New Year's Cupcakes with a Secret

Ingredients

for the cupcakes:

3 cups flour

2 cups water

1.5 cups sugar

6 tbsp cocoa powder

4 tbsp vegetable oil

1.5 tbsp 9% vinegar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla sugar

For the frosting:

250 g butter

500 g powdered sugar

7 tbsp milk

Vanilla

Salt

Green food coloring

For the filling:

Strawberries

For decoration:

M&M's

Cookies

Mix all dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and vanilla sugar. Sift twice through a sieve. Pour in the vinegar, then the oil, mixing each time with a fork. Do not whisk! Pour in the water and mix everything with a fork or spoon. Do not whisk too long. Do not whisk! Pour the chocolate cupcake batter into the molds and bake for 30 minutes at 180-200°C. The resulting mixture makes about 24 cupcakes.

Make the frosting. Beat the soft butter thoroughly until stiff and white. Sift the powdered sugar and add it to the mixture. Add the vanilla and salt and whisk thoroughly. When the mixture is elastic and smooth, add the milk (until the desired creamy consistency is reached). Beat everything for 5-7 minutes.

Decorate. Frost the cupcake with frosting and secure the strawberries. Refrigerate until the strawberries adhere well. Take a pastry bag fitted with the smallest star tip and fill it with our green frosting.

Starting at the bottom, begin piping spruce branches onto the berry in a circle. Place the tip of the tip against the berry and begin piping until you've squeezed out a column of frosting about 1 cm thick. Then, stop pressing and release your hand holding the cone.

First, stop pressing and only then release your hand. Continue in this circle all the way to the top, staggering the columns relative to the previous row. Decorate the finished tree with jelly beans and a star.

Bon appétit!