Best Fantasyland Pull Apart Cupcakes Recipes

PULL-APART VANILLA-WAFER CUPCAKE CAKE WITH BERRIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together cookie crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Beat butter with granulated sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating until combined after each addition. Fold in coconut.
• Divide batter among cups. Bake until cupcakes are golden brown and centers bounce back when gently pressed, 22 to 24 minutes. Let cool completely in tin on a wire rack.
• Add 2 tablespoons water to a small saucepan. Sprinkle with gelatin; let stand until thick, about 5 minutes. Gently heat over medium until gelatin has dissolved. Remove from heat; let cool 5 minutes (but don't let it set).
• Beat together cream, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until very soft peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes. Add gelatin mixture; beat on medium until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute more.
• Remove cupcakes from tin and arrange on a platter in a three-by-four rectangle. Spoon frosting over each row of cupcakes; using an offset spatula, smooth to cover tops, forming a rectangular shape. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours. Sprinkle with berries before serving.

PULL-APART CUPCAKE SNOWMAN

Steps:

• Arrange 14 cupcakes in a tight circle on a platter or cake board for the body and 7 cupcakes in a smaller tight circle for the head. Add 2 cupcakes for the scarf.
• Using a small serrated knife, cut 7 chocolate wafer cookies in half; spread frosting on the back and arrange around the edge of the cupcake circles as shown to round out the shape.
• Cut 6 more cookies into quarters. Spread frosting on the back, then use to fill in the gaps between the cupcakes.
• Transfer the remaining frosting to a piping bag with a 1/2-inch round tip. Pipe dots of varying size all over the cupcakes and cookies to cover completely. Add chocolate candies for eyes and buttons and trim a circus peanut for the nose. Roll out the fondant until 1/4 inch thick; trim into 2 strips for the scarf and fringe the ends. Place on the snowman.

TRACK-AND-FIELD PULL-APART CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Place 1/2 cup of the buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip for white piping.
• Divide the remaining buttercream into 2 large bowls and remove 1/3 cup of buttercream from each large bowl and place in 2 smaller bowls. Stir 3 to 5 drops of yellow food coloring into one of the small bowls, and 3 to 5 drops of orange food coloring into the other small bowl, adding more coloring to each if needed to make the colors vibrant. Transfer the yellow and orange buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a fluted tip so that the colors are side-by-side in the bag. Refrigerate.
• Stir in 5 to 7 drops of green food coloring into one of the large bowls of buttercream, stirring and adding additional color if needed so the buttercream is grass green. Transfer the green buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a grass tip.
• Add 8 drops of red, 4 drops of brown and 4 drops of orange food coloring to the remaining large bowl of buttercream, stirring and adding additional color if needed so you have a shade of rusty brown. Transfer the brown buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a large flat tip (you can also use a large round tip).
• In the center of a large platter, arrange 6 cupcakes in 2 lines, making a rectangle. Place a cupcake on either end of the rectangle, so that it nestles in between the two lines. Arrange 14 cupcakes around the outside of the original 8 to create an oval. Place the remaining cupcake at the bottom left corner of the oval.
• Pipe the brown buttercream over the 14 cupcakes creating the oval plus the additional cupcake on the edge, creating the track (an oval with a square tail). Use a small offset to smooth the track and make it roughly 2 1/2 inches wide all the way around.
• Pipe the green buttercream in the center of the track so that it looks like grass. Place the platter of cupcakes in the refrigerator while making the hurdles and medalists.
• To make hurdles, use kitchen shears to cut each piece of gum in half lengthwise, and then again widthwise, so that you have 12 tiny strips of gum. Pull apart the strings of the pull-apart red licorice and cut twenty-four 1-inch pieces. Melt the white chocolate chips in 10-second intervals in the microwave, stirring between intervals, until smooth and melted. Dip one end of a piece of licorice string into the white chocolate and place on one end of a gum piece. Repeat with a second licorice string on the other end of the gum piece. Repeat this with the remaining 11 pieces of gum. Set the hurdles aside for the white chocolate to set, about 10 minutes.
• To make the medalists, pipe a V around the neck of 3 graham-cracker bears with the white buttercream. Use kitchen shears or a paring knife to cut 1/3 off the end of the gold, silver and bronze jelly beans. Dip the cut sides of the shorter piece of the jelly beans in the melted white chocolate and press them into the center of the V of each graham-cracker bear to make a medal. Set aside.
• Remove the cupcake platter from the refrigerator and carefully pipe a white border along the edges of the track, completing the outer oval as well as outlining the square. Pipe two lines down the center of the track and square, creating 3 lanes. Pipe starting lines and markers along the track.
• To make the podium, cut a quarter off of one marshmallow and cut another marshmallow in half. Place a whole marshmallow in the center of the piped field, place the slighter shorter marshmallow directly to the left, and the shortest marshmallow to the right. Hold the bear with the gold medal on the tallest marshmallow so it is standing upright and pipe a small mound of white buttercream behind the bear to keep it standing. Repeat with the bear with the silver medal to the left, and the bear with the bronze medal to the right.
• Gently place the hurdles staggered along the track in the individual lanes. Set the remaining 3 bears as runners along different spots on the track.
• To make the torch, stuff the sugar cone with the remaining half and quarter marshmallows. Gently push the cone into a corner of the field so that it stays upright. Pipe upright flames with the orange and yellow buttercream, covering the entire top of the cone.

FANTASYLAND PULL APART CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cup in each of 48 regular-size muffin cups. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for cupcakes, using water, oil and egg whites. Cool 10 minutes; remove cupcakes from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely.
• Place cupcakes on platter, fitting snugly together and forming rectangle. Frost cupcakes with 1 container of frosting. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Tint 1 container of frosting with green food color. Tint remaining container of frosting with blue food color. Spread green frosting over cupcakes, leaving 3 cupcakes white in each of 3 corners. Frost the 3 corners of white cupcakes with some of the blue frosting. Arrange fruit chews on cupcakes to look like walkway. Fill ice cream cones with remaining blue frosting; top each with a gumdrop. Place ice cream cones in one area. Stand chocolate pieces and candy canes in other corners. Arrange lollipops to look like a forest. Place remaining gumdrops randomly on cupcakes.