Tutorial Tuesday: Easy Meringue Christmas Trees!

Hurrah! Christmas is coming! Whilst this is ever so exciting we understand that whipping up (pun fully intended due to the nature of this blog post) festive treats for the holiday season need to be both striking yet stress-free. That’s why for our collection of Christmas cake, cupcake and cookie decorating tutorials and recipes we’ve tried our best to keep them simple. This week we begin our festive series with some delightfully easy Meringue Christmas Trees!

How to whip up easy Meringue Christmas Trees…

Easy meringue Christmas trees recipe and tutorial

Meringue Christmas Trees

Ingredients needed

  • 60g egg whites (room temperature works best)
  • 120g caster sugar (this needs to be caster sugar as it dissolves perfectly in a meringue)
  • Green gel or paste food colour

Note: As a general rule you need double the amount of caster sugar to egg whites so if you need to make a large bowl of meringue keep this in mind!

Materials needed

  • Piping bag
  • 828 Ateco piping tip
  • Cookie sheet/tray or any flat baking tray
  • Parchment paper or silicone baking mat
  • Clean kitchen paper towels
  • Lemon juice

Meringue recipe

Step 1:

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 2/300F/170C and line a flat baking try with either parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Step 2:

In the lemon juice wiped (this rids any fat residue with can make a meringue seriously fail) bowl on a stand-up mixer add your room temperature egg whites and whisk on high speed for a few minutes or until lovely stiff peaks are formed! 

Step 3:

Add in your food coloring and mix for around 20 seconds or until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if your egg whites begin to look a little ‘clumpy’ or if they all seem to congregate inside your whisk. Adding the sugar next ‘loosens’ them.

Step 4:

Gradually add in your caster sugar a tablespoon at a time as you whisk on high until glossy, stiff peaks form.

Pipes meringue Christmas trees

Step 5:

Fill a piping bag fitted with a 828 piping tip with your green meringue mix and shake the bag down to rid yourself of any unwanted air bubbles.

Step 6:

Pipe a row of Christmas trees at least 2 inches apart on your tray. To do this simply pip as your would with  cupcake buttercream/frosting yet a little taller.

Step 7: 

Place in the oven on the lowest rack for around 1 hour. To prevent the tops from browning add a thin sheet of foil to the top tray of your oven and increase your baking time to 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Step 8:

When baked remove and set aside to cool. You can then work on some decorations like fondant/sugar paste stars using rolled out fondant or sugar paste icing, some star shaped cutters and a little pearlescent, gold or silver lustre dust! Attach any extra decorations on with a tiny dab of melted white chocolate and you should be left with a miniature forest of festive trees.

Recipe for meringue Christmas tree cake toppers

There are lots of fabulous ways you can use these adorable edible Christmas trees for holiday treats. We added ours on top of a red velvet cake smothered with rustic and white cream cheese buttercream before dusting them lightly with a little icing sugar to create a quaint snowy scene. 

Simple meringue Christmas tree desserts

Some great ideas on how you could decorate cakes and cupcakes with your easy Meringue Christmas Trees are to nestle them on top of tasty cupcakes, add them around the edges of a freshly baked and iced cake, or your could even serve them up on a silver platter just as they are!

 

After Dinner Mint Cake with The Happy Egg Co. Eggs!

Hurrah! Christmas is now just around the corner and as we all prepare for evenings adorned with festive lights, cosy mulled wine and hours of Christmas TV specials why shouldn’t we also treat ourselves to a generous slice of cake too! Every month we create a delicious recipe using eggs from The Happy Egg Co. for you to re-create and enjoy at home. This month’s is a simple yet decadent treat inspired by every dinner host’s crowd pleaser; the After Dinner Mint. We absolutely adore the sweet and creamy chocolate paired with the fresh zing of peppermint; enjoy with a glass of ice cold milk or a steaming hot mug of coffee to help de-stress after all that Christmas shopping!

After Dinner Mint Cake by Juniper Cakery

After Dinner Mint Cake by Juniper Cakery

Basic Chocolate Cake (makes approximately 2 x 2″ layers of an 8″ diameter round cake)

453g self raising flour
453g butter
453g caster sugar
7 eggs
3 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder mixed in a paste with  boiling water
1 teaspoon baking powder

The Happy Egg Co. Eggs

Cream your butter in a mixer then add the sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the happy eggs for around one minute. Once half of the happy eggs are combined add the remaining eggs along with the cocoa paste and baking powder. Mix for about 5 minutes.

Pour batter in the pan until 2/3 full and place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at Gas Mark 3/325F/170C. Bake for around 30 minutes. Repeat this step to create your second layer.

Chocolate and Peppermint Buttercream Recipe

500g diced/chopped butter at room temperature
300-400g icing sugar (keep testing when adding to make sure it is the consistency and sweetness you like)
6-12 drops of peppermint extract
100g melted dark chocolate
1 heaped tablespoon cocoa powder

Add half of the of butter into your mixer and cream. Then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Add in the melted chocolate and cocoa powder then add the peppermint extract to taste.

For more hints and tips see our tutorial on how to make buttercream here.

After Dinner Mint Cake by Juniper Cakery

Decoration-wise you can keep the look of your cake plain and simple or flex your decorating muscles with fondant elves and snow people. We created some large green trees with candy melts and some green gel paste food colouring. Simply pipe the melted candy melts onto parchment paper on a flat tray and chill until hard. We also created some subtle ridges in our chocolate buttercream and dusted the top with icing sugar to create the look of a mountainous snow sprinkled background.

After Dinner Mint Cake by Juniper Cakery

Once finished you should find yourself left with one tempting cake. Remember to try to save at least half for everyone else to fight over.

Happy Holidays!

 

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