I saw recipes for copycat Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes last year and really wanted to make them but just didn’t have time. This year I added it to my schedule and set off to make them for a little Christmas party we were having. I chose this recipe because most of the others called for a boxed cake mix and I really wanted to try making the whole thing from scratch.

The recipe itself isn’t very complicated, but it is a bit time consuming so keep that in mind. The cake was easy to throw together, however we didn’t have a 1/4 cookie pan so I just put it on a 1/2 cookie pan. It didn’t fill up the whole pan so that made it a little trickier when it came time to layer them. Mine didn’t seem to rise very much but maybe that’s how it was supposed to be? It reminded me of a jellyroll cake.

Once the cake is cool then you’ll mix together the filling (butter, marshmallow fluff, confectioners sugar, vanilla). Just a warning here, this stuff is absolutely delicious. I ended up having a good bit leftover (likely because my cake didn’t fill the pan) so I just saved it to use on some sugar cookies we made. You’ll layer the cake with the filling in the middle and then pop this in the freezer for at least an hour.

When it’s time to pull the cake out of the freezer then you’ll take a Christmas tree cookie cutter and cut out trees. I used a cookie cutter that has a bit of a lip at the top and I feel like that made it a little harder. I think a nice metal cookie cutter that has completely straight sides and maybe is a little taller might be better. I ended up having to take a knife and gently press the cake out of the cookie cutter because it didn’t want to easily pop out. Once you’ve got all of these done then you’ll put those back in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

After the final freeze time for these trees you’ll take them out and mix up your red icing and get it ready to pipe. You’ll also melt your candy melts but be sure not to heat for too long otherwise it’ll seize. I put mine in a shallow bowl and then took a spoon and spooned the melted candy melts over the cakes. Then I used 2 forks to gently take it out and put it onto a baking rack to dry. You’ll want to do your red icing and green sanding sugar before it dries though. I should have sprayed the baking rack because I noticed a few stuck at the bottom. Honestly a piece of parchment might have been better since it would have been easily to remove without breaking.

These didn’t look nearly as cute as those in the photo but you could at least tell they were Christmas trees! There were super sweet (but I think my tastes are changing so maybe that’s just me?) and the candy melts make it crunch a little while eating so that didn’t quite remind me of a Little Debbie Christmas Tree cake but it was fun to make and festive!

Baking Ease	8
Time Spent	8
Taste	9
Visual	7

Recipe Used: The Squeaky Mixer