These copycat vegan Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes are the most highly requested recipe I think I’ve gotten. I had so many people ask me to veganize these cuties last year, that I decided to work on it. I wanted to get them ready for everyone to enjoy this year. The reasons are clear as to why these were so highly requested! Once I made them and bit into my first one, I had a nostalgia rush. Plus, man are they yummy. Vanilla sponge cake, cream filling, white chocolate coating and fun, festive decorations!
What You Need For These Super Nostalgic Treats:
- All Purpose Flour: For the cake and cream filling.
- Organic Cane Sugar: I always use this to make sure I am using vegan sugar.
- Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt: These are added to the flour and sugar for the cake.
- Vegan Butter: I used Country Crock Plant Butter.
- Vanilla, Non-Dairy Milk and Vegan Yogurt: I used Kite Hill yogurt and oat milk.
- Applesauce and Cornstarch: These are my egg replacers.
- Vegetable Shortening: Mixed with a thickened milk/flour mixture, vegan butter and sugar to make the cream filling.
- Vegan White Chocolate: King David brand.
- Coconut Oil: To make the white chocolate harden like a shell around the cakes.
Who needs animal based products when you can make something so incredible? These copycat vegan Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes make everyone I give them to smile! They are perfect for sharing with friends, family, neighbors or just chowing down on them yourself. This is a fun project you can work on with kids. I love to just zone out and make the cutest Christmas Tree Cakes. The enjoyment for me when I cut the trees out, and decorate them is endless.
Why Should You Make These Vegan Holiday Cakes?
- I mean…why wouldn’t you make them?
- These satisfied all my Little Debbie cake cravings.
- They are so fun to make!
- The cream filling is truly divine.
- This cake is moist and delicious!
Copycat Vegan Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes
Pure nostalgia and delight comes when you bite into these adorable vanilla cakes with cream filling!
Ingredients
For The Cake
- 3 Cups All purpose flour
- 1 1/2 Cups Organic cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 Cup Vegan butter, room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
- 1 Cup Non-dairy milk, divided(I used oat milk)
- 1/3 Cup Plain vegan yogurt, I used Kite Hill
- 1/2 Cup Applesauce
For The Filling
- 1 Cup Non-dairy milk, unsweetened I used oat milk
- 5 Tablespoons All purpose flour
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable shortening, I used Nutiva brand
- 1/2 Cup Vegan butter, room temperature(I used country crock plant butter)
- 1 Cup Organic cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
For Decorating
- 16 Ounces Vegan white chocolate, I used King David Brand
- 2 Tablespoons Coconut oil
- Vegan red icing*
- Vegan green sugar**
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees(F).
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch and salt.
- Add the vegan butter, vanilla and 1/2 cup of milk. Begin to beat together with the paddle attachment for the stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Beat until just combined, it will be very thick. Set aside.
- In a separate medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup of milk, the yogurt and the applesauce.
- Now with the stand mixer running or the hand mixer running, slowly pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the thick batter. Mix until everything is fully combined.
- Evenly divide the batter into 2 13×9 inch sheet pans(they are usually called 1/4 size sheet pans), that have been lined with parchment paper. Smooth the batter out evenly in the sheet pans.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
- Let them cool completely.
- Once the cakes have cooled, make the cream filling. In a medium sized sauce pan, whisk together the non-dairy milk and flour until completely combined and there are no lumps of flour.
- Heat on medium, bring to a simmer, whisking constantly, reduce heat to low and let it simmer until very thick. This will only take 1-3 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool.
- Now, in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the vegetable shortening and vegan butter.
- Whip together using the whisk attachment for the hand mixer or stand mixer, until smooth.
- Add the sugar, vanilla and salt. Continue to whip until fully combined and fluffy.
- Add the cooled thickened milk/flour mixture to the bowl and then continue to whip until the mixture is light and fluffy. This may take a few minutes.
- Scoop the cream filling out of the bowl and on to the top of one of the cooled sheet cakes. Smooth it out evenly over the entire cake.
- Remove the other sheet cake from the pan and place it on top of the sheet cake that has the cream filling on top. So the cream filling is in the center of the cakes.
- Press the top cake down slightly, then chill for at least 4 hours, but I just like to do it a day ahead and chill overnight.
- Once the cake has chilled, using a Christmas tree cookie cutter, cut trees out of the cream filled sheet cake. If you use a large one, you should get about 12 trees, but you can use a smaller one and get 18-20.
- Now, melt the white chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each 30 seconds, until the white chocolate has melted, whisk until smooth.
- Dip each Christmas tree into the white chocolate and coat completely. Place them on some parchment paper.
- Decorate with red icing and green sugar. Let set until the topping is firm and then enjoy! I use the excess cake and filling to make cake pops! You can roll it all together to make balls, press a stick into the bottom and then coat in the white chocolate!
Video
Notes
*To make the red icing, I whisk together 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 teaspoons non-dairy milk and vegan red food coloring. I use Supernatural vegan red food powder.
**To make the green sugar, I mix a bit of vegan green food coloring with cane sugar.
Nutrition
Calories: 411kcal | Carbohydrates: 97g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 480mg | Potassium: 228mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 69g | Vitamin A: 1182IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 162mg | Iron: 2mg
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Those were my guilty pleasure before going vegan, Now they can be my free of guilt pleasure!!!
We made these and they were delicious! 5 stars for recipe innovation. There are nearly vegan alternatives for everything, but processed food has few replicators, so it was great to be able to make this ourselves. It was a fun activity we split over two days. A suggestion: I would add the instagram reel/tiktok video to this post to follow along, or add a longer length video. I had trouble getting the icing to be the right consistent without being so hot it would melt the cakes. Our cakes were not very perfect/uneven icing so tips around that would be helpful. Still fun to make.
Just made these and they were a huge hit! I’m already thinking of making them again. I suspect the cake and the whipped filling might work well as a roll cake too so I plan to experiment with that.