Pull-Apart Christmas Tree Cupcake Cake

This Pull-Apart Christmas Tree Cupcake Cake is the best alternative to a traditional Christmas cake. It’s so easy to make that I guarantee you will get great results even if you are new at cake decorating. You can even get your kids to decorate it! I used mini chocolate cupcakes and a simple, 2-ingredient mascarpone cheese frosting.

Ingredients

23 mini cupcakes of your choice – I recommend these Perfectly Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
450 g frosting of your choice – I made a simple 2-ingredient frosting from 150 g sweetened condensed milk and 300 g mascarpone cheese (both should be cold from the fridge)
gel food colouring – green, yellow
3 Tbsp Nutella
1 pack of Smarties (45 g)
1 fork
3 piping bags
star decorating tip # 1M from Wilton to make the yellow stars
a small spatula or a teaspoon

Directions

Bake your cupcakes and let them cool off.

To make the mascarpone frosting, mix the sweetened condensed milk with the mascarpone cheese for 1 minute on medium speed. Stop halfway through to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Do not over mix as your frosting might become too soft. Also, ensure that the condensed milk and mascarpone cheese are kept in the fridge for at least 8 hours before using them.

Colour about 2 tablespoons of frosting in yellow. Colour the rest of the frosting in green.

Arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter to form the tree. Start by placing 1 cupcake at the top, then on the next row 2 cupcakes, then 3 cupcakes and so on until you make the last row out of 6 cupcakes. Place the remaining 2 cupcakes in the middle, at the bottom, to form the tree trunk.

Place your green frosting and yellow frosting in piping bags. The piping bag with the yellow frosting should be fitted with the 1M star tip.

Pipe a vertical line of green frosting dots beginning at the bottom of the tree. Place the tip of the spatula or a teaspoon in the middle of the dot, press down and drag the icing towards the tip of the tree. Wipe your spatula with a paper towel when needed. Repeat this process until you reach the tip of the tree.

Pipe four stars on the top cupcake.

Cover the tree trunk with 2 tablespoons of Nutella. Use a fork to make vertical lines and add a bit of texture that resembles tree bark.

Place the remaining Nutella in a small piping bag and pipe a thin rope on the tree. Then, place the smarties along the rope to make them look like tree ornaments.

Watch the video tutorial below to see how to make this Pull-Apart Christmas Tree Cupcake Cake: