Skip the pine and flowers this holiday season and go edible with this charming berry tree. Decorative and practical, the strawberry tree is topped with an edible star as well! It’s creator, cookie and dessert aficionado Tish Boyle, graciously shares with us a tutorial of how to put one together.
We’ll start with the supplies:
- 1 floral foam or green styrofoam cone (measuring 4 to 5 inches in diameter at the base and 12 inches high)
- 1 box of toothpicks
- 4 one-pound containers of fresh Driscoll strawberries
- 1 bunch fresh mint
- 1 slice from a carambola fruit (aka star fruit)*
*If you can’t find a star fruit, Tish suggests taking a 1-inch star shaped cookie cutter to a slice of mango.
Now for the directions:
- Wash the strawberries and blot them dry with paper towels. Pull off the green stem from each strawberry. Reserve a perfect strawberry for the top of the ‘tree’.
- Push a toothpick halfway into the side of the cone, about 1/2 inch from the bottom edge. Secure a strawberry to the toothpick, piercing it through the stem end. Secure another strawberry right next to the first one. Continue securing strawberries to the cone in circular rows up to its top, covering the cone completely. Secure the reserved strawberry to the top of the tree.
- Remove some mint leaves from the bunch of mint and tuck them between the berries, placing them at about 3-inch intervals.
- Secure the star-shaped carambola or mango slice to the top of the cone using a toothpick.
To see enjoy more of Tish’s creations, check out her books, which include such titles as The Good Cookie: Over 250 Delicious Recipes from Simple to Sublime and The Cake Book. Yum!
