Maple Leaf Tree Cake
With Fall in the air and the changing leaves, I felt it was only fitting to create a fun party centerpiece with one of my favorite flavors of Fall, maple! These mini cakes are not only shaped like maple leaves, but taste the part too! I used pretzel rods and pretzel sticks to create the “branches” and a maple buttercream frosting as the “glue." This is a great way to serve individual servings of this delicious Fall flavored cake at your next party!
Ingredients for cake:
-1 ½ cups cake flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
-1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/2 cup milk
-3 eggs
-1 cup maple syrup
Ingredients for frosting:
-1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-3 cups confectioners sugar
-1/4 cup maple syrup
Tools:
-Baking sheet
-Maple leaf shaped cookie cutter
-Pastry bag
Total prep and bake time: 45 min
Decorating time: 20 minutes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Step#1
Cream butter and coconut sugar with electric mixer until well combined and creamy. It will be brown in color. Add your 3 eggs one at a time until uniformly mixed.
Step#2
Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl. Add half of that mixture to liquid mixture.
Step#3
Mix in milk and vanilla. Then add remainder of the flour mixture until completely combined. At the end, mix in your maple syrup.
Step #4
Spray entire baking sheet with nonstick spray and then line your baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour entire contents of batter in and spread evenly. Baking on middle rack for about 22 minutes.
Step#5
Once your cake is baked and cooled (I put it in the freezer to cool quickly), carefully lift cake out of pan with the parchment paper. You may need to run a butter knife around the edges first. Then use your cookie cutter to cut out leaf shapes.
Step#6
Make your frosting by creaming butter and vanilla first. Then add confectioners sugar until creamy. Finish with mixing in maple syrup. Using a spoon, spread a thin line of frosting on the bottom of a pretzel rod and begin “gluing” your pretzel branches in whatever arrangement you choose.
Step#7
Arrange your mini maple leaf cakes along the branches. Then, using your pastry bag, pipe frosting on leaves. Garnish with edible gold or gold sugar crystals.
FUN FACT: Vermont is known for their wonderful pure maple syrup, but why is it so good? Well, they say it’s in the roots of their maple trees because of the warm days and cool nights which help create that sweetness!
