Chocolate Buttercream Christmas Tree Cake

Emma and I made a Chocolate Buttercream cake for Mike's birthday.   Mike is a fan of the classics - chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies and brownies - so for his birthday, we thought a classic chocolate cake with homemade buttercream would be perfect.

We've become fascinated by Culinary Dots cakes - I've never seen anything quite like them.   She recently made a cake with a Christmas Tree in the center that Emma thought would be fun to try.  I made the cake and frosted it with the buttercream (recipe below), and she made the Tree 100% by herself.

 She started with an ice cream cone as the base, then added green buttercream.

While Culinary Dots makes vegan treats... we used a boxed cake mix and this wonderful Homemade Chocolate Buttercream.  I made the cakes in these 8" cake pans.


8" x 3" Cake Pans, $8

Chocolate Buttercream

1 stick of butter, melted
1 1/2 cups of cocoa
1/2 cup of milk (plus more)
2 sticks of butter, softened
5-6 cups of powdered sugar (plus maybe more)
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a glass bowl, melt 1 stick of butter in the microwave.  Add cocoa and milk and microwave for 1 more minute, stir to mix.

In a mixer, cream 2 sticks of butter and powdered sugar.  Add cocoa mixture slowly.  Add vanilla.   Mix on high for 2 minutes.  Add more milk or powdered sugar until the desired consistency.

We made a simple butter frosting for the green frosting and decorations.

1 stick of softened butter

2 cups of powdered sugar

Creamed together until smooth.

We topped the entire cake with a sprinkling of powdered sugar snow.

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Holiday Baking Collection | Hew Copper Cookie Cutters & Easy Baked Gift Ideas

Each season I select a collection of Handmade Copper Cookie Cutters for the Holidays.  This year's new addition is the Gingerbread Man.  

I can't wait to make him with this Gingerbread Recipe and decorate with Cream Cheese frosting and sprinkles like we did in this photo.  I might even make some to dry as ornaments and string them as a garland - how sweet would that be?

While I love iced sugar cookies, decorating doesn't have to be fancy - or even require any skill.  These were delicious and beautiful and so easy to make.  Here are my baking essentials (all recently restocked) that will make holiday baking simple :

Holiday Baking Essentials :

Parchment Paper, $10 for 100

Large Baking Sheet, $8

Small Baking Sheet, $7

Disposable Piping Bags, $14-18 for 100

Copper Cookie Cutters, $15.50-24

Cookie Boxes

Cello Bags

Gingerbread Man Copper Cutter, $15

Reindeer Copper Cookie Cutter, $15

These Gingerbread House are so much fun to make - and so much easier than making actual gingerbreads.

Gingerbread House Copper Cookie Cutters, Set of 2, $24.50

Gingerbread Houses Recipe & Decorating, here >

This year the Classic Budded Snowflake is back.  This shape has been one of my favorites since Martha Stewart carried one for Martha By Mail 15 years ago.

Snowflake Copper Cookie Cutter, $15

This is my favorite way to decorate snowflakes - with shimmering sanding sugar accenting.

They make such a pretty display with Ginger Spice Cookies.

I am making these tonight!  Just so, so good and really tastes and smells so much like Christmas should.

Ginger Spice Cookies

The Christmas Star Bread was everyone's favorite last year.  I am looking forward to making a new version this year - maybe with chocolate or a savory version?  I absolutely love this star bread.

Christmas Star Bread >

Look at all of those yummy layers sprinkled with powdered sugar.

This is the Large Cookie Box, lined with parchment paper.

I shared this Chocolate Bark recipe last week - can't wait to make a new version of this, too, with sprinkles, marshmallows and tiny chocolate chips.

Holiday Baking Essentials :

Parchment Paper, $10 for 100

Large Baking Sheet, $8

Small Baking Sheet, $7

Disposable Piping Bags, $14-18 for 100

Copper Cookie Cutters, $15.50-24

Cookie Boxes

Cello Bags

New Holiday Baking Ideas! Christmas Star Bread & Easy Homemade Gifts

Hello, friends.  It is good to be back here with new ideas for you!   I had intended to make all of these projects last month... but, here we are the 1st of December : )  It was oh so nice to be back in the kitchen today baking and creating after a super busy month with the store.  I hope these recipes and ideas find you with plenty of time to make some beautiful and yummy homemade gifts for your friends, neighbors, teachers, co-workers and family. 

Now, onto my latest obsession...

Christmas Star Bread

Oh my goodness!  I have been itching to make the for months.  I came across it on pinterest from Taste of Home and just had to know how to make it.  Isn't it just beautiful?  I am completely stunned by it.  Turns out - it is the simplest thing in the world.  Not kidding.  As in, I'm hoping to do it as a project with Emma's class soon, so simple.   It is just circles of dough, layered with filling (I used cinnamon, but raspberry jam or Nutella are also great), then cut and twisted.  OMG I am so excited about this!  The step-by-step details are below.  

I also put together some more super simple ideas for easy Homemade Hostess Gifts.  Aren't these lovely?   I used a new product added to the store today - Horizontal Print Tea Towels. As most of you know, this was my first time designing and ordering hand block printed linens.  Well, I've learned a lot!  One of the "mistakes" was when half of the tea towels showed up with the pattern going horizontal instead of vertical.  Not a big deal, but different.  However, like all great mistakes, they actually make great wraps for gifts.  I just love how they add to these gifts, and then can be used by the recipient.  

Both Options are available, traditional vertical, $8 and horizontal, $6... since they were a mistake : ) 

More details for making these are at the end of the post.  

Now, back to the Christmas Star Bread!

Christmas Star Bread

The original recipe can be found here, Taste Of Home.

makes 2 - 8" stars



1 packaged active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)
3/4 cup warm milk
1 large egg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 to 4 cups of flour
...
3 tablespoons of butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
...
powdered sugar

Dissolve yeast in the warm water.  In another bowl, mix together milk egg, butter, sugar, and salt.  Add yeast and water mix, then add flour.

Kneed in the mixer (or by hand) for 6-8  minutes until smooth dough forms.  Place in a greased bowl, covered with damp warm towel and let rise in a warm spot until doubled.  About 1 hour.

It starts with a sweet bread dough recipe.  It is very easy to stir together, kneeds in the kitchen aid, then let rise for an hour.  (The full recipe is below, later in the post)

This is the dough after rising an hour.   

Punch dough down and turn out onto floured surface.  

I divided the dough into 2 portions, put 1 half in the fridge to use for another batch, then cut the 2nd half into 4 sections.  Was that too confusing?  Basically, this recipe makes enough for 2 of Stars.  I put 1/2 away to make one later with Emma, and am using the other 1/2 to make one here.

The 4 sections need to be rolled out into circles about 7-8 inches in diameter.  I planned to put mine in the 9" Square Cookie Box, so I made sure it would fit in there.

Start by placing the first round on a Parchment lined Baking Sheet.

Each layer gets brushed with melted butter, then sprinkled with Cinnamon and Sugar.

Sorry for the blurry pic.

This is the pastry brush that comes in the Baker's Gift Tin.  I've never had a round pastry brush, but I really liked it.

I used a measuring cup to make an impression of a circle in the center, so guide my cuts.

Make 12 slits in the dough all the way around.

Twist each section once, turning two pieces together, so they point in to each other.  

See how turning two strips into each other, they create the star?

Repeat again and pinch the points together.

So pretty!

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Look at all of those yummy layers!

This is the Large Cookie Box, lined with parchment paper.

I mean... so, so cute.

I wrapped mine with Copper Ribbon (sorry, no longer available), a Red Laurel Wreath Tag and a sprig of cedar.  

Products Pictured : 

-Large Cookie Boxes, 5 for $8
-Parchment Paper

-Red Laurel Wreath Tags

-Leaf Tea Towel (I included this with my gift, bundled underneath the box)

-Ribbon

-Brown LePens

This is super simple and you don't have to actually make anything - but isn't it charming?

I used got two baguettes (these are from target!!!) and had a jar of my Dad's Blackberry Jam. 

To wrap, I used on the of the new Horizontal Tea Towels, Cream Ribbon, Wheat Laurel Wreath Tags (recently restocked), and a sprig of cedar from our tree outside.

This is an idea that I made for Emma's teacher for Thanksgiving.  Here, I've made another version with a more Christmasy look.  It contains Pumpkin Bread and Honey Butter.  You could totally buy the bread to make life easier.

Products Used : 

Horizontal Tea Towel (Slate Wreath)
Large Baking Basket
Parchment Paper
Medium Kraft Loaf Pan
Ribbon & Tags (Burnt Caramel Tags)

Yum - that honey butter!

For the more Christmasy version, I used the Slate Wreath Tea Towel, Gold Ribbon & Caramel Tags.

Happy Hostess Gifting!