All the Little Debbie® Christmas Tree Cakes nostalgia, made as a copycat with real ingredients and naturally dyed!
Christmas memories
I just keep holding on! Every year that my girls, 2 of them now in their teens, want to enthusiastically decorate the tree I’m just so thankful! They’ll pull out little ornaments that they remember making in elementary school, and even at 15 years old, you can see the nostalgia in her eyes. Elementary school teachers, I know those Christmas ornament crafts can be time consuming and chaotic, but please keep making them! Give the moms the gift of seeing the nostalgia in their teen’s eyes!
Little Debbie® Christmas Tree Cakes nostalgia straight out of 1985!
Did you know that if you are an 80’s kid, you were a part of Christmas history when Little Debbie’s first made those little Christmas tree cakes?! We all had them in our paper sacks for lunch the month before school was out for the holidays! The convenience of a special treat that made school lunch feel a little more special without being in the kitchen was definitely classic 1980’s adulting!
Know better, do better with Copycat Little Debbie® Christmas Tree Cakes!
Of course these days, so many of us are doing that whole know better, do better thing when it comes to feeding our families. From red, blue, and yellow food dyes, to polysorbate 80, preservatives, and corn syrup, we just know that this isn’t a food we want our kids having even one time! The Christmas tree cakes *are* such a fun concept though, and this year, I decided to give that experience the girls. It did not disappoint! The joy in their eyes at such a fun treat was a gift!
Step 1 :: Making the Vanilla Christmas Tree Cakes
To get your copycat Christmas tree cakes started, you can bake off some simple vanilla cake into Christmas tree molds. You could potentially bake the cake on a sheet tray and use a Christmas tree cookie cutter if you want. Blend the cake batter right up in a large liquid measuring cup with a spout, and pour the batter right in. I filled mine up about 3/4 of the way. Some of the cakes I ended up trimming some of the edges on, so anywhere from 1/2 full to 3/4 full is good. Any smaller, and you won’t be able to split them in half for the frosting middle.
Step 2 :: Split the cakes and frost the middle
Let your Christmas tree cakes cool completely before frosting the middles. When they are cool, cut the cakes in half, lengthwise, and frost the middle with the simple buttercream frosting. I used a thin layer on each side so they sandwiched together well. You could use a thicker spread of frosting if you want! These were plenty sweet for my crew that has never had a Little Debbie® before! Quick tip for littles! If you have little ones wanting to help with this step, I would suggest FREEZING the cake halves before frosting so they don’t break the cakes trying to frost them!
Step 3 :: Freeze the cakes, then coat in the white chocolate shell!
Line up your frosted sandwich cakes on a sheet tray and freeze them for at least an hour. You could do this step days, or even weeks in advance. The goal is for them to be firm so that dunking them in the white chocolate is easier and cleaner. Once the cakes frozen, set up a sheet tray with parchment paper to put the completed cakes on. Dunk the cake into the melted white chocolate, using forks to turn the cakes around to coat completely. You can use the forks to transfer the cakes to the parchment paper too.
Tell me about that naturally dyed green sanding sugar!
Last year, I finally found sanding sugar that was naturally dyed! Naturally dyed baking decorations have really come a long way! Parents are seeing the effects that food coloring has on their kids, and the demand for natural dyes is huge! If you cannot find naturally dyed green sanding sugar, you have 2 choices! Either leave it off completely, or chop up dried fruit to mimic “lights” on the tree. Shaved chocolate is another natural decoration I used to use before naturally dyed sprinkles were available when the girls were little.
Step 4 :: The naturally dyed red stripe!
Just like the naturally dyed baking decorations, naturally dyed food colorings have really come a long way since my girls were little. The one I use the most is the Watkin’s natural food dye. The colors are vibrant and keep well. You can make the red as red as you wish, or maybe your kids want a different color! The beauty of making your own is giving the kids the autonomy to make it their way! To make the stripe, you can either pipe the leftover frosting from the middle of your cakes (there will most likely be about 1/4 cup of frosting left if you make the layer thin). Or, you can melt more white chocolate and dye that to pipe onto the Christmas trees. The white chocolate method will harden the best.
Storing your Copycat Little Debbie® Christmas Tree Cakes
The hardened white chocolate really does do a good job of sealing in the cake moisture! The cakes can stay in the pantry for a couple days, or in the refrigerator for a week. To maintain the best freshness, I would suggest freezing any cakes you do not use right away. They should thaw easily for eating when you want to use them.
A note on the white chocolate for the Little Debbie® Christmas Tree Cakes…
White chocolate that has clean ingredients is HARD to find! I have felt the most comfortable with the Enjoy Life white chocolate chips. If you’re dairy free, or have other allergens, this is the best bet for you. White chocolate typically does have milk, but if you can find one that isn’t corn syrup or that doesn’t have a bunch of other weird ingredients, you can use that! If you have found another clean brand, we would love to hear from you! OR! There is nothing wrong with using plain chocolate or dark chocolate for these Christmas Tree Cakes too!
Copycat Little Debbie® Christmas Tree Cakes
Ingredients
For the Vanilla Christmas Tree Cakes:
- ½ cup olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 cup pure cane sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup full fat coconut milk or whole milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups Namaste GF flour blend do not pack down – fluff before measuring
- 2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
- ¼ tsp sea salt
For the Frosting Middle:
- ¼ cup room temp organic palm shortening or butter
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1-2 tbsp coconut milk or milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the White Chocolate Coating:
- 1 – 9oz bag Enjoy Life White Chocolate Chips about 3 cups of white chocolate total (plus more for the red stripe)
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- Naturally dyed green sanding sugar
For the Naturally Dyed Red Stripe:
- Either 1/3 cup of the frosting from above OR more melted white chocolate
- Natural red dye
Instructions
To make the vanilla Christmas tree cakes:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. I used 3 silicone Christmas Tree molds, sitting 2 baking sheets, making 18 total Christmas trees.
- I liked making the cake batter right in a 4 cup liquid measuring cup so that it poured into the cake molds easily with less clean up. Alternatively, you could use a medium mixing bowl. Blend the oil, sugar, and eggs until smooth. Add the milk, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, and salt, and blend to combine until creamy.
- Pour the cake batter into your Christmas tree molds about half to ¾ of the way up, and bake the cakes at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden and spring back to touch.
- Let the Christmas cakes cool completely before popping them out of the molds.
To make the frosting for the middle of the tree cakes:
- Blend the frosting ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Slice each Christmas tree in half, lengthwise, and spread a thin layer of frosting on each side before sandwiching the cakes back together. Place the frosted cakes on a baking tray and freeze the cakes for at least an hour before starting the white chocolate step.
To make the white chocolate coating:
- Once the Christmas tree cakes are frozen, you can coat them in the white chocolate. First, line a baking sheet with parchment paper for the finished cakes to be placed on. Melt the white chocolate and coconut oil in a medium sauce pan, whisking until smooth.
- Place one of the cakes in the melted white chocolate and use 2 forks to turn it over and over to ensure the whole cake is coated in white chocolate. Use the forks to lift the cake out, letting it drip, before placing it on the parchment paper to solidify. Continue coating each of the Christmas tree cakes. Before the white chocolate hardens, you’ll want to sprinkle the naturally dyed green sanding sugar. You may need to do the sprinkles after doing 1 or 2 trees as the white chocolate does harden fairly quickly.
To make the naturally dyed red stripes:
- Once the white chocolate has hardened, you can add the red stripes. You can either use the leftover frosting from frosting the middle of the cakes, or, if you want the stripes to fully harden, use more melted white chocolate. For either method, add natural red dye to the frosting or the white chocolate to make the red color you wish. If using the frosting, you may want to thin the frosting out with some splashes of milk to make it easier to pipe.Use a thin tip on a piping bag to pipe the red stripes onto the Christmas tree cakes.
- The Christmas tree cakes will stay good on the counter in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Freeze them if you intend to have them around longer to maintain the freshness of the cake.
Notes
- Other GF flour blends with xanthan gum should work in this recipe. Also, if you tolerate gluten and want to use all purpose flour, that should work as well.
- Quick tip for littles! If you have little ones wanting to help with the frosting middle step, I would suggest FREEZING the cake halves before frosting so they don’t break the cakes trying to frost them!
- You can freeze the Christmas tree cakes for days or even weeks in advance before dunking in the white chocolate. If you plan to freeze longer than a day, freeze them for an hour or so first, and then pop them in to freezer bags to keep them from drying out. You could also freeze the white chocolate coated cakes with the same method.
- White chocolate that has clean ingredients is HARD to find! I have felt the most comfortable with the Enjoy Life white chocolate chips. If you have found another clean brand, we would love to hear from you!
- The naturally dyed green sanding sugar is option if you cannot find something like that! I’ve been able to find a lot of naturally dyed sanding sugars and sprinkles online, but I know that is not always accessible all over the world! Leave it out if you cannot find it!
- The naturally dyed red stripe is optional as well if you cannot find natural food coloring! You could sprinkle shaved chocolate on your trees or use chopped dried fruit as the “lights” on the trees!
These look great! Any tips on making these all chocolate instead of vanilla? Thanks!
Hi April! I have a great chocolate cupcake recipe that could swap for the vanilla cake here (I’d halve the recipe for the cake and you can use the frosting recipe halved as well – that is what I did with this recipe – I used my vanilla cake recipe cut in half!) – https://www.raisinggenerationnourished.com/2021/01/gluten-free-chocolate-cupcakes-for-birthday-valentines-day-or-any-occasion-gluten-free-dairy-free-nut-free/
For the outter coating, you could use whatever chocolate chips you like and that should work just fine as an even swap here! I’d love to hear about how they turn out!
Thank you for the suggestions!
You’re welcome, April!
Azure Standard carries a vegan white chocolate chip that is super good as well. I used it and it worked great for the icing!
That is a great tip! Thank you, Jess!
Hi! So only made it half way through because when I took my trees out of the mold all but one of them broke. That being said I know I filled them too much because when they were done cooking they had risen well over the mold. Is using too much for each mold the issue? I tried to salvage but still cutting the misshapen ones in half and icing, but they crumbled when I cut them and when I spread the icing on. Bright side they taste DELICIOUS. Just need help on my execution.
Hi Caitie! I’m so glad you tried, and asked questions too! I would say that I overfilled some of mine but I just cut the excess off once they cooled. One problem that might happen if you overfill is that the cakes might not cook long enough to really set well so that might be why they were harder to stay together. I waited until the cakes were fully cooled before popping them out of the molds and didn’t have a problem. If your molds are older and less non-stick, you may need to spray them with avocado oil spray before putting the batter in OR you could freeze the cakes in the molds so that they pop out super easy!