Pandoro Christmas Tree Cake, Italian Christmas Cake
- Makes 12 people
- Prep 15 minutes
- Total 15 minutes
A beautiful Pandoro Christmas Tree Cake made with Pistachios and White Chocolate. This festive Christmas tree shaped cake is a fun and impressive Italian dessert yet it won't take you longer than 15 minutes to make! Spend less time in the kitchen and more time celebrating the festive season!
Pandoro (golden bread) is a soft and light, vanilla-scented Italian Christmas cake similar to panettone.
It's good and the solid treat for the festive season especially because of its Christmas tree shape.
You can make it yourself using a pandoro cake tin but we love to buy them at the supermarket and turn them into a festive show stopper which is so much more fun and quick.
We mean, how impressive is this cake and it takes no longer than 15 minutes to make!
Interested in Italian Christmas food? Read our Traditional Italian Christmas Foods post that goes through what Italians eat in each region.
Ingredients – what you need
Other than a pandoro cake you'll need a few simple and easy ingredients to make this Christmas tree cake
- Mascarpone – use full-fat mascarpone.
- Powdered sugar (icing sugar) – We don't use much because the pandoro itself is sweet but you can easily add more or less to your liking.
- Liqueur – our original recipe used vin santo (a sweet Italian wine) but it can be hard to find out of Italy so you can use marsala or any liqueur of choice.
- White chocolate – good quality finely chopped (to speed things up you could use white chocolate chips)
- Pistachios – make sure they're unsalted
- Red currants – these are good but if you can't find them you can use pomegranate instead.
How to make Pandoro Christmas Tree Cake – step by step
First, add the mascarpone to a bowl and add the liqueur and powdered sugar (photos 1 & 2).
Beat the mixture with an electric mixer until combined (photos 3 & 4).
Next, add the chopped white chocolate and pistachios and mix together with the mascarpone mixture (photos 5 – 7).
Cut the pandoro cake four times to create five sections (see photos 8 & 9).
Spread each section with the mascarpone mixture and sprinkle with a few red currants. Lay each slice of pandoro back on top of each other as you go so the points don't match to resemble a Christmas tree (photos 10 -12).
Decorate the rest of the cake with a few more red currants and pistachios and sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve! (photo 13).
Other liqueurs you can use
Since Vin Santo can be hard to find we often use Marsala or another sweet liqueur, here are some of our favourites
- Marsala
- Cointreau
- Baileys
- Chocolate liqueur
- Limoncello
- Frangelico
Making it in advance
Because this Christmas tree cake is quick to make and maybe a bit too big to fit in the fridge we make it the day we're serving it.
If you want to prep in advance then you can make the mascarpone filling and even cut the cake and wrap it back up until you are ready to serve.
Then all you need to do is fill each layer last minute and make the final touches.
Top tips and recipe FAQs
- Use a serrated bread knife to cut the cake into sections
- Pistachios give a fun festive green colour to the cake but you can swap them for other nuts if you prefer.
- You can also swap the white chocolate for milk or dark chocolate.
- If you're freezing leftover cake then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and foil.
- You can follow this recipe with panettone instead (it'll be good) but you won't get the same Christmas tree effect.
- Pomegranate can be used instead of red currants.
The cake will last around 1 day out of the fridge. Leftovers or the whole cake (if there is space) will last up to 3-4 days in the fridge or can be frozen wrapped in plastic wrap (cling film), foil and in suitable containers.
More Italian Desserts You Might Like
- White Chocolate Panna Cotta
- Lady's Kisses – Baci di Dama (Italian Cookies)
- Panettone Bread Pudding
- Italian Affogato Recipe – Ice Cream And Coffee
- Quick & Easy Tiramisu – Best Ever Recipe
- Italian Almond Cookies (Ricciarelli)
Ingredients
Makes 12 people
- 1 large Pandoro cake
- 2 cups Mascarpone ((17.5 oz/500g))
- 1 fl oz Vin Santo (or liqueur of choice (30ml))
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar) plus 1 tbsp for dusting ((70g))
- 1/4 cup pistachios plus a few extra to decorate ((25g))
- 1/2 cup white chocolate (finely chopped (50g))
- 1/2 cup Red currants or pomegranate (plus extra for decoration (3.5 oz/100g))
Method
Put the mascarpone in a large mixing bowl with the vin santo and powdered sugar and whisk together for 1 minute. Add the chopped white chocolate and pistachios and stir through, set aside.
Cut the pandoro in five slices from bottom to top. Spread each layer evenly with the mascarpone mixture making sure to scatter a few red currents on each layer.
Lay each slice of pandoro on top of each other so the points don't match to resemble a Christmas tree as you are layering the mascarpone mixture.
Top with a dusting of powdered sugar and some more red currents and pistachios.
Kitchen notes
- Use a serrated bread knife to cut the cake into sections
- Pistachios give a fun festive green colour to the cake but you can swap them for other nuts if you prefer.
- You can also swap the white chocolate for milk or dark chocolate.
- If you're freezing leftover cake then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and foil.
- You can follow this recipe with panettone instead (it'll be good) but you won't get the same Christmas tree effect.
- Pomegranate can be used instead of red currants.
