Vanilla Christmas Tree Cakes

two christmas tree cakes on white plate with greenery underneath, two forks, three christmas cakes around, two book pages underneath plate, and mini red and green ornments around

Vanilla Christmas Tree Cakes

Extra sweet and extra delicious! These Vanilla Christmas Tree Cakes taste even BETTER than you remember. Every bite is full of vanilla flavor, soft, fluffy, sweet, and just melt in your mouth delicious. It's the perfect mini cake for this holiday season!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 3

Cook Time: 20

Total Time: 3 20

Servings: cakes

Calories: 1634kcal

Ingredients

Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
1¾ cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs room temperature
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk room temperature

Buttercream

1⅛ cups salted butter room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar sifted
1½ Tablespoons heavy cream
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

Fondant

12 cups powdered sugar sifted
1 cup corn syrup
¾ cup water
1½ teaspoons vanilla powder

To Finish

red food coloring
green coarse sugar

Instructions

Cake

Heat oven to 350℉/177℃.
Spray an 11-inch x 15-inch pan with baking spray. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy.
Stream in sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add milk alternately with flour, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Stir in vanilla.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 20 minutes, or until done.

Buttercream

Place butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla in a bowl.
Beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Fondant

Place powdered sugar and vanilla powder in a large bowl.
Combine corn syrup and water.
Heat until corn syrup has dissolved.
Pour corn syrup mixture over powdered sugar mixture.
Stir until smooth.

Assembly

Place cooled cake on a wire rack over a sheet pan.
Use a long serrated knife to cut cake in half horizontally.
Slide top of cake onto the back of a sheet pan.
Spoon frosting over cake.
Spread evenly.
Replace top layer of cake.
Use a 5-inch Christmas tree cookie cutter to cut out Christmas tree shapes.
Working with one cake at a time, spoon fondant around edges and down sides to cover.
Fill in top.
If you run out of fondant, scrape the fondant from the bottom of the pan back into the bowl, heat in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to loosen it back up, and strain through a fine mesh sieve. Repeat as many times as needed.
Allow to dry completely.
Color a small amount of remaining fondant with red food coloring, put in a piping bag, and pipe a zigzag on the trees.
Top with green coarse sugar.

Notes

Substitutions:

If you don't have vanilla powder, you can use vanilla extract. Just remember that the fondant won't be a pure white if extract is used.
These cakes are really sweet! If you want them a little less sweet, substitute lemon juice for half the water in the fondant.
You can substitute salted butter for the unsalted and vice versa. For the cake, if you use salted butter, reduce the salt to ⅝ teaspoon. For the buttercream, if you use unsalted butter, add ½ teaspoon salt.
You can use any color dye you wish, as well as any color course sugar.

Expert Tips:

Room temperature is about 70℉/21℃.
Be sure to not over mix the cake batter.
When cutting the cake in half, be very careful and go slowly with it! You will need a serrated knife to do this.
Once the cake is cut in half, it is very fragile. You may need help moving it. We used a large cake spatula to help place the top layer of cake onto an upside down sheet pan.
We actually highly recommend using an upside down sheet pan or cake board to place the top layer of cake on. This way, you can simply slide it back onto the frosted bottom layer.
Remember to sift the powdered sugar for the fondant!
The microwave is your friend with this fondant. Don't be afraid to reheat as often as you need to!
Do not waste the excess cake! After cutting, there tends to be a lot of cake leftover that can’t be used. No worries! Use that cake to make Christmas themed cake pops to be served alongside these.

Nutrition