Christmas Tree Cupcakes

This Christmas tree cupcakes recipe will impress everyone around the Christmas table and can be the easiest, most impressive recipe in your Christmas baking repertoire! It is not just easy and fun to make, but also tastes amazing, and is the perfect festive cupcake to please all your family and friends!

This easy Christmas tree shape cupcake recipe consists of a moist and tender chocolate muffin filled with chocolate ganache and decorated with my favorite super light and easily whipped mascarpone cream frosting.

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• 📝 Ingredient notes
• 👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe
• 🎓 Expert tips
• 🎄 More Christmas recipes
• Christmas Tree Cupcakes

📝 Ingredient notes

For the chocolate cupcakes

1. Oil: No butter in this Christmas tree cupcake recipe, but oil, that keeps the cupcakes super moist and fluffy
2. Granulated Sugar: Standard, all purpose granulated or white sugar is perfectly fine in this cupcake recipe, nothing fancy. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my Sugar guide.
3. Egg: Room temperature as always
4. Flour: I am using Cotswold self raising flour for this recipe that I can warmly recommend, it contains just the right amount of baking powder for the perfect rise! If it is not available in your country, use All purpose flour with medium protein content + add baking powder. If you want to be a Pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my Flour guide.
5. Cocoa powder: We use unsweetened, 100% cocoa powder to make these Chocolate Christmas tree cupcakes. Use dutch-process cocoa powder, it has a lovely dark color and it is lower in acidity
6. Salt: An essential ingredient in most dessert recipes. Balances flavor and enhances other ingredients
7. Baking powder: Has two functions: increase the volume and lighten the texture. Only use it if baking with AP flour, do not use it if baking with self-raising flour
8. Milk: Room-temperature whole milk is the best
9. Coffee: If you are not using coffee in your chocolate desserts, you are missing out and I think you should seriously consider trying it. The cupcake itself won’t taste like coffee at all but coffee enhances the taste of chocolate. I recommend brewing a strong espresso type of coffee and using it at room temperature.

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

For the chocolate ganache filling

1. Chocolate: The chocolate filling will be as delicious as the quality of the chocolate you are using. Please use high cocoa content chocolate which you would anyway enjoy eating on its own and avoid using “baking chocolate"
2. Heavy cream: Also known as whipping cream, has a fat content between 36% and 40%, in my recipes, I mostly use 36%.

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

For the green colored whipped mascarpone frosting

1. Mascarpone: Very rich (41%+ fat content) Italian cream cheese, that has a super stable and smooth texture to prepare the frosting for these Christmas cupcakes. Use it cold and the high-fat version.
2. Heavy cream: Same as above, use high-fat (min. 36%) heavy cream, at a cold temperature.
3. Powdered sugar: Icing sugar or powdered sugar is needed to make this frosting
4. Food coloring: Of course, you will need some green food coloring to make Christmas tree cupcakes! Make sure to use powder or gel food coloring, liquid coloring can easily break the consistency of the frosting. Alternatively, if wanted to add taste too, not just color, 100% pistachio paste or matcha powder can be used to achieve green color but it would majorly impact the taste obviously. The depth of the color is usually in line with the quality of the coloring whether it is food coloring or pistachio paste or matcha

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe

1. How to make chocolate cupcakes

The process of making chocolate cupcakes for the base of the Christmas cupcakes recipe is super simple:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175C / 347 F (no fan)
2. Prepare a Cupcake tin with 6 tall muffin cases
3. With the help of a Hand whisk, whisk wet ingredients: room temperature egg, oil, milk, and coffee just until combined
4. Sift dry ingredients: Cotswold self raising flour , cocoa powder, salt and sugar and whisk with Hand whisk
5. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix the batter with a Hand whisk just until combined. Very important that you do not overwork the batter. This whole process literally should come together in 3 min
6. Fill cupcake cases till ¾. This recipe makes 6 tall, baker-style cupcakes
7. Bake for 23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake comes out clean
8. Cool the cupcakes to room temp before filling and frosting them and turning them into showstopper Christmas tree cupcakes

💡 Top Tip: Make sure all your wet ingredients are at room temperature to properly emulsify eg. eggs, milk, coffee, etc.

2. How to make the chocolate ganache filling to fill the Christmas tree cupcake

I love filling my cupcakes, it is just a lovely great addition in terms of flavor and texture. These Christmas tree cupcakes will be filled with an amazing silky chocolate ganache that is unbelievably easy and contains only two ingredients: cream and chocolate.

The process of making chocolate ganache filling

1. Place finely chopped chocolate into a bowl, try to use high-quality chocolate that has a pleasant taste and is not too sweet
2. Heat heavy cream until just simmering then pour the warm cream over the chopped chocolate
3. Let the two sit for a minute, the cream will semi-melt the chocolate, then stir them together or use a blender to emulsify
4. Let the ganache cool for 30 minutes and use it according to the recipe. The ganache will thicken as it cools

💡 Top Tip: Important that you heat the heavy cream until just simmering. If it’s boiling, the cream is too hot and could burn the chocolate. If the cream is not warm enough, it won´t melt the chocolate properly and won’t emulsify.

3. How to make the Christmas tree shape cupcake frosting

I am using my favorite mascarpone frosting; it is heavy cream, mascarpone, and a small amount of icing sugar whipped until fluffy, pipeable consistency. My mascarpone cupcake frosting is way more creamy and delicious than buttercream and most importantly not overly sweet.

Using the right ingredients at the right temperature is extremely important.

1. mascarpone has to be cold, use the full-fat version (41%+) 2. heavy creamy needs to be very cold (pop it into the freezer for a few minutes before using it) and again, full-fat version so anywhere between 36-40% 3. powdered sugar has to be sifting to avoid lumps 4. do not over whip the mixture

Whip all ingredients with an electric hand mixer for a minute or two until it reaches a creamy, fluffy consistency then stop. It won´t get stiffer after this point, in fact, if you overbeat it, it will get only runnier then it will break.

💡 Top Tip: For the green version of frosting, it is important that you mix food coloring in before the frosting reaches its final consistency, otherwise, there is a risk that you will overbeat the mixture. Use high-quality gel or powder, avoid liquid coloring as that can break the frosting.

4. How to assemble the Christmas tree cupcakes

I recommend making the cupcakes first and letting them completely cool down.

Prepare the chocolate ganache filling, let it also slightly cool = thicken before filling the cupcakes.

Make a small hole on top of each of the cupcakes and fill them with chocolate ganache. Pop it into the fridge/freezer for a few minutes to set.

Prepare the white frosting as per instructions and pipe it on top of each cupcake. Pop it into the fridge/freezer for a few minutes to set.

Then prepare the green frosting and pipe the Christmas tree pattern on top of each of the cupcakes, I am using Wilton 1M piping nozzle tip for the decoration.

💡 Top Tip: Decorate the Xmas tree cupcakes with sprinkles and dust with icing sugar, if desired, for the ultimate festive Christmas look!

🎓 Expert tips

1. Always use room-temperature ingredients for making these Xmas tree cupcakes.
2. Do not over-mix the cupcake batter. the dry ingredients should be gently mixed in without over-mixing the batter
3. Do not overfill your cupcake tin. For this cupcake recipe, I recommend filling each cup of your cupcake tin ¾ full. The recipe is designed to make 6 tall cupcakes. Cupcake liners come in different sizes in terms of their height, so try to buy the taller ones. My cupcake case is 35mm / 1.3 inch in height and 65mm / 2.5inch in diameter.  If you overfill your cupcake tin it will result in “mushroom-style” cupcakes!
4. When using food coloring, avoid cheap supermarket liquid food coloring and aim for high-quality gel or powder food coloring that creates a bright color without needing to use a lot of it.
5. Mascarpone frosting is very easy to overwhip. When whipping the frosting stop as soon as the mixture has reached a fluffy consistency (this will take 1-2 minutes). It won't get any stiffer after this point. In fact, if you overbeat it, it will get only runnier and then break.

🎄 More Christmas recipes