Candy Melt Christmas Tree Cake – a super cute and simple rustic cake design perfect for the holiday season!
I posted this Candy Melt Christmas Tree Cake on my Instagram last week and was blown away at the response it received. So, I decided to write out a step by step guide with everything you need to make it! It’s not hard at all and the perfect design for a holiday or winter themed cake!
What you will need
A cake – I conveniently had some cake layers in the freezer from a recipe test, so that’s what I used. My cake was a three layer 6 inch cake, but any size will work. Depending on the size of the cake, you would just adjust the amount of trees you make.
If you are looking for a simple vanilla cake recipe, you can check out my Classic Vanilla Layer Cake.
Buttercream – You will need buttercream to frost and stack your cake. My Perfect Vanilla Buttercream is an American buttercream that is great for frosting and piping.
Candy sticks – You will need these to make the tree trunks. I used these by Wilton. You can buy a variety of sizes or just get the smaller ones and tape them together with clear tape to make some longer ones. If you don’t care about the colour, skewer sticks would probably work fine too!
Candy melts – These will be what you make the trees out of. I like using Wilton’s candy melts. You can buy them in different colours or colour them yourself. I usually just get the white ones and colour them myself. If colouring them yourself, you want to make sure that you have an oil-based food colour or that you add a little bit of oil to the candy melts before adding the colour. Otherwise, they will seize.
The amount of candy melts you will need will depend on how many trees you are making. I made 7 trees and used about 1/2 cup for each colour of candy melts.
Squeeze bottles – I find squeeze bottles like these to be easiest for creating the trees. You can also use a piping bag with a small round tip.
Sprinkles – To fancy up your trees! Sweetapolita is usually my go to.
Parchment paper – Piping your trees out on parchment paper will make it easy to peel them off once they have chilled.
How to make a Candy Melt Christmas Tree Cake
Step 1:
Stack and frost your cake. To get the snowy rustic look, I used an offset spatula and frosted the buttercream on in all different directions. I also left the top edges unfinished. Once frosted, store in the fridge to keep chilled.
Step 2:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Make sure it is big enough to hold all of your trees. You might need two baking sheets.
Step 3:
Prepare your sticks. The size of your cake will determine how many trees will fit on it and how many sticks you will need. My cake was a three layer 6 inch cake and I fit 7 trees on it. I did 4 trees with long sticks and 3 trees with small sticks. For the long sticks I just taped two small sticks together at the center with clear tape. Once all of your sticks are prepared, set them on your lined baking sheets.
Step 4:
Prepare your candy melts. If you are using coloured candy melts, put each colour in a separate microwave safe dish and microwave for 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between. If you microwave them for too long they will seize. Once melted and smooth, pour it into the squeeze bottle or into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
If you are using white candy melts and colouring them yourself, add the oil-based food colour once they are fully melted and mix in. If you do not have oil-based food colour, once the candy melts are melted, add about 1 teaspoon of canola or vegetable oil per cup of candy melts and then add your food colour. Mix in well. If there is no oil in the mix when you add the colouring, the mixture will seize and you will not be able to pipe with it!
Step 5:
Pipe your trees. With your squeeze bottle or piping bag, slowly pipe out the trees by gently squeezing on the bottle and moving it back and forth in a zig zag pattern across the stick. Start with smaller zig zags at the top of the tree and gradually get larger as you move toward the base. You can go over it a couple times so that it is thick and will not break once chilled.
You will want some different sized trees. Pipe a few that are large and a few medium sized on the longer sticks and some small ones on the small sticks.
Step 6:
Decorate your trees with sprinkles!
Step 7:
Let the trees chill for about an hour in the fridge.
Step 8:
Once the trees are chilled you can put them on the cake. Start with the larger trees at the back of the cake. Put one in the middle farthest back, and then one on either side and a little in front. These trees should be the tallest so push them in just enough that they don’t fall over, but still have some height to them. You want to create layers and levels to give the feel of a forest. Take the medium sized trees and do the same thing with them in front of the large trees. Push them down a little bit more so they are lower than the large trees. Lastly, put the small trees in front of the medium trees. These ones should be pushed in the farthest and the lowest of them all.
There you have it! A beautiful, wintery holiday cake! These candy melt Christmas trees would also be super cute cupcake toppers! If you are looking for some holiday cupcake recipes, here are a couple to try!
White Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes
If you try out this cake design, let me know! Tag me on Instagram @cremedelacombe. I love seeing when you try my recipes and designs and would be happy to share them!
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