Watermelon Cupcake Cake

Ingredients:

• 5 and 1/4 tbsp. American buttercream
• Green gel food coloring
• Dark pink gel food coloring
• Red gel food coloring
• 19 of Your Favorite Cupcakes
• 30 black mini Jelly Beans
• Special equipment: pastry bag with a large round tip

Preparation:

1. Place about 3/4 cup of white buttercream in a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip. Tint about 1.5 cups of the buttercream dark green. Tint about 3 cups of the buttercream dark pink, adding a few drops of red food coloring to create the color of ripe watermelon.
2. Arrange 19 cupcakes in a triangle shape with one cupcake at the top and 6 at the bottom, lifting the bottommost cupcakes up so they form a slight semicircle, like a watermelon slice.
3. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, spoon about 1/4 cup of green frosting onto each of the six cupcakes in the bottom row. Smooth it out with a small offset spatula, covering the tops and sides (but not the paper liners) of the cupcakes to create a solid line of green frosting. This will be the watermelon rind.
4. Wash and dry your ice cream scoop and spatula. Spoon 1/4 cup of pink frosting onto each of the remaining cupcakes and spread it over the tops and sides with an offset spatula. On the topmost cupcake, create a corner with frosting to resemble the tip of a watermelon wedge.
5. Rinse the spatula again. Pipe a curved line of white buttercream along the spot where the pink and green meet. Smooth the tip of the spatula over the inside white part of the watermelon rind. Press jelly beans randomly onto the rind to create the watermelon seeds.