Christmas Tree Gingerbread Cupcakes

Line a baking tray with baking paper. You’ll need here different sized cirles to trace around. Start off by finding the biggest one to be a little smaller than the top of each cupcake. Then find one a little smaller than that and another a little smaller than that. Trace around them making 12 circles of each size. Set aside.

Add oil and food dye into a large mixing bowl and combine as well as you can. Add half of the melted chocolate and mix until well combined. Then add the other half and mix.

Add the pretzels or French fry chips to the mixing bowl and mix until well coated.

Pile of the chips/pretzels on top of the circles. Make it as even as you can on the top so each layer can sit evenly and not crooked. This can be a little time consuming.

For the smallest size you’ll want to make little tent like pointy shapes. That’s going to be the top of your Christmas tree. Once you’ve made them all, set them aside to cool, wither outside or in the fridge (which is faster).

Preheat a fan-forced oven to 160C (320F) or 180C (356F) for a conventional oven. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt. Turn mixer on low speed and allow it to mix for a couple minutes to help everything combine well (alternatively you may do this by sifting the ingredients together). Add the softened butter and let it mix until it resembles a fine sand like texture.

Next, add milk, eggs, yogurt, oil and vanilla extract in a large jug and whisk well.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients in a slow and steady stream until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and mix for another 20 seconds.

Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way (using an ice cream scoop to transfer the batter into the cupcake liners makes this a quick and easy process otherwise you can use two tablespoons).

Bake for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow them to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

To finish off, fit the end of a piping bag with a large round tip and pipe a flat swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake. Coat the frosting in coconut.

Place each layer of the Christmas tree on the cake sticking them together with a little dab of chocolate. Place some sprinkles around the tree to decorate and finish off with a sprinkle of more coconut.