Boutique Bake Recipe: Xmas Tree Brownies

The lovely Catherine from Boutique Bake has been sharing her delicious baking recipes with us (you can check out more Boutique Bake recipes here) and these super easy, made-in-a-jiffy treats are festive delights that everyone will save some room for. 

Everyone loves a good chocolate brownie and this recipe has a lovely festive twist by adding a gorgeous meringue Christmas tree with a star on top. These are the perfect treat to serve over the Christmas period and can be whipped up in no time at all. So let’s get started on these Christmas Tree Meringue Brownies, here’s everything you need to get baking!

Brownie ingredients

• 1 x Boutique Bake Brownie Mix
• 150g melted bitter
• 3 eggs
• 12 cupcake wrappers (ideally red)

If you can’t find our brownie mix in a shop near you, here is an alternative brownie recipe that you can use:

• 400g caster sugar
• 225g butter, melted
• 60g cocoa powder
• 4 eggs
• 225g self- raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Meringue Topping

• 100g caster sugar
• 2 egg whites
• Green food colouring
• Star-shaped nozzle and an icing bag
• Chocolate stars, to decorate

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180 C / 160 Fan.
• Mix brownie mix with 3 eggs and 150g of melted butter (or if using alternative recipe mix all required ingredients) until well combined.
• Spoon mixture into a 12 cupcake wrappers
• Bake for 20 - 25 mins depending on how gooey you like your brownies!
• Meanwhile, place the egg whites into a clean bowl, and using an electric mixer, whisk until stiff peaks form, then whisk in your sugar, a little at a time.
• Keep whisking until the mixture looks glossy and has thickened, it will look a bit like shaving foam.

• Add in a few drops of food colouring and whisk again, to achieve your desired shade of green!
• Spoon the mixture into an icing bag with a star-shaped nozzle, if you don’t have an icing bag, use a freezer bag and snip off the end to pipe.
• Pipe a dollop of meringue on top of each cupcake, repeat this in three layers to create a ‘tree shape’, see image below:

• On the last layer, pull the nozzle away sharply to create a peak shape on the top of your meringue
• Place meringue cupcakes in the oven and turn down the oven to 80oC, leave to cook through but don’t allow to brown!
• Leave in the oven for approx. 10 minutes, remove and allow cool
• Once cooled, place a chocolate star on the top of your meringue (stick with some icing or a little melted chocolate).
• Dust with some icing sugar and enjoy!

If you’d like to read more from Boutique Bake, why not check out the website www.boutiquebake.ie? And if you are a social media fan, you can like on Facebook, find Catherine on the twitter machine (or Instagram) by searching @boutique_bake or even on Pinterest.