Mary Berry’s Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes

Mary Berry’s Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes are light, fluffy and topped with festive vanilla buttercream. Great for children to help decorate too! 

What are Mary Berry’s Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes?

These are Mary Berry’s chocolate cupcake recipe with a few tweaks to the recipe.

Mary Berry’s original recipe is a chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream that is spread on with a palate knife.

I decided to swap the buttercream to vanilla because sometimes a chocolate cupcake and frosting can be a bit too much for people.

Also, I wanted to make the frosting look like a Christmas tree which would be easier to colour with a vanilla frosting.

I have also altered the cooking temperature as I prefer a lower oven temperature when cooking cupcakes to help create a flat topped cupcake.

How to make Christmas Tree buttercream

It is the buttercream that makes these cupcakes really festive. This is actually really easy, especially once you have practised your piping skills.

I use my basic buttercream recipe like in my Vanilla Cupcakes. I then colour it and pipe it into a Christmas tree shape.

The finished buttercream looks quite fancy but really it is very simple and makes a fantastically festive cupcake.

Margarine or butter?

When I am baking cakes that require the fat and sugar to be creamed, I tend to use margarine. 

This is because you can use it straight from the fridge and don’t have to wait for it to come up to room temperature like you do with butter.

I have been using margarine in my cakes for years now and I have never had any complaints about their texture or flavour. You can absolutely use butter if you prefer but make sure it is unsalted butter. 

When it comes to buttercream, you have to use unsalted butter. Margarine would not work in this instance. 

Which colouring is recommended to use?

The green colour in the buttercream comes from gel food colouring which I would definitely recommend you use instead of liquid food colourings. The gel colours are thick and a small amount goes a long way.

You need so much of the liquid colours and even then the final colour isn’t very vibrant which is why I don’t recommend using them.

Gel food colouring is available to buy online and even in some larger supermarkets. Brands I like are Wilton and Sugarflair which are available online.

When you are adding the colouring, start with a very small amount as a little goes a long way. You can always add more but you can’t take it away.

How to pipe the christmas tree buttercream

To pipe the Christmas tree shape, use an open star shaped piping nozzle. Something like a 2D, 2F or 1M would work well for this effect.

Start on the outside of the cupcakes and pipe in a circle gradually spiralling upwards until the cupcake is covered in buttercream.

This is easier than you may think! Just pipe slowly and remember if you really make a mess you can always carefully scrape off the buttercream and start again!

The beauty of Christmas trees are that they aren’t very neat so if your piping isn’t it won’t matter!

How to decorate your Christmas Trees

When your trees have been piped, you can then decorate them however you would like. Think of them as your own Christmas tree at home and add your own personality!

Or better yet, get your children to help you and you will probably end up with brightly coloured trees with far too many sprinkles! And a mess on the floor. You’re welcome 🙂

If piping really isn’t for you, try my Chocolate Orange Tray Bake instead.

An even more luxurious touch

If you want the buttercream to be a bit more luxurious, you could use whole milk or even cream.

I use semi-skimmed or sometimes 1% fat milk as this is what I always have in the house and the icing is still really delicious.

Whichever milk you use, add a little at a time and mix well before adding more. Different types of milk will vary how much you need due to their differing thicknesses.

Can you use a different buttercream?

You can, but personally I like to keep with the vanilla buttercream because it is very easy to colour green.

I also don’t like to flavour coloured buttercream because it gets a bit confusing. If you flavoured the buttercream with lemon, but it was green in colour it can be a little odd.

Chocolate buttercream for example wouldn’t work as the green would struggle to be seen over the brown of the chocolate.

But this is just my opinion so feel free to make any tweaks you would like.

Can you add flavourings to the cupcakes?

You can definitely add extra flavourings to the cupcakes but make sure they go with chocolate!

Some grated orange zest would be particularly nice in the sponge and is also a little festive. I would add the grated zest of one orange to the cupcakes for a nice flavour.

You could also add some peppermint flavouring if you wanted. I haven’t tried this myself but it is quite a strong flavour so don’t add too much!

How many cupcakes will the recipe make?

This depends which size cupcake cases you use. The recipe below uses large cupcake/muffin cases as these are my favourite. You can buy these very easily.

If you use these large cases then you will make 12 cupcakes. However if you use smaller cases then you will make a few more cupcakes.

Make sure whatever size cases you use that you only fill them two thirds full. If you use smaller cupcake cases, they will take less time to bake.

Check them after 10-12 minutes with a cocktail to stick to see if they are baked. If the cocktail stick comes out clean they are done, if not bake them for a couple of minutes longer.

If you want to make 6 cupcakes, make my Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes and half the buttercream in the recipe.

How long will these cupcakes last?

These cupcakes will last for 3-4 days in an airtight container.

You could always freeze the cupcakes without the buttercream if you would like to use them at a later date. Wrap them thoroughly and freeze them for up to one month.

Defrost them in the fridge when you want to use them and pipe them like normal.

Other recipes you might like

• Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars 
• Chocolate Orange Rocky Road
• Chocolate Orange Tray Bake
• Brioche & Christmas Pudding Bread & Butter Pudding
• 10 Tasty Sweet Christmas Recipes 

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