Pipe Sugar Cones With Icing For Instant Mini Christmas Trees

If you're looking for a fun food-related activity for the kids over the holidays, consider ditching the gingerbread house for a good old sugar cone Christmas tree. They make great decorations for food platters — and have the added benefit of being decadently delicious. The ingredient list is short and the cheerful grins are wide with this neat winter trick.

If you're going for simplicity, buy some already-made icing from the store. If you have the time and would rather do it yourself, making homemade vanilla buttercream frosting is a breeze as well. Make sure you have some food dye on hand to get the icing the right color and don't forget the sugar cones! If you'd like to imitate ornaments on the tree, you can use pieces of candy or a different colored batch of icing. 

Licorice, sprinkles, and M&M's are all great options to decorate your frosted tree. Some people like to set their sugar cone Christmas tree on top of a cookie as a base, but they stand just fine on their own as well. If the cone isn't standing up straight, simply break (or bite) off pieces of the bottom to get it even.

When it comes to frosting your Christmas tree, you could just use a knife to spread the icing onto the sugar cone, but it won't look as good. For best results, use a cone-shaped plastic piping bag. Fill it with icing of whatever color you make it, cut off the bottom tip, and place a piping tip there in whatever shape you want the icing to come out as. You could place long strands along the sugar cone in a nice pattern or make lots of little dots of icing all over to give it more texture – the world is your Christmas oyster.

If you're making these with kids, remember that the workspace could get pretty messy with all the little bits of edible decorations being handed around, and watch out for the icing bag. Lining the work surface with parchment paper is helpful, especially if you cut out individual squares for each tree. 

Of course, this isn't just a fun treat for children. If you're hosting a holiday party and are looking to spruce up your charcuterie board or the dessert table, these little guys are going to turn your nice setup into a winter wonderland. And don't forget to eat them up when the party is over!