‘Tis this season to be jolly, ‘tis also the season to be feasting on some scrumptious bites. Kate Cunich whips up some Pinterest-inspired Christmas treats recipes perfect for party food and playdates for the festive season ahead.
Christmas Tree Cupcakes
Makes 4
Decorating time: 15 minutes
You will need
4 cupcakes
1 batch of green buttercream icing
Multi coloured sprinkles
Mini candy stars
Piping bag
Wilton piping tip #2D or #1M, or any large open star piping tip
Method
Fill your piping bag with the green icing, taking care to shake out any air bubbles before you begin your trees.
Starting from the centre of the cupcake, pipe a swirl which overlaps three times to form the shape of a tree, just like the Santa hats!
Sprinkle straight away with multi coloured sprinkles, I used two different types. You could also use silver or colourful balls if you prefer. I also added some gold edible glitter to mine.
For the star, you can either buy candy stars in most baking shops or you can use fondant and a mini star cookie cutter to create a similar effect.
Cornflake Wreaths
Makes 18 wreaths
Prep: 5 minutes , Cook: 5 minutes
You will need
115g unsalted butter
30 large marshmallows
1 tbsp green food colouring
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g cornflakes
Silver balls for decoration
Cooking spray
Method
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat.
Add the marshmallows to the melted butter and keep stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth.
Add the vanilla extract and the green food colouring, stir to combine.
Add the cornflakes and stir the mixture constantly until the cornflakes are evenly coated.
Place a large piece of baking paper on your work space and spray it lightly with cooking spray.
Remove the saucepan from the stove and quickly form the mixture into wreath shapes on the parchment, be careful because they will be quite hot! You can use clean washing up gloves to protect your hands if you like.
While the wreaths are still warm and sticky, place the silver balls on top of the wreaths, you can use any colour balls for these if you don’t have silver.
Frozen Banana Penguins
Makes two banana penguins
Decorating time: 15 minutes, Freeze: 2 hours
You will need
2 bananas
100g dark chocolate
3 orange M&Ms
4 edible eyes
Method
Start by melting the chocolate. Place it in a microwave-safe bowl and put it in the microwave on high for 1 minute and then stir, if it isn’t completely melted just put it back in the microwave for another 10 seconds and stir again. Repeat until completely melted.
Peel the bananas and dip them in the chocolate until the top and sides are covered.
Cut the M&Ms in half and stick them on as feet and noses while the chocolate is still runny and also stick the eyes on. If you can’t get your hands on edible eyes, you can use white confetti sprinkles – as I have – and use a toothpick to create the pupil with some melted chocolate.
You can then either put them on BBQ skewers to put in the freezer or you can spray a baking sheet with oil so they can come off easily once frozen. Freeze for at least two hours.
Cupcakes
Use your favourite cupcake recipe as a base for these easy-peasy Christmas-inspired decorations. I like to use Hummingbird Bakery’s chocolate cupcake recipe and the vanilla buttercream recipe for the icing! I made 12 cupcakes and decorated four for each theme.
Santa Hat Cupcakes
Makes 4
Decorating time: 15 minutes
You will need
4 cupcakes
1 batch of red buttercream icing
½ batch of white buttercream icing
Piping bag
Wilton piping tip #1A, or any large open star piping tip
4 Mini marshmallows
Method
Fill your piping bag with the red icing, make sure you shake out any air bubbles before you start piping.
Starting from the centre of the cupcake, pipe a swirl which overlaps three times to form the shape of Santa’s hat. Repeat this on each cupcake.
Fill another piping bag with the white icing, using the same piping tip. Neatly pipe small stars around the base of the hat and then place a mini marshmallow on top.
Snowman Cupcakes
Makes 4
Decorating time: 30 minutes
You will need
4 cupcakes
1 batch of white buttercream icing
Black gel food colouring
4 long orange sprinkles
4 marshmallows
Silver balls for buttons
Pocky for arms
Method
Cover the top of the cupcakes with a generous amount of white buttercream icing, leaving a very small amount for the facial features. Try to make the surface as smooth as possible. At this point, I sprinkled the icing with some white edible glitter but this is optional.
Now it’s time to draw the faces on the snowmen! Colour the left-over icing with the black food colouring. Take a marshmallow and use a toothpick to draw the features on – black dots for mouth and eyes.
Using a clean toothpick, poke a hole in the middle of the face for the nose and stick a long orange sprinkle inside for the nose.
Place the marshmallow head on top of the cupcake, it doesn’t have to be very neat as the snowman is supposed to be half melted!
Then, use three silver balls to make the snowman’s buttons. Repeat this process for all the cupcakes.
Finally, take the Pocky sticks and break them up into short pieces (no more than 4cm) and stick them into the sides of the cupcakes for the arms.
Strawberry Santa Hats
Makes 20 Santa Hats
Decorating time: 20 minutes
You will need
20 strawberries, preferably of similar sizes
60g white chocolate
1tsp canola oil
25g fine desiccated coconut
20 mini marshmallows
Method
Cut off the top of each strawberry to create a flat base. Put the coconut in a bowl and line a tray with baking paper.
Break up chocolate and place into microwavable bowl. The bowl shouldn’t be too big because you want the melted chocolate to be about 1cm deep to dip the strawberries into.
Melt the chocolate on high for 1 minute and then stir, if it isn’t completely melted just put it back in the microwave for another 10 seconds and stir again. Repeat this until completely melted.
Add the oil and mix through the melted chocolate well to make it thinner and easier to dip the strawberries into. This step isn’t necessary, if you don’t have canola oil you can just put the chocolate back in the microwave for 10 seconds if it gets too thick.
Dip the flat end of the strawberry into the chocolate so that about half a cm is covered. Then, sprinkle the coconut onto the chocolate with a spoon before it solidifies.
Place on the tray and then repeat this process for every strawberry.
To finish them off, put a small amount of melted chocolate onto the tip of the strawberries then stick the mini marshmallows on.
BIO – Kate Cunich is founder of Kate’s Sweet Treats
This article appeared in Playtimes December Issue 2017.
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