Sourdough Christmas Tree Cakes (Inspired by Little Debbie)
These sourdough Christmas tree cakes are inspired by Little Debbie but made from scratch with wholesome ingredients. They start with a moist sourdough vanilla cake. Then, they are layered with homemade stabilized whipped cream and topped with melted chocolate and natural decorating sugar.
P.S. Don’t let the length of this recipe discourage you! I promise it’s super easy, even for beginners.
This recipe was inspired by the treats made by Little Debbie. But my recipe is not affiliated with or endorsed by the brand and/or corporation. This post may contain affiliate links of items I know and love. Read our disclosure policy for more information.
If you want to make this recipe but don’t have a sourdough starter, no worries! Grab my free guide so you can make your own starter at home.
If you’re new to sourdough baking and feel hesitant, or you have questions, I’ve got something for you! I broke down the basics of what you need to know about sourdough baking in my free sourdough baking guide for beginners. I highly recommend grabbing a copy!
Sourdough Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes
Oh, my heavens! This recipe is absolutely delicious and the inspiration behind it is so sweet. These little cakes are made from scratch with wholesome ingredients like sourdough for fermented gut benefits. You’re going to love them!
Inspiration Behind This Recipe
My husband has always loved Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes. As a child he loved them and he still does to this day as an adult.
The only problem is Little Debbie uses garbage ingredients that aren’t great to eat we haven’t bought them for years. Because of this, I wanted to surprise Tyler with a batch made at home from scratch with sourdough for added gut benefits from the fermentation.
He was blown away and SO excited! So much so that he asked if we could start a tradition of making and decorating these little cakes at Christmas time instead of cookies. Of course, I said yes! I love that idea!
So my hope with this recipe is I’ll inspire more of you to make these cakes at home instead of buying them at the store. They’re made with wholesome ingredients instead of the additives and junk found in the boxes at the store.
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Sourdough Christmas Tree Cakes
Ingredients for the Cake
- butter, softened(salted)
- avocado oil or coconut oil
- cane sugar
- eggs
- pure vanilla extract
- sourdough starter (fed or discard): This is used to add gut benefits not rise so it doesn’t matter which one you choose.
- milk
- sour cream: Makes the cake super moist. You can substitute it with plain unsweetened yogurt as well.
- salt
- baking powder
- all-purpose flour
Ingredients for the Stabilized Whipped Cream Layer
- heavy whipping cream (need to be cold!)
- pure vanilla extract
- powdered sugar
- plain cream cheese (softened, room temperature)
Ingredients for the Chocolate Coating
- semisweet chocolate chips or white chocolate chips.
Ingredient for Decorating
- Naturally colored decorating sugar (Watkins brand is what I use)
Choosing Safe Decorating Sugar
For decorating sugar, it’s so important to choose a brand that is naturally colored. You do not want to buy any that has FD&C artificial food colorings in it. Like Red 40, Blue 1, etc.
I use and trust the Watkins brand. They have all different colors, and they keep those nasty dyes out of your food.
The Different Cake Coating Options
There are 3 different options for coating your Christmas tree cakes. I included them all because they are equally delicious and give you a different result.
Option 1 – Spread on Top: This is my favorite of the three. To do this, you will simply use a butter knife to spread the melted chocolate on top of each Christmas tree cake.
Option 2 – Drizzled Over the Tops: To do this you will use a spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate over the tops of the cakes. You can use the spoon to spread it over the top and sides if desired.
Option 3 – Dipped: If you would like to do this version, you can swap the chocolate chips or white chocolate chips for melting chocolate, aka almond bark. You will dip the assembled cakes to coat them fully. This gives you the 360 coating, very similar to what Little Debbie does. Do note this can be messy.
Kitchen Tools You’ll Need
- 10×15″ rimmed baking sheet (AKA a jelly roll pan)
- 4″ Christmas tree cookie cutter
- mixing bowls
- electric mixer
- wire cooling rack
How to Make Sourdough Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes
Make the Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a (approximately 10” x 15”) rimmed baking sheet pan (AKA a jelly roll pan) with butter and flour (tap off extra flour).
In a large mixing bowl add softened butter, avocado oil, and sugar. Mix with an electric mixer with beater attachments on low speed for 2 minutes. It should be creamy and well-combined.
Add eggs one at a time, beating until completely combined both times.
Add in vanilla, sourdough starter (fed or discard, doesn’t matter), milk, sour cream, salt, and baking powder. Mix on low-speed just until combined. Do not over mix.
Add in flour and mix on low speed just until combined. Do not over mix.
Optional- at this point you can move on our the recipe or you can long ferment the batter for gut benefits. This allows the sourdough cultures to ferment the other ingredients making them easier to digest. To do this long ferment cover the bowl of batter with a lid or seran wrap and place it in the fridge overnight or up to 24 hours. (Minimum 12 hours)
Pour cake batter onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread evenly with a spatula to fill the entire pan.
Bake for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Take the cake out of the oven and place the cake still in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes to cool.
Make the Whipped Cream Layer
During this cooling time, in a medium sized mixing bowl, add in cold heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, softened cream cheese, and powdered sugar.
Use an electric mixer on medium speed with a whisk attachment to whip the ingredients together for 2-3 minutes or until stiff peaks form. The whipped cream should stay on the whisk and not drop off.
If the heavy whipping cream isn’t cold the whipped cream won’t come together. If this happens place the bowl in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and try again.
You can also do this with a regular handheld whisk it’ll just take a little longer.
Store in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
Make the Coating
In a pan over low heat melt the chocolate chips of your choice. Stir continuously to prevent burning. Warm until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Don’t turn up the heat to go faster it will burn the chocolate.
When melted take off the heat and set aside for now.
Cut the Cake
When the cake is fully cooled, take a spatula and loosen the edges as well as underneath the cake. Be very gentil not to crack the cake.
The cake should be about 3/4” thick (If your pan was larger than my 10”x15” pan your cake will be a little thinner or if it was smaller the cake will be thicker.)
Then place a cutting board on top of the pan and flip it upside down so the cake is now out of the pan and upside down on the cutting board. The cake should come out easily if you loosened it all the way.
Leave the cake upside down and take a 4” Christmas tree cookie cutter and cut out 8-10 trees. Try to cut the trees as close to the edges as possible so you can try to squeeze two out of the center.
Set the excess cake aside (you can use this for another recipe like cake pops, or you can cut it up and save it or freeze it for later).
Assemble and Decorate
Spread 2-3 spoonfuls of filling on half of the trees. We’re going to make little cake sandwiches so make sure you’ve got a good ratio of whipped cream to cake.
Then place a plain tree on top of each whipped cream covered tree.
Now to coat the trees grab the chocolate you melted earlier. If it’s hardened warm it slowly again.
For coating them you have a few different options you can choose from. PLEASE SEE THE NOTES TO CHOOSE WHICH ONE AND DO IT.
Once you’ve coated your trees immediately sprinkle the tops with decorating sugar.
Place the decorated trees on a clean parchment-lined sheet pan and pop them in the fridge for 15-20 minutes so the chocolate can harden. Make sure the cakes are not still on a wire rack or else the chocolate will harden onto the rack.
After that enjoy! Because of the whipped cream these cakes need to be stored in the fridge in an airtight container.
Tips to for Making Sourdough Christmas Tree Cakes
- Make sure you don’t over-mix the cake batter. This can cause it to be dense.
- Carefully follow the directions so you don’t miss a step.
- Ensure the cake is fully cooled before you try to take it out of the pan or frost it.
- If you’re dipping the cakes to coat them, do it gently and know your hands will get messy.
Storing Homemade Snack Cakes
Because of the whipped cream, these cakes need to be stored in the fridge in an airtight container. They’ll last 4-5 days in there.
Recipe FAQs
I highly recommend it! This allows you to control what ingredients are in it and the amount of sugar. Plus, it tastes a lot better this way.
Yes, this stabilized the cream cheese, so it doesn’t melt into the cake or slide out of the cake. You can swap it for unflavored gelatin if you prefer.
You can coat the cakes in melted chocolate that’s been melted down or almond bark AKA melting chocolate if desired.
I haven’t made my vanilla cake recipe without sourdough before, but I’m sure you can. It adds a little moisture and fermented benefits to the cake. It does nothing structurally so you can eliminate it if desired and just add a little more milk to the batter.
You put sourdough starter in cake batter to give it the benefits of fermentation and added flavor. If you place your batter in the fridge to ferment for 12 hours, the sourdough cultures break down the other ingredients and ferment them as well. This makes it easier to digest.
Did you make this recipe?
- Give it a 5-star rating in the comments below 👇🏼
- Share a photo of your Christmas tree cakes on your Instagram or Facebook stories. Be sure to tag @plumbranchhome and use the hashtag #plumbranchhome so I can see it!
More Sourdough Desserts To Make
- Sourdough Honey Buns (better than Little Debbie’s)
- Sourdough Brownies Recipe
- Cut Out Sourdough Sugar Cookies
- Sourdough Coffee Cake
Recipe
Sourdough Christmas Tree Cakes (Inspired by Little Debbie)
Ingredients
Cake
- 6 Tbsp softened butter
- 2 tsp avocado oil
- 3/4 cup cane sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter fed or discard (room temperature)
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Stabilized whipped cream layer
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream need to be cold!
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 oz plain cream cheese softened, room temperature
Coating
- FOR DIPPING THE WHOLE CAKE: 1/2 of a pound of white almond bark melting chocolate
- or FOR FROSTING JUST THE TOPS: 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips or white chocolate chips.
Decoration
- Naturally colored decorating sugar
Instructions
Make the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a (approximately 10” x 15”) rimmed baking sheet pan (AKA a jelly roll pan) with butter and flour (tap off extra flour).
- In a large mixing bowl add softened butter, avocado oil, and sugar. Mix with an electric mixer with beater attachments on low speed for 2 minutes. It should be creamy and well-combined.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating until completely combined both times.
- Add in vanilla, sourdough starter (fed or discard, doesn’t matter), milk, sour cream, salt, and baking powder. Mix on low-speed just until combined. Do not over mix.
- Add in flour and mix on low speed just until combined. Do not over mix.
- Optional- at this point you can move on our the recipe or you can long ferment the batter for gut benefits. This allows the sourdough cultures to ferment the other ingredients making them easier to digest. To do this long ferment cover the bowl of batter with a lid or seran wrap and place it in the fridge overnight or up to 24 hours. (Minimum 12 hours)
- Pour cake batter onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread evenly with a spatula to fill the entire pan.
- Bake for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Take the cake out of the oven and place the cake still in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes to cool.
Make the Whipped Cream Layer
- During this cooling time, in a medium sized mixing bowl, add in cold heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, softened cream cheese, and powdered sugar.
- Use an electric mixer on medium speed with a whisk attachment to whip the ingredients together for 2-3 minutes or until stiff peaks form. The whipped cream should stay on the whisk and not drop off.
- If the heavy whipping cream isn’t cold the whipped cream won’t come together. If this happens place the bowl in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and try again.
- You can also do this with a regular handheld whisk it’ll just take a little longer.
- Store in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
Make the Coating
- In a pan over low heat melt the chocolate chips of your choice. Stir continuously to prevent burning. Warm until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Don’t turn up the heat to go faster it will burn the chocolate.
- When melted take off the heat and set aside for now.
Cut the Cake
- When the cake is fully cooled, take a spatula and loosen the edges as well as underneath the cake. Be very gentil not to crack the cake.
- The cake should be about 3/4” thick (If your pan was larger than my 10”x15” pan your cake will be a little thinner or if it was smaller the cake will be thicker.)
- Then place a cutting board on top of the pan and flip it upside down so the cake is now out of the pan and upside down on the cutting board. The cake should come out easily if you loosened it all the way.
- Leave the cake upside down and take a 4” Christmas tree cookie cutter and cut out 8-10 trees. Try to cut the trees as close to the edges as possible so you can try to squeeze two out of the center.
- Set the excess cake aside (you can use this for another recipe like cake pops, or you can cut it up and save it or freeze it for later).
Assemble and Decorate
- Spread 2-3 spoonfuls of filling on half of the trees. We’re going to make little cake sandwiches so make sure you’ve got a good ratio of whipped cream to cake.
- Then place a plain tree on top of each whipped cream covered tree.
- Now to coat the trees grab the chocolate you melted earlier. If it’s hardened warm it slowly again.
- For coating them you have a few different options you can choose from. PLEASE SEE THE NOTES TO CHOOSE WHICH ONE AND DO IT.
- Once you’ve coated your trees immediately sprinkle the tops with decorating sugar.
- Place the decorated trees on a clean parchment-lined sheet pan and pop them in the fridge for 15-20 minutes so the chocolate can harden. Make sure the cakes are not still on a wire rack or else the chocolate will harden onto the rack.
- After that enjoy! Because of the whipped cream these cakes need to be stored in the fridge in an airtight container.
These are adorable! Can’t wait to make.
Thank you so much! I’m excited for you to make them!