christmas tree brownies

i had my last appointment before christmas today, with my beautician, to have my waxing done. i have been going to rachel since we moved to aveley and i absolutely adore her, so i wanted to do something really cute for her. i had seen these brownie christmas trees online a few times, so i decided today was the day to make my own.

after finding this photo courtesy of google, which i used as a pattern to make sure i didn't waste too much when cutting, i baked my normal brownie recipe and threw them in the fridge to cool (i don't normally do this and probably wouldn't recommend it, they are a much better texture when they cool on their own) before cutting them up to decorate.

perfect brownie recipe 

(i call it this as they are literally perfect every single time and so so easy)

200g butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

2 eggs

1. grease a 20 x 30cm tin, preheat oven to 180deg celcius (160 deg fan forced)

2. melt butter in a large saucepan on a very low heat, add brown sugar, mix until well combined, do not allow it to boil!

3. add cocoa and vanilla, stir well

4. take off heat, add flour and stir it in

5. add eggs and mix really well

6. spread mixture evenly in tin and bake for 22 minutes 

to make the trunks, break candy canes into pieces... (try for about an inch, but they are temperamental and you just need to work with where they break to be honest haha) and poke them into the base. for the icing, i combined icing sugar with a tiny bit of milk at a time and a few drops of green food colouring, until the icing was smooth enough to stir, but was starting to go stiff as it was left for a moment or two. i used a ziplock bag with the tip cut off to pipe it onto the trees into a zig zag, then added sprinkles to decorate.

honestly? they were delicious! but i will absolutely be adding a few drops of mint to the icing next year, cause the mint with the brownies was amaaaazing. so so yum. highly recommend you give them a go, they look nice, they are fun and delicious to boot! we are taking them to christmas eve dinner at the pinkers, so hopefully everyone else likes them too!