Strawberry Christmas Tree Brownie Bites

My exam is finally over and it's time to start cranking out the holiday sweets! Remember last year when I made Santa Hat Brownie Bites with strawberries? Well I came up with a new way to jazz up some strawberries for the holidays this year. This version takes a little more work with piping all over the strawberries, but certainly not much skill so I highly suggest you give them a try even if you're nervous about piping.

I think it would be really cute to do a platter of Santa hats and Christmas trees mixed in together -- less work piping a whole plate of trees too! I made my stars out of yellow fondant, decorated the tree with white peppermint pearls and red hots (it was what I had on hand), and sprinkled them generously with disco dust. Edible glitter is the perfect holiday accessory. You might even want to dust the brownie bites with some powdered sugar or sweetened coconut to imitate a thin layer of snow. Of course I don't think of these ideas until days after I finished baking, but I'm here to not only give you recipes and ideas, but also suggestions on how to improve upon them. My brain has been too full of infectious diseases to allow for creativity, but now that the test is over, my brain is reeling with ideas!

There's no specific recipe with this, but here's what you need to make them like I did:

Your favorite brownie recipe, halved (This one's my favorite)
Batch of pipeable frosting (I used cream cheese frosting because it's delicious)
24 small-medium strawberries
Yellow fondant or star-shaped sprinkles
Small ball shaped candy decorations
Disco dust (if you have it)

- Bake your brownies in greased mini-muffin tins filled up 3/4 of the way. You're going to have to shorten the baking time a bit, so just keep your eyes on them as they bake -- they're done when a cake tester comes out clean.
- Ask the brownies are baking and cooling, put together your frosting and dye it green.
- Once baked and cooled, secure the strawberries to the brownies with a dab of frosting
- Put frosting in a piping bag fit with a small star tip, and cover the entire strawberry by starting at the strawberry, applying a bit of pressure, and pulling away gently to a nice point.

Feel free to use boxed brownie mix, canned frosting, and whatever other shortcuts you can come up with during this busy time of year! I ended up with more brownie batter than I had strawberries, so I just baked off a few extra and decorated them with frosting without strawberries.