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Buttercream Christmas Trees 5 Ways

Baking Tutorials • Lifestyle | Published December 19, 2024 by Mimi Council

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Learn how to pipe buttercream Christmas trees five different ways! In this easy tutorial, I’m walking you through how to add buttercream Christmas trees to cookies, cakes, cupcakes, or brownies this holiday season.

If you want more Christmas recipes, be sure to check out some of my other favorites like Eggnog Sheet Cake, Gingerbread Snack Cake, or Easy Christmas Present Brownies.

Why You’ll Love This Technique
Ingredients
Tools Needed
Step by Step Instructions
How to Use
Baker’s Tips
FAQ's
Craving More?

While I’m not a huge decorator, Christmas has my heart when it comes to taking a little extra time to decorate desserts! I’m usually a firm believer that spending too much time on something that you will just eat is absolutely nuts. But I can’t not do a little something extra around the holidays!

So, I’m going to show you how to pipe Christmas trees with a simple buttercream frosting. This technique is easy, quick, and it can make cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and brownies more festive. Plus, you can use organic dyes, making this a natural way to celebrate the holidays without any artificial colors. So, let’s learn how to pipe Christmas trees with my easy tutorial!

Why You’ll Love This Technique

Easy AF: I’m using 3 different techniques that are all incredibly easy! I also have a video so you can see exactly how these are piped.

Festive: This is a simple way to be festive around the holidays! You can add these buttercream Christmas trees to any kind of desserts. Everything from cakes to cookies, I have instructions on how to add them below.

Quick: This decorating technique is quick and simple. I don’t like to spend a ton of time decorating desserts. But, during the holidays it can be fun to slow down a bit and add some festive flair! So, this technique is quick and easy! Once you learn how to pipe Christmas trees, it just adds a few extra minutes to making your desserts that much more festive!

Ingredients

Butter or Shortening: I usually use Organic Valley Salted Butter in my buttercream, but you can also use organic vegetable shortening if you are vegan or simply don’t want to use butter.
Powdered Sugar: You’ll need organic powdered sugar for the frosting.
Vanilla Extract: I always put a little vanilla extract in my buttercream. My favorite is Simply Organic.
Milk or Water: You’ll need milk or water for the buttercream, this will help get the desired consistency that you want that is best for piping out.
Food Dye: You can use organic food dye, such as Suncore Foods Organic Green Dye or Pink Dye like you see here.
Cocoa Powder: I use organic Dutch cocoa powder for the tree trunks.
Sprinkles: This part is optional, but you can add naturally colored sprinkles on top of your trees if you would like. Some of my favorite sprinkles with no artificial colors are India Tree Nature’s Colors Nonpareils (these look like tiny ornaments!), India Tree Nature’s Colors Snowflakes, and India Tree Nature’s Colors Bright Red Sprinkles.

Tools Needed

Scale: You’ll need a digital food scale for the best results.
Stand Mixer: I use my stand mixer to whip up the frosting, but a hand mixer also works if you prefer.
Piping Bags: You’ll need piping bags to pipe out the trees and trunks.
Coupler: A frosting coupler is a two piece device that allows you to easily change out frosting tips in the same frosting bag. It works by putting the larger piece of the tip in the piping bag, cut the hole to fit it. Then, you can add the decorating tip on the outside of the bag and it stays on by screwing the second piece of the coupler over it to hold it in place. If you want to use different types of trees with the same frosting bag, then you’ll need a frosting coupler. Otherwise, you don’t need this as you can just fit your piping bag with whatever tip you will be using the entire time.
Decorating Tips: You’ll need Ateco tips #6, 12, 15, 21, and 101 for the types of trees I’m sharing today.

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Step by Step Instructions

Step 1: Bake Your Dessert

Be sure to have whatever dessert you’ll be decorating made before making the frosting for the trees. This is the last step in decorating your cake, cupcakes, cookies, or brownies.

Step 2: Make the Frosting

To make the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk. Mix on low until combined.

Speed up mixer to high and mix for 2 to 3 minutes or until it’s light and fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl halfway through and continue to mix. You want the frosting to be very smooth, creamy, and not super stiff as you’ll need to pipe it out of small decorating tips. If the frosting seems very stiff, you can add a bit more milk (1 tablespoon at a time) until you get the desired consistency.

Step 3: Divide & Color Frosting

Remove a small amount of frosting (about ¼ cup) and put in a small bowl. Add in a small amount of Dutch cocoa powder (about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon) and stir to combine completely. Add more if you want a darker brown. Transfer this to a piping bag with Ateco tip #12 or you can use no tip at all and just cut a small hole.

With the remaining frosting, you can color it different colors if you want different colored trees (such as green and pink). Or you can color it all one color if you just want to do green. Add in a small amount of food coloring and stir until you get your desired colors.

If you’re using one frosting and want to make multiple different types of trees, then make sure to put a coupler into the piping bag before filling it with frosting. The coupler will allow you to swap out the different tips.

Once you have your piping bags made up, then it’s time to start piping your trees.

Step 4: Pipe Buttercream Christmas Trees

For Ateco tip numbers 6, 15, 21, and 101 I am using the same technique, but you get different results for the different kinds of tips. For this technique, you’ll start by piping a zigzag triangle wherever you want your Christmas tree. Once the tree is piped, then make a small line at the bottom using the chocolate frosting.

buttercream christmas tree — Ateco Tip #101

For the next type of tree, use Ateco tip #21 and pipe small dollops of frosting in the shape of a triangle. Then add a small line of the chocolate frosting at the bottom for the trunk.

For the last type of tree, use Ateco tip #15 and pipe small rosettes by pipe a spiral (starting in the middle, going outwards) until you get your desired size. Do this in the shape of a triangle, starting with one at the top, then two on the second row, three on the third row and so on until you get the size tree you like. Finish with a small line of the chocolate for the trunk.

If you are adding sprinkles on top of your trees, you should do that immediately after piping them so that they stick as buttercream will begin to harden once it’s piped out of the bag.

Continue to decorate your dessert with Christmas trees anywhere you want them!

How to Use

Cakes: You can use this technique on top of one layer sheet cakes like I do with my Eggnong Sheet Cake. Or you can also pipe these trees on the sides of a layer like I do with my Christmas Eve Cake.
Cupcakes: I use this technique on my Christmas Tree Cupcakes. In this post I show you how to flatten buttercream frosting, which is what you’ll need to do if you want to pipe buttercream Christmas trees on top of cupcakes.
Cookies: You can use this technique to pipe buttercream Christmas trees on top of any cookies. They can be sugar cookies that are plain or even on top of my Holiday Sugar Cookies with Icing. You can also do this on top of any shortbread cookie like my Christmas Shortbread Cookies.
Brownies: Simply use any of these techniques on top of any brownie recipe for festive brownies!

Baker’s Tips

If you are decorating a cake or cupcakes, you may be able to just use a little bit of the frosting from that recipe and use this technique. It just depends on how much frosting the cake recipe makes, but you may want to consider if you don’t want a ton of leftover frosting.
If you are wanting to decorate cookies or brownies then you’ll need to make additional frosting.
Make sure your butter is soft when starting the buttercream. I prefer to leave butter out on the counter to soften naturally. You can do this overnight in the wintertime.
Always sift powdered sugar, this is key for smooth and creamy buttercream. But it’s even more key to ensure you have no chunks in your buttercream for piping out of small decorating tips like we’re doing here.
You can color the frosting any way that you like.
You can use larger versions of these decorating tips if you are making a larger cake. Ateco makes larger option for all of these tips.

FAQ's

Can I use unsalted butter?

Yes, just taste the frosting to see if you'd like to add a pinch for flavor.

Do I have to color the trees?

No, you can leave them white! They would look great on top of a colored cake, cookies or even on top of brownies as white trees.

How can I add a star on top?

You can do this with Ateco tip #21 and just add a dollop. You'll see how that looks on top of the cupcake with the pink tree and green star (in the photo right below!).