Christmas Tree Cup Cakes!

I made these for my Mam to take to her Christmas party at work but I'm also making some for the family on Christmas day..so this was a good practice for then!

They actually turned out better than I imagined for my first try and I am super pleased with them..the Christmas spiced sponge is do die for as well!! I think next time I will make the trees higher!

To make these you will need:

225g (8oz) butter

225g (8oz) caster sugar

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

4 medium eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees / Gas mark 4

2) Cream together butter & sugar

3) Beat in the eggs

4) Fold in the flour gradually

5) Add the spices and the vanilla extract

6) Spoon into cake cases & bake for 15-20 mins

For the icing:

125g (4oz) icing sugar

100g (3oz) butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp green food dye

1) Cream together butter & icing sugar

2) Add the vanilla extract and the food dye. You might need to add more dye than this depending on how green you want it!

3) Spoon into a piping bag with a large star end nozzle.

4) Start from the middle and work your way upwards in a spiral to make a Christmas tree shape.

5) Decorate with silver balls for a bauble effect!

Christmas Tree Shortbread Biscuits!

I found some Christmas cookie cutters today and couldn't resist buying them. So then I decided to knock up some quick Christmas tree shortbread biscuits!
I used just a basic butter shortbread recipe with:

125g (4oz) butter
60 g (2oz) caster sugar
180g (6oz) plain flour

1) Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl
2) Stir in the flour
3) Knead until firm..don't need to much though!
4) Roll out onto a floured work surface and cut out some shapes!
5) Put into an oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I used a bit of butter cream icing mixed with green food dye for the decoration and some silver balls (icing looks yellow in my pic..it's not?!). You can just use glaze icing with water but I really hate the taste!

I rushed these, might make some nicer ones at a later date! Also will be making some Xmas cupcakes so looking forward to that! :-D