Festive chocolate (Christmas) trees – easy homemade gifts!

Beautiful, decorative, and very seasonal, these festive chocolate Christmas trees are fabulous and easy homemade gifts that everyone will appreciate.

My daughter Kipper has four teachers at pre-school. It occurred to me that we probably ought to give each of them a Christmas gift at the end of term. And for whatever insane reason (because really, I have LOADS of time on my hands) I decided the gifts should be homemade. 

There was a brief moment when I thought that DH and Kipper might run up some wooden reindeer on the bandsaw. We have a whole family of these that they have made on various quiet weekends – not sure why reindeer is the animal of choice, but that’s how it is. But there was no time to start getting out big machinery, hence, gift manufacture fell to me. 

All bark, no bite

Initially, I thought we could spread out some melted chocolate on a parchment-lined tray, Kipper could sprinkle it with goodies, then when it was set we could break it into chunks and put it in a fancy bag with a ribbon. Voila! Fancy chocolate bark! 

Circular logic

But not fancy enough, apparently. OK then, dollop circles of chocolate, Kipper sprinkles them with goodies, put them in bags etc etc. Voila! Mendiants!

Late night inspiration

But you know how it is. You’re browsing fancy chocolatiers’ websites late at night, and you catch sight of some sort of layered chocolate confection in the form of a decorated Christmas tree, and you think, $30?! For that?! It’s just decorated discs of chocolate, stacked up…

Next thing you know, you’re up to your elbows in melted chocolate and Kipper is getting high on multi-coloured sprinkles…

Easy to make – and fun!

These were, actually, ridiculously easy to make. The main problems I had were a) preventing Kipper from eating all the goodies before they made it onto the chocolate discs, and b) encouraging her to sprinkle stuff a bit more quickly (rather than hand place every individual sprinkle) so that the chocolate wouldn’t set completely before they were decorated. If you’re doing these without the help of a child, you can whizz through in a matter of minutes.

I did wait till she’d gone to bed to assemble them into trees though. I’m not totally mental. 

Chocolate Christmas trees – Perfect gifts

I hope you agree that these chocolate Christmas trees look the business, and not just for ‘homemade gifts’ either. I’m super-chuffed with these. I think Kipper’s teachers were pretty pleased with them too!

This made four small and very festive chocolate trees. 

Oh, don’t be put off by the lengthy list of ingredients and instructions – these are really VERY easy to make.

📖 Recipe

Festive chocolate Christmas trees

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Beautiful, decorative, and very seasonal, these festive chocolate trees are fabulous and easy homemade gifts that everyone will appreciate.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Servings 4 trees

Calories 708 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 300 g dark chocolate
• 1 tablespoon soft butter
• 109 g pouch of Cadbury’s twirl bites (or similar chunk-o-chocolate style confectionary)

Suggested toppings – approx. 1-2 tablespoon of each

• raisins/sultanas
• dried cranberries
• glace cherries, halved
• pine nuts
• flaked almonds
• cocoa nibs
• multi-coloured sprinkles
• 'gingerbread men' sprinkles
• Edible lustre powder (optional)

Instructions

 

• Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper. On the back of the paper, draw four each of four sizes of circle – I used my round cutters as templates. The largest should be 9-10cm (3½-4 inches), the smallest about 4-5cm (2 inches). (16 circles in total.)
• Break up the chocolate into a microwaveable bowl, and heat on medium for a minute at a time, stirring well each time. When the chocolate is mostly melted, remove from the microwave and add the butter. Mix well until there are no lumps left in the mixture.
• Dollop the chocolate onto the greaseproof paper and spread to fill the marked circles. I used about 3 tablespoon of chocolate in the large circles, and progressively less in the smaller circles. Place a twirl bite in the centre of each circle.
• Finally, make four 2-3cm (approx. 1 inch) circles by dolloping teaspoonfuls of chocolate onto the paper – these are the tops of your trees.
• Now, get decorating! Sprinkle your toppings over the chocolate circles. Go wild!
• Place the decorated chocolate discs into the fridge to set.

To assemble the trees

• Melt 1-2 tablespoon of the twirl bites in a small bowl. Place a blob of the melted twirl onto the twirl bite in the centre of one of the largest size circles. Carefully position the next size circle on top and leave for a minute to firm up slightly. Continue to build the tree, adding melted twirl and another circle, until you reach the top.
• Repeat with the remaining circles to make four trees.
• Lightly dust with lustre powder, then return to the fridge to fully set.

Notes

You will probably have some twirl bites leftover. Enjoy!

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Festive chocolate Christmas trees

Serving Size

 

1 tree

Amount per Serving

Calories

708

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

48

g

74

%

Saturated Fat

 

27

g

169

%

Trans Fat

 

1

g

Polyunsaturated Fat

 

3

g

Monounsaturated Fat

 

15

g

Cholesterol

 

10

mg

3

%

Sodium

 

46

mg

2

%

Potassium

 

681

mg

19

%

Carbohydrates

 

66

g

22

%

Fiber

 

11

g

46

%

Sugar

 

41

g

46

%

Protein

 

8

g

16

%

Vitamin A

 

117

IU

2

%

Vitamin C

 

1

mg

1

%

Calcium

 

71

mg

7

%

Iron

 

10

mg

56

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Keyword chocolate

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

More recipes and ideas

Finally, if you like these, why not check out my list of gorgeous homemade gift ideas for more inspiration!

One last thing. I was going to use Rolos for the trunks, until I realised that they’re made by Nestle. You can read why I don’t buy Nestle products here.

I’m sharing these yummy chocolate trees in these places:
Treat Petite, which has a Christmas theme this month, and is organised by Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer (who is also hosting this month).
And Family Foodies, organised by Vanesther at Bangers & Mash and Lou at Eat Your Veg, which is after recipes for festive food. Yum.

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