A Christmas Morning Treat: Donut Hole Tree

Perhaps one of my favorite things to during the holiday season is planning the menus for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. While Christmas Eve dinner is a sit down formal meal for our family, Christmas Day centers around grazing on good food all day while lounging in our pajamas. Christmas morning starts off with coffee (and a splash of Baileys) for Rob and I and a hot chocolate bar set-up for the kids. This is followed by brunch and mimosas mid-morning and a charcuterie board mid-day! Depending on whether we can still move by evening, we cap off Christmas night with tortellini soup! It truly is the best time of the year!

So when planning this year’s menus, I immediately was inspired to add something fun, festive and whimsical when I caught sight of the donut hole tree featured on this year’s cover of Christmas with Southern Living. The donut hole tree is an easier spin on the classic French dessert, croquembouche; a fancy french dessert made out of cream puffs. Instead of cream puffs though, we Americanize this treat with the use of donut holes! It really is a simple process but you are left with a gorgeous dessert perfect for setting out on Christmas Morning.

Donut Hole Tree

Ingredients:

1 (12 inch tall) foam cone. You can find them here.

Aluminum foil

Container of vanilla buttercream frosting

80 toothpicks

80 glazed* donut holes

Powdered sugar for dusting

Optional accents; rosemary sprigs, sugared red berries, peppermint puffs, marshmallows, Christmas cookies

*Buying powdered donut holes is of course an option, but the dusting of the powdered sugar at the end is my favorite part!

Directions:

Cover foam tree with aluminum foil. Coat with a thin layer of frosting to hide the foil with a flat edge spreading knife.

Starting at the bottom of the cone, insert a toothpick 1/2 inch from bottom, leaving 1 inch of toothpick sticking out. Press one donut hole onto the end of toothpick. Continue inserting toothpicks 3/4 inches apart horizontally and placing donut holes on them to create a ring around base of cone. Repeat process with remaining toothpicks and donut holes, working your way up cone until the cone is completely covered.

Optional: Tuck sprigs of rosemary, sugared red berries, marshmallows and/or peppermint puffs in between donut spaces (you don’t have to fill every space)

Place covered cone on a serving plate or cake stand. Using a small wire-mesh strainer or flour sifter, sprinkle powdered sugar on top of tree and around tree. Decorate with accents! Volia! & Enjoy!

 

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Thanks for stopping by!

L, M