Gold and Green Christmas Trees Cake

Instead of a cake recipe today, I’m just sharing this pretty gold and green Christmas cake, with piped buttercream evergreen trees, gold sugar pearls and sparkling sugar. This is a fun cake to decorate, and the tiny buttercream trees look beautiful with their gold sprinkle tree trunks.

You might also love this red and white striped candy cane Christmas cake, gingerbread cake with mascarpone buttercream, and a buttercream Christmas tree cake tutorial.

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Tools and Equipment

• Piping Bag + Coupler. A 12-inch disposable piping bag is the perfect size for today’s cake decorating project.
• Tips # 18, 101 & 352. Tip #18 is a small star tip, and you can use it to pipe stars and shells. Tip #101 is a small petal tip, which I used for piping the small ruffly trees. Tip #352 is a leaf tip, which I used to pipe the leafy trees.

Ingredients

• Frosted Cake. My cake is a three-layer, 6-inch cake, but any shape and flavor will work.
• Dark Green Buttercream. For tips on getting a deep, dark green color in your buttercream, see this Christmas tree cake tutorial.
• Gold Sugar Pearls + Long Gold Sprinkles. I like this white and gold sprinkle mix for the gold and green Christmas cake today. It has the thick, long gold sprinkles you’ll need, as well as smaller gold jimmies, both of which you can use for the tree trunks. And it also has gold sugar pearls, which look so pretty placed around the trees.
• White, Gold and Silver Sparkling Sugar.

Instructions

• Fill, crumb coat and frost your cake. You can use a 6-inch or 8-inch cake, any flavor you like for the cake and buttercream. I used some leftover buttercream from my freezer, a combination of ginger buttercream and brown butter maple, which gave it a subtle champagne color.
• Place the gold sugar pearls randomly all over the cake, then toss some sparkling sugar at the cake before the buttercream crusts over. I used a combination of white, gold and silver sparkling sugars.

• Fit your piping bag with a coupler and one of the piping tips, and fill with buttercream.
• Before you pipe the Christmas trees on your cake, I suggest practicing first on wax paper. Then you can scrape the frosting back into the piping bag to use again.

• Use tip #18 to pipe the stars and shells, tip #101 to pipe the small ruffly trees, and tip #352 to pipe the leaves.
• Use tweezers to place the long gold sprinkles vertically under each tree to make the tree trunks.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you get a deep green buttercream color?

I explain in detail how I colored my green buttercream in this buttercream Christmas tree cake tutorial.

What’s a good buttercream to use for piping the Christmas trees?

I recommend my American buttercream recipe. It’s perfect for piping.

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