
- 115g soft butter
- 175g soft brown sugar
- 4tbsp golden syrup
Method
- Preheat the oven to 165 (fan)
- Break the egg into a cup and lightly whisk it
- Add flour, bicarb, ginger to a bowl. Add the butter and mix it until it looks like breadcrumbs.
- Add the sugar and mix.
- Add the egg and syrup and mix. The recipe says to mix it until it becomes a soft dough, but I find it works better doing this part by hand.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out to a thickness of about 5mm. Cut out the shapes you need. I made my own template for the Christmas Trees.
- Lift onto a lightly oiled/greased baking sheet. I use a silicon sheet and I don't need to grease it, they come off really easily.
- Bake for about 12-15 minutes until pale golden brown.
- Leave them to cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet. Then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely. When cold, decorate as you like.
- I had to do a bit of trimming because the mixture spread a little in the oven. When I did this when they were fresh, it was difficult to do, because they were crunchy and some parts just snapped off. When I completed the job the next day it was much easier as the biscuits had softened a little.
- The 3D trees were covered in green icing and I added small colourful sprinkles to look like Christmas lights. I then "potted" them in a chocolate cupcake and covered the cake in white chocolate buttercream icing.
Chocolate cupcakes ingredients - Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery
- 115g dark chocolate (70% cocoa or more)
- 85g unsalted butter, at room temp
- 175g soft brown sugar
- 2 large eggs separated
- 185g plain flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp bicarb of soda
- Pinch of salt
- 250ml semi skimmed milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170 (fan) and line a muffin tray with cupcake cases
- Melt the chocolate - I do it in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time and stirring between. Leave it to cool slightly.
- In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth (a few minutes with an electric mixer).
- In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks until they are paler in colour and creamy. Add the eggs to the large bow and mix. Then add the melted chocolate and mix.
- Combine the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
- Put the milk in a jug and add the vanilla extract.
- Add one third of the flour to the chocolate mixture, mix. Pour in one third of the milk mixture and mix. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.
- In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form.
- Carefully fold the egg whites into the batter using a metal spoon.
- Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about two thirds full.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes.
- To check they are cooked, insert a skewer into the centre of one of the cakes - it should come out clean.
- Remove from the oven. Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes. Then remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
White Chocolate Buttercream icing ingredients
- 55g unsalted butter at room temp
- 30ml semi-skimmed milk at room temp
- 1/2 tsp canilla extract
- 250g icing sugar
- 100g white chocolate melted
- 3tbsp double cream
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, milk, vanilla and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
- Gradually aff the remainder of the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
- Add the cooled melted chocolate and cream to the buttercream mixture and beat until again smooth and creamy.
For the finishing touches I put the Christmas trees into small potting pots that I bought off amazon.
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