Happy Little Trees

Due to the Black Friday sales gods, my husband was able to gift me a gorgeous matte purple KitchenAid mixer without selling any organs. I was beyond thrilled to test it out this weekend (I logged about 12 hours on the mixer alone yesterday for holiday baking). How was it compared to my old Walmart mixer, you may or may not have asked? Let me explain it to you like this: it's like that moment when you go to the optometrist and put on glasses for the first time and have that, "Wait, so THIS is what sight is supposed to be like?" moment. Clarity mixed with magic. I didn't realize it wasn't supposed to sound like a freight train was coming through my house when the mixer was on, or that I shouldn't have to hand mix a bit after I turn off the mixer. I'm so happy I could cry. Now, if only I could get into the holiday spirit. Tis the season to be sweaty down here in Florida. I put up Christmas lights last week in shorts and a tank top and still came in drenched in sweat. I felt more like a margarita than an eggnog for sure. I was feeling extra Grinchy since I have jury duty tomorrow, so I thought about scrapping baking altogether, but like any adult around the holidays, I forced myself to pretend to enjoy Christmas until I actually did...all thanks to this classic hand-painted Christmas tree snowscape cake.

Well now that's just adorable.

This cute little cake that in no way represents winter in Florida is a vanilla peppermint cake with peppermint buttercream. It tastes like a candy cane, and it's absolutely perfect. I haven't done too much baking since D deployed, and if you're wondering whether one grown woman can eat an entire cake by herself, I can assure you with no one around to judge me, I eat breakfast cake regularly. Needless to say, this had to be a low-cal bake since I take a slice out of it pretty much every time I walk by the fridge. This recipe will only set you back 289 calories for 12 slices.

Oh hey, super sexy KitchenAid mixer. I see you.

It's a truly simple recipe, and the cakes themselves can be made and frosted in like three hours tops including bake time, even with the hand-painted treescape. To make, you need:

• White cake mix
• 4 egg whites (I am missing an egg in the photo)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup of skim milk
• 1/4 cup of water (or you can use more milk)
• 1 tsp of peppermint extract (trust me, a little goes a long way)

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare three 6-inch baking pans with cooking spray and bake even strips. Mix all the ingredients above in a stand mixer (I am sorry for you if you don't have a KitchenAid because they are glorious) for 2 minutes on medium high. Evenly pour batter into your prepared pans. I had 275 grams of batter in each pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the rounds pass the toothpick test. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turnout onto a cooling rack to fully cool. Be sure you level your cakes before frosting so everything is nice and flat. Bonus, you can eat the cake scraps to tide you over! Small Christmas miracles!

I mean, that mixer looks good from every angle.

 The frosting is also very quick to make and surprisingly, booze free. But go ahead and replace the milk with peppermint schnapps if you can't survive the holidays without alcohol in some form. No one will blame you. For the frosting:

• 4 cups of Swerve confectioner's
• 1 cup of butter at room temp
• 3 TBS skim milk or your peppermint booze of choice
• 1 tsp peppermint extract (omit if using peppermint booze)

Ready? Mix it all together until smooth in your awesome, super quiet, luxurious KitchenAid (I am not being paid by the company to say this, but I probably should be). Now, get those painting tools ready so you can get your inner Bob Ross on and paint tons of happy little trees.

Don't forget the sprinkles. I have a feeling Mr. Ross also loved a good sprinkle.

 I picked up star sprinkles, red, white, and green circle sprinkles, and snowflake sprinkles from A.C. Moore because it's going out of business so I figured everything would be on sale. Everything was on sale. Except for the baking tools and accessories. This is my level of luck or lack there of (I am so getting picked for jury duty tomorrow because of it). I also used a Kelly green and a brown gel dye (I didn't use the red, but you can if you want to pipe a border...I was unsure if I had enough frosting to do so). Not pictured but definitely needed are crushed candy canes or peppermint crunch. Last but not least, you will need palette knives to paint.

I always put a hefty amount of frosting into a large bag with a #12 round tip, pictured on the right above, and pipe rounds of frosting in between my layers while assembling my cakes. I didn't take any photos of this since I was delirious on hour 8 of baking, and because I am pretty sure if you're here, you know how to stack a cake. I did, however, take pictures of the fully assembled cake with peppermint crunch sprinkled on top as seen below. Once you have completely covered your cake in frosting, get a little wild and sprinkle that peppermint crunch on top, pressing gently into the frosting. Freeze your cake for 30-45 minutes before painting on it.

I received my third wind after this and was super ready to paint.

I draw like a three year old.

Unlike my buttercream mountain cake, I didn't think freehand Christmas trees were really going to work out too well for me, so I used a toothpick to draw tiny trees on my cake. I had to look outside a few times to be reminded what a proper pine tree looks like because A. I cannot draw and because B. Northwest Florida is absolutely covered in pine trees (yet it's still summer in December anyway). 

My painting palette.

 After covering my cake in the white buttercream and freezing for half an hour, I took a glob of frosting, plopped it on a plate, and dyed it brown, mixing with a palette knife. I took a larger glob of frosting and dyed that Kelly green. I ended up having quite a lot of both colors leftover, so I definitely could have done a border around the top of the cake since I ended up throwing this and some leftover plain frosting out (after I ate most of it with an unused palette knife...I told you, with no one around to judge, it's like a "Cathy" comic in this house).

I really need adult supervision.

I started by using my smallest palette knife to swipe on a brown tree stump, then I used the next size up to swipe on green for my pine trees. I swiped up and to the left to make the right side of the tree, coming back in after each swipe to add more frosting to the back of my palette knife.

I mean, it's definitely a tree, so mission accomplished.

 I swiped up and to the right to complete the left side of the tree. I found it way easier to paint when I put my cake stand on top of a large, flat mixing bowl so it was eye level but stable.

SPRINKLES!

To finish this tree, I added round sprinkles for ornaments and a silver star on top. I lightly dusted the base of the cake board with powdered sugar to look like snow. This will be the only snowfall I experience this winter...

I really miss snow. The real stuff. Powdered sugar's great though.

 I ended up painting several more trees, most of them a lot smaller and shorter and dusted with "snow." I only did one other larger tree with Christmas ornaments on it on the opposite side of the cake from the first tree.

So darling it almost makes my Grinch heart grow.

Remember what I said about freehanding trees earlier? This PERFECT example of a pine tree was the LAST tree I made and the ONLY ONE I freehanded. So, go figure. Now I know to just go freehand when it comes to painting with buttercream. 

It really makes me feel like the holidays are near when I look at this cake. But then I step outside and get very confused because it feels like it's September.

To finish, I added tiny little snowflake sprinkles all around the cake (a great way to cover up any errant green paint). Fun fact! Living the heat-soaked South, this cake is the closest I will get to walking through a winter wonderland this holiday season!

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, you are so very yummy.

 I am really digging how this turned out. It's simple but it's cute. It's also extremely delicious. I had never done plain peppermint cake before because I am hugely obsessed with peppermint mixed with chocolate, so I am happy I branched out and tried something different says the woman who lives her life with the assistance of three different planners. The peppermint vanilla cake is very light but packs a good amount of peppermint flavor. It's nice to be able to eat a dessert at Christmas time that doesn't weigh as much as a small child or a fruitcake. I could (and did) eat that peppermint buttercream all on its own and be perfectly satisfied, but pairing it with that airy peppermint vanilla cake is positively divine, so happy birthday, Baby Jesus! I will really use any reason to bake a cake around here... I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and I'll see you back here in 2020. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Bold move, putting a cake in front of a mixer that visually stunning...