christmas class gifts - brownie trees

please allow me to introduce you to the idiot (me) who thought it would be a good idea to make these adorable brownie christmas trees for each child in my two (school aged) childrens classes.oh they'll only take an hour she said. she was wrong. 58 trees and 3.5 hours later, i was seriously regretting all my life decisions.

oh. my. word.

courtesy brownie recipe:

200g butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

2 eggs

1. preheat oven to 160 deg celcius (fan forced)

2. line a 20 x 30cm pan

3. melt butter and brown sugar in a pan gently over low heat until combined. do not boil

4. add cocoa and vanilla essence and stir until combined

5. add flour and mix well

6. add eggs and stir until completely combined

7. pour into lined pan and bake for 20-25 mins (in our oven - 22 mins is perfect!)

i baked the 3 trays of brownies during the day, that was not the issue. they were easy as anything. it was the decorating and packaging that got me.

step 1. cut each tray into triangle pieces, which actually takes ages just in itself.

step 2. pipe icing onto each tree in a tinsel kind of motion 

(icing is simply a mix of icing sugar, just enough milk to make it pipe-able but not enough that it won't dry, and a little green food colouring.)

step 3. add "baubles and stars" from any random supermarket sprinkle mix

step 4. add candy cane trunks in the base of each tree 

step 5: wrap each tree in cellophane bag, add individual tags (created with canva then printed off at our local harvey norman) and tie off, then curl ribbon ties.

would you believe this process took me three and a half hours?! i nearly died - mostly of tiredness because by then it was 2:30 in the morning. augh. but they looked amaaaazing and i was so proud of them.

and it was all worth it in the morning, because joseph took one look at them and said: "oh mum they are amazing! my class will love them." day = made. that is why we mums do stupid things like this.

merry christmas school kiddies! ❤

p.s. maddie has two lovely girls in her class that don't celebrate christmas as they are jehovah witnesses. we chose to give them something else instead, a handmade school tartan scrunchie with a non christmas label. respect for others beliefs, in turn brings respect for ours.