Turn my popular cookie cake recipe into adorable Christmas trees for your holiday platters. Just one 9×13 pan and no cookie cutters needed.
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Christmas Tree Cookie Cake Bars 🎄
Makes: 24 slices
Ingredients
⭐️ Before you begin! If you make this, will you do me a huge favor afterwards and leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe? This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick) for 20-30 seconds, or until fully melted.
- Using a spatula, stir in the ½ cup light brown sugar and ¼ cup granulated sugar until combined. Add the 1 large egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, then stir.
- Stir in the ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Add the 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour and stir until combined. Fold in the 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- Drop chunks of dough into a greased and parchment-lined 9x13" pan, then use a spatula or your hands (sprayed with nonstick cooking spray) to smooth it out.
- Bake at 350°F for 12-14 minutes, or until it looks slightly brown on top and slightly underbaked in the center. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. Allow the cookie cake to cool completely before removing from the pan.
- To cut into trees, use the diagram below. This is also on page 16 of my cookbook.
To Make Frosting:
- With an electric mixer, beat ½ cup unsalted butter on medium-high speed for 1 minute until smooth and creamy (if using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment). Gradually add 2 ½ cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and pinch of salt, mixing on low speed. Add 2-3 tablespoons milk, one tablespoon at a time, then beat on high for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Adjust the consistency with more powdered sugar or milk if needed.
- For decorating, reserve ¼ cup of the frosting and color it yellow. Fit a piping bag with a star tip to pipe the stars, then color the remaining frosting green. Add sprinkles right away, as the frosting sets quickly.
Notes from Melissa
This is a double batch of my usual cookie cake frosting, which makes piping easier since fuller piping bags are easier to control. Any extra frosting can be frozen or used on other sugar cookies.
Gluten-Free: For those asking, I turned this popular recipe into the best Chewy Gluten-Free Cookie Cake!
Nutrition information is just an estimate but based on 12 servings.
The perfect taste and texture. My grandsons love decorating the trees. The family loved: em so much we made a second batch ❤️
Thank you so much for leaving a review, Debi! So glad to hear you and the fam enjoyed this recipe so much!
Can I double or triple this recipe to make a thick coolie cal
I made these and they turned out so cute! The only thing I would have done differently was cooking them a little longer so the center wasn't so raw-ish. But then they would be a little harder to cut out.
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review! I really appreciate it!
Delicious! Made these for a cookie swap and my kids really enjoyed eating the extra corners that were cut off. They said it tasted better than the mall cookie cakes. They were also really cute and presentable when frosted and I really appreciated that you included the amounts of ingredients in the instructions so I didn’t have to keep scrolling up.
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review, Stephanie! I really appreciate it!
This was really easy and tasted very yummy, too. I made the "cookies" in advance and decorated them with my grandkids. Tons of fun!
Thank you so much for leaving a review! I really appreciate it!
Love this recipe! Thank you so much for putting the ingredient amount in the instruction. Not having to scroll up and down or foot back to another page makes all the difference in the world.
Thank you so much for leaving a review, Cassandra! I really appreciate it!
Just one of a few recipes I have made from your website. Great recipe that comes together quickly.
The only issue I have, is I only have one pan so I have to wait for everything to cool before I can make another batch. 😃
Can't wait to try another recipe and save my hands from all the scooping.
Made these and the sugar cookie bars this morning. They were easy and terrific!!
Thank you so much for leaving a review, Nancy!
My hubby made two batches of these choc chip cookie trees in one week.....the first batch didn't even make it to the frosting stage as we ate our way through them and gifted some to friends.
This batch just got iced and I am a novice when it comes to icing but I felt this icing was much easier to work with for piping than other recipes I've tried.
That said, as a complete novice some advice on which piping tips to use and how to store the iced and decorated cookies etc would be helpful too!
Might need to buy your book as we've both enjoyed making this recipe so much.
This is a great way to combine my favorite cookie with Christmas.
Perfect for a cookie exchange!
Thank you so much for leaving a review, Bobbi!
Can you clarify the amount of vanilla in the cookie cake? The list of ingredients shows 1.5 teaspoons, but the Instructions say 2 teaspoons. Thank you!!
Thanks for catching that, Barbara! It should say 1 teaspoon for the dough, 1 teaspoon for the frosting. I just fixed that. Good news is that a little extra vanilla never hurts! ;)
Can you make these ahead of time from when you are serving them (in a week) since the icing has butter and milk in it?
If making a week ahead, you'll want to make and freeze them! The frosted slices freeze well. I wouldn't let them sit out for a week or they'll dry out. Hope you love them!
Absolute genius!! Easy, tasty & cute -- making my MamaElf cookie stress fade away!
So glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe so much! Thank you so much for leaving a review, Emily!
I’m excited to try these with my kiddos! Do you think I could make it in advance and freeze it in the 9x13” pan?
Yes, you can definitely freeze these! They freeze & thaw well!
Can you make this dough ahead of time?
Yeah! It is decently thick so if you refrigerate it, you'd want to let it come down to temp to make it easier to spread! Or you can bake the bars & freeze, then frost! Or even decorate & freeze, then cut after they thaw!
Love theses! Thanks for sharing!
Merry Christmas!🥰🎄
Thank you so much for leaving a review, Katen! I really appreciate it!