Cute Christmas Trees Cupcakes recipe

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well between each addition and scraping down the side of the mixing bowl from time to time. Add the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and add to the mixture in alternate batches with the buttermilk. Mix until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/ 350˚F/Gas Mark 4. Place 12 brown paper cupcake cases in a muffin tin and fill the cases two-thirds full with the Buttermilk Sponge mixture. Put the muffin tin on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden, well risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack. Put three-quarters of the Meringue Buttercream in a bowl and tint it green using the food-colouring paste to make frosting. Spread some of the untinted mix over the top of each cupcake.

Using a piping bag with medium-sized, star-shaped nozzle filled with the green frosting work from the centre of the cakes and pipe pointed branch shapes towards the edges of the cupcake. Keep doing this, turning the cupcake as you go, until you have created the bottom of a tree. Repeat with the next layer up, making the branches shorter. Do more layers, making the branches shorter as you get to the top. Decorate with the glitter, sugar balls and top with a sugar star.

Put the sugar and egg whites in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until it reaches at least 60˚C/140˚F on a sugar thermometer. Pour into a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or use an electric whisk and bowl). Beat until the mixture has doubled in volume, cooled and will stand in stiff peaks – this will take about 3 minutes. Gradually add the butter to the cooled meringue mix, beating constantly, until the frosting is smooth. Fold in the vanilla and use immediately.