Cupcake Christmas Tree
Wow! What a great treat for a party or family dinner.
Prep time: 20 min.
Baking time: 19-20 min.
Decoration time: 30 min.
Difficulty: Easy
What you'll need:
- 1 bag 3 MUSKETEERS® Brand Miniatures
- 3 bags of your favorite Mars candies such as SNICKERS®, 3 MUSKETEERS®, and TWIX® Brand Miniatures
- 4 bags M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for the Holidays
- 1 box vanilla or chocolate cake mix
- 2 cans vanilla frosting
- Yellow and green food coloring
- 29 regular paper cupcake liners
- 29 festive holiday cupcake liners
- 3 6-oz. glasses
- 4 plates, approximately 2-inch, 6-inch, 10-inch and 14-inch in size
What to do:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare the cake batter according to the directions on the box. Unwrap and chop half the bag of 3 MUSKETEERS® Brand Miniatures and fold them into the batter.
- Spoon 1/2 cup of the batter into the regular cupcake tins lined with the paper cupcake liners. Bake the cupcakes for 19-20 minutes.
- Remove 1/4 cup of the vanilla frosting, and tint it with the yellow food coloring. Tint the remaining vanilla frosting with the green food coloring.
- Frost 28 of the cupcakes with the green frosting, and the last cupcake with the yellow frosting.
- Decorate the tops of the green-frosted cupcakes with red and green M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for the Holidays. Place the cupcakes in the fancy festive cupcake liners.
- Decorate the remaining yellow-frosted cupcake with yellow M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for the Holidays.
- To build the tree stand: Begin by placing the 14-inch plate on the bottom, and then stack the remaining three plates in decreasing sizes on top. One at a time, lift the bottom three plates and place a glass in the center of each one. Check to make sure the plates and glasses are balanced.
- Arrange the green cupcakes in a single layer on the three bottom plates.
- Place the yellow cupcake on the top plate for the star.
- Finally, garnish the tree with your favorite holiday Mars candies.
