Christmas Tree Cake (A Showstopper Recipe!)
An elaborate and festive recipe for a showstopper ‘Christmas Tree Cake.’ This impressive, multi-layered dessert is constructed by baking three large, green-tinted sheet cakes using a convenient cake mix base. The cakes are then cut into progressively smaller squares, which are stacked in an offset pattern to create a three-dimensional Christmas tree shape. The ‘tree’ is decorated with green Swiss meringue buttercream, piped to resemble pine needles, and adorned with edible ‘snow,’ candy ‘lights,’ and a homemade melted-candy star topper.
Ingredients
- For the Cake:
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Three 15.25-ounce boxes white cake mix
- Three 3.4-ounce packages instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 12 large egg whites
- Forest green gel food coloring
- For the Frosting:
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Pinch of fine salt
- 6 large egg whites
- 4 1/2 sticks (18 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Leaf green gel food coloring
- For the Decorations:
- 3 tablespoons desiccated coconut
- White nonpareils
- 18 white gumdrops
- 36 candy-coated chocolates with almonds or peanuts
- 2 clear mint hard candies, crushed
Instructions
- Make the Cake Layers: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and line three 18×13-inch baking sheets.
- In a stand mixer, combine the cake mixes and pudding mixes. Add the oil, egg whites, 2 1/4 cups of water, and about 20 drops of green food coloring. Mix on low, then increase to medium and mix for about 5 minutes until smooth.
- Divide the batter among the three prepared pans. Bake for about 15 minutes. Let the cakes cool completely, then freeze for 30 minutes until firm.
- Make the Frosting: Make a Swiss meringue buttercream. Whisk the sugar, lemon juice, salt, and egg whites in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until the sugar dissolves.
- Transfer to a stand mixer and beat on medium-high speed for 10-15 minutes, until the meringue is cool and holds stiff peaks.
- Gradually beat in the room-temperature butter until the frosting comes together. Beat in the vanilla and green food coloring until you have a vibrant green color.
- Assemble the Tree: Cut the frozen cakes into squares of specific, decreasing sizes (e.g., 9-inch, 8-inch, 7-inch, etc.) according to the recipe’s detailed cutting guide.
- Begin stacking the cake squares on a large cake board, starting with the largest (9-inch) on the bottom. Spread a layer of frosting between each square, offsetting the corners as you stack them in decreasing size order to create a tree shape.
- Insert a long wooden skewer down the center of the cake for support.
- Transfer the remaining frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small fluted tip. Pipe rows of ‘leaves’ in a downward motion to cover all the exposed cake surfaces.
- Decorate: Dust the ‘tree’ with desiccated coconut and white nonpareils for a ‘snowy’ effect. Create ‘lights’ by attaching candy-coated chocolates to halved gumdrops and pressing them into the frosting.
- For the star topper, melt crushed mint candies inside a small, greased star-shaped cookie cutter in a 300°F oven for 4-6 minutes. Let it cool, then place it on top of the cake.
Notes
- Special Equipment: This is an advanced project requiring three 18×13-inch baking sheets, a stand mixer, a piping bag with tips, a star cookie cutter, and a long wooden skewer.
- This is a showstopper dessert that requires significant time for baking, cooling, freezing, and assembly. It is best to plan this as a multi-day project.
- The frosting is a Swiss meringue buttercream, which involves a specific technique of heating egg whites and sugar.
- Freezing the cake layers before cutting is a key step that makes it much easier to get clean, precise squares.
Find it online: https://www.eatswithsoul.com/christmas-tree-cake/