You know that excited feeling you get when you walk down the Christmas aisle and it’s Just. So. Sparkly. You just want to buy everything? (It can’t just be me who feels that way?) When I was in university, my sister and I shared a townhouse and the first Christmas we spent there together, we went to the hardware store and bought a Christmas tree, tinsel and tons of ornaments to put on it. And I mean TONS of ornaments (and lights for that matter…).
It was the first time we were let loose down that sparkly Christmas aisle, and we fell in love with everything we saw. There wasn’t an empty branch on the whole tree by the time we were done! We were so proud of our tree that we called up my parents, and even our grandparents, and invited them over for dinner that night, just so they could admire our very first Christmas tree.
It was a lot of money for us since we were both still students, but it made us SO HAPPY. It’s 15 years later and that’s still the tree that my husband and I put up, along with half of the ornaments (and of course a few new ones). My sister and I split the ornaments in half and there’s still more than enough for each of us to decorate our own trees!
Like that very first Christmas tree, these brownies make me SO HAPPY! Is there anything more delicious than the combination of peppermint and chocolate? Particularly when there’s icing and sprinkles involved? I didn’t think so. It’s pretty much guaranteed to brighten your day.
Check out our video for how to make Christmas Tree Brownies:
Looking for more fun and easy Christmas treat ideas? Here’s a few of our favourite recipes:
Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Trees
Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bars
Easy Christmas Tree Brownies
The full printable recipe and instructions are at the bottom of this post. You can make these from scratch if you really want, but I just used a boxed mix and a tub of store bought icing.
Start by lining an 8″ x 8″ square baking pan with aluminum foil and then spray it with cooking spray. Bake the brownies according to the package directions and allow them to cool completely. I waited about an hour and a half and they came out of my pan no problem.
This next part kind of blew my mind a little bit. I was having trouble visualizing the triangles, so I used skewers to get them all set up. There wasn’t really a good way to mark where to cut, so I guessed as best I could. The skewers were just a diagram to help me visualize it. I took them off before I cut it.
Use a large sharp knife to cut through the brownies. You can see in the picture below that my triangles aren’t perfect. Oops! I had to trim a few of them into the proper shape after this photo. I trimmed some of the edges into triangles too, but me and the girls just snacked on the scrap pieces that couldn’t be used.
I ended up with 12 triangle brownies.
You don’t need very much icing. One half of the tub was plenty, and even then I still had leftovers.
Add green food colouring to the white icing. It took a lot of green food colouring to get the green colour – at least 40 to 50 drops. Just keep stirring until you’re happy with the colour.
Spoon the icing into a zip lock bag.
Seal the bag closed, and then cut off the corner of the bag using sharp scissors.
Starting at the top of the tree, gently squeeze the icing out of the bag moving in a curvy zigzag as you go down the tree.
Then add your favourite sprinkles on top.
I’m loving the little yellow star sprinkles! I used them in my Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Trees as well, and they really add some awesome character! I bought these from the bulk store, but you can order them from Amazon if you have trouble finding them in stores.
I thought these were cute on their own, but my husband thought they needed a tree trunk.
And he was totally right! So I cut up some of the leftover candy canes from the Candy Cane Reindeer we made last week and pushed them into the bottom of the brownies, and voila!
In retrospect, it would have been much smarter to add the candy cane tree trunks to the brownies before I added the icing. It was a bit difficult to maneuver them without wrecking the icing.
Don’t they look awesome though!? Easiest treat ever!
Here’s the step by step, printable recipe, just in case you need it!
Easy Christmas Tree Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 box Brownie Mix
- 1 tub white vanilla icing
- green food colouring
- small round sprinkles
- small star sprinkles
- candy canes
Instructions
- Line an 8"x8" baking pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
- Prepare the brownie mix according to the package directions and bake as directed.
- Allow brownies to completely cool, approximately 1.5 hours.
- Remove the brownies from the pan, and cut into triangles. (Cut in three rows, then cut in alternating diagonals, as in the photo shown above).
- Unwrap the candy canes, and use a sharp knife to gently cut/break the candy canes into 1.5" long pieces.
- Press the sharper end of the candy cane into the bottom of the brownie triangles.
- Spoon out approximately 1/2 of the tub of icing into a bowl.
- Add green food colouring until you're happy with the colour.
- Spoon the green icing into a zip lock bag.
- Seal the bag and cut off a small corner of the bag with sharp scissors.
- Starting at the top of the brownie triangles, gently squeeze out the icing in a curvy zigzag as you go down the tree.
- Add your favourite sprinkles and a small star sprinkle at the top.
- Enjoy!
These Christmas Tree Brownies are SO EASY and don’t they look adorable?! Just cut the brownies into triangles, add a candy cane trunk, squeeze on some icing, and sprinkle on your favourite toppings! Seal them in an air tight container, and the icing will harden overnight. They travel well and make a great treat for a Christmas party! Oh, and did I mention, they make me SO HAPPY!
If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy our Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Trees:
This is a pinterest FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS DOES NOT WORK I TRIED THIS!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS!!!!!1
The recipe calls for boxed brownie mix and a tub of premade icing… which part was the fail????
lol it wasn’t a fail, it was perfect! Thanks for posting, such a cute idea!
I agree with Sam. Got to the part of cutting it. Size did not match up to pictures. Too small to do the rest. Might help with the diet over holidays. Waste of time. I guess I need to be a pro to get this right….Great Idea and was stoked to try it, bad for beginners… Sorry pot luck peeps, no special brownies this year
These are so cute, going to make this weekend. Gonna use pretzel stick instead of candy canes though. Would parchment paper work instead of foil?
I was thinking of making these in a round cake pan and then cutting like a pizza. That would make triangles with less waste. You may have to trim the bottoms to take the curved edge off.
But then you don’t have “waste” to eat & enjoy after all your hard work!! LOL
It’s such a good idea!.. The children were delighted 😉 This recipe will definitely be in my collection 🙂 Thank you!
Made the brownie trees with my 3 little toddlers it was a fun little baking recipe to do with my kids they loved them.
This type of frosting would remain soft. What could you use that would harden up a bit?
Hello question about the icing as I’m from UK and I don’t recognise the pic.
Is it royal icing or more like a frosting?
Hi Morag! This is a fluffy vanilla frosting.
Loved making these with my students at school. I cut up pretzel logs for the tree trunks instead.
That sounds like a lot of fun, Heather. Love the pretzel idea — the salty and sweet combination would be delicious!