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

St. Paddy's Day Mint Thins

Drizzled in green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day but you could enjoy these any time of year and after you taste these I am quite confident you will !

I found this recipe online after looking for ideas on how to mimic those yummy Girl Guide cookies we buy boxes of each year. Now instead of waiting for my daughter to bring some home, we can enjoy them whenever we want.

These little numbers are simple chocolate wafers coated in a peppermint oil infused chocolate candy coating. A drizzle of green icing tops them off nicely.

I found the recipe here on Food Buzz as posted by In Katrina's Kitchen

I adapted it somewhat:

• rolled the dough out between 2 sheets of waxed paper
  
• reduced baking time to 8 minutes
• used Wilton Candy Flavoring oils to add that peppermint taste - 3 drops to a bag of Dark Chocolate Candy Melts is all you need. Do NOT use artificial extracts as it will affect the candy coating consistency and you don't want that! Use oil based flavors only*.
  
• For the green drizzle, I simply melted some green candy melts and put the melted chocolate into a Wilton Candy Bottle used for drizzling. You can add the drizzle right after you dunk the cookies in the chocolate and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Then let them cool in the freezer for 15 minutes before indulging.

* For the oils, LorAnn Oils are also fantastic and top-notch quality. I found some in Bulk Barn but you can also buy them online here at the Vanilla Food Company.

This is my all-time favorite tool for dunking cookies into melted chocolate.
You can buy it where they sell candy making ingredients.
If you don't have one, simply use a fork.

And when making these, have some fun and try different cookie cutter shapes. Given the upcoming St. Patty's Day festivities, why not opt for a shamrock cutter?
Or think easter eggs shapes for April !

I didn't get a chance to take a pic of a decorated shamrock cookie but here they are fresh out of the oven. As you can see, they don't rise up as the recipe has no leavening agents. They also hold their shapes incredibly well. Basically after you cut them and prep them for the oven
they truly are "what you see is what you get" once baked.

These are great cookies that have definitely won my vote for being a staple treat around here.

ENJOY !!!