St. Paddy's Day Cupcakes


What better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than with a beautiful batch of vanilla cupcakes topped with sweet green icing. Or switch it up and make green cupcakes with white icing.

These cupcakes are from two dozen I made for my son's Grade 5 class to celebrate this special occasion. We are a week early given their upcoming March Break. But really, is it every too early to have a cupcake?! I think NOT.

You can decorate these in so many ways! Chocolate gold coins, edible shamrock toppers, even cute decoration Leprechaun hats come to mind. I used little silver candy balls, finishing sugars and St. Paddy's Day themed hors d'oeuvres picks. HAVE FUN !


Topped with vanilla buttercream
and colored finishing sugar




And this is what happens when your daughter finds them when she arrives home from school !



RECIPE:

For the cupcake recipe, I have come to love Chef Ricardo Larivee's cupcake recipe that he uses to make his butterscotch cupcakes though I do alter it somewhat. It is moist and delicious!

WHAT YOU NEED:

CUPCAKES (altered source recipe)

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
1/2 cup full-fat sour cream at room temperature
2 teaspoons green food coloring if you want green cupcakes

ICING

This is a standard, creamy and just plain delicious buttercream icing that I use all the time.

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons light cream (5% is fine)
1 teaspoon green food coloring

MAKE IT

CUPCAKES

PREHEAT oven to 350F
FILL 12 cupcake tins with paper liners. This batter does make more than 12. I can usually get 17 cupcakes in total.

IN SMALL BOWL, SIFT together first 3 ingredients and set aside
IN LARGE BOWL, beat butter with electric hand-mixer still light and fluffy (2-3 min, MED speed)
ADD sugar and mix 1 min MED speed
ADD eggs , one a time, mixing after each to thoroughly combine
ADD vanilla and sour cream, blend til combined
ADD food coloring if you want a green cupcake, mix blend til well combined
SLOWLY add 1/2 flour mixture to batter, mix til just combined
ADD milk to batter, mix til just combined
ADD rest of flour mixture and mix til just combined
FILL tins 1/2 full
BAKE 22 minutes
LET cool in tin 5 min then remove cupcakes and let cool 1/2 hr on cooling rack before icing

ICING

WITH electric hand mixer, blend butter 1-2 minutes MED speed
ADD icing sugar and blend 2-3 minutes until fully combined
ADD vanilla extract and cream, blend 1-2 minutes
FOR green icing , add food coloring and blend until uniform in color

FILL PIPING BAG and pipe away. I use a Wilton 1M Swirl tip for the green iced cupcakes and a Wilton 6B tip for the white iced cupcakes.

IMPORTANT: DON'T MISS MY SPRING GIVEAWAY! You could be the lucky winner!

ENJOY !


Featured Here: Sweet Tooth Friday



Featured Here: FOODIE FRIDAY !



Featured at Ekat's Kitchen's Friday Potluck



Recipe Featured at
Sweet for Saturday # 8




5 comments:

  1. I need to start baking more. Thanks for the recipes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So fun!

    Thanks for linking up with Sweet Tooth Friday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog. Your cupcakes look really yummy. Can't blame your daughter for helping herself :) I too am a fan of Ricardo's, but I rarely get around to actually making his recipes. I'm bookmarking yours :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love your cupcakes! I need to make these!!!
    http://www.inspired2cook.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Such a great treat for St. Patrick's day

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments!

Linda @ Lemon Drop