These cute little cupcakes are perfect for sharing with family and friends on St. Patrick’s Day. I tried making the cupcakes green velvet but the colour didn’t seem to shine out as much as I would have liked, so I simply just made the icing green.
Yields 12 muffins
Ingredients for Cake:
- 1 cup + 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- 2 1/4 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 3/8 cup butter, softened*
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
Ingredients for Frosting*:
- 3 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered/icing sugar*
- 1/2-3/4 tbsp milk
- 1/8 tsp vanilla essence/extract
- Green food colouring
- Sprinkles
Directions:
Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line and butter 12 muffin tins*.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, corn starch, baking soda and baking powder.
- Beat butter and sugar together until creamy.
- Slowly add in eggs one at a time, beating between each new addition.
- Add yogurt and vanilla essence/extract.
- Fold in flour mixture by hand with spatula.
- Put batter into lined tins.
- Bake for 15-18 mins and insert knife (should come out clean).
- Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting:
- Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth with no lumps between.
- Add sugar in slowly, tasting to check sweetness levels.
- Mix in milk, vanilla essence/extract and food colouring until desired colour.
- Place frosting in a piping bag and have fun with the tips. I used a simple piping bag with no tip inserted.*
- Add sprinkles if desired.
Enjoy!
*Notes:
- 3/8 cup butter, softened: If your butter is not room temperature, like mine often isn’t, I simply pop it into the microwave for 5-10 second intervals until soft. Try not to completely melt butter, as that throws off the liquid:solid ratios. Go only small intervals, there’s no going back after its been melted.
- 1 cup powdered sugar/icing sugar: I have also only recently learned this but powdered sugar is icing sugar and vice versa, so don’t worry about using that grinder for making some fresh powdered sugar, although it does give a better taste. As well, different people have different sweetness levels, so use the 1 cup as a guide. I recently made a completely downsized version of this and took the ratio as a guide. I actually didn’t need as much as said on my recipe, as cream cheese has a bit of sweetness as well. Beware, the frosting actually becomes a lot more than expected.
- 12 muffin tins: I decided to use different moulds this time, which is why the cupcakes look different than they would in regular muffin tins. Below is what mine look like. They’re silicone moulds and perfect for showing our love to the Irish on this St. Patrick’s Day. I was lucky enough to pick them up from Loblaws, although I’m not sure if it’s available in every country. Any other muffin tin works just as well though. Also, if using silicon molds, there’s no need for using liners, simply butter them.
- Piping bag and tip: I have a piping bag but for this most recent batch, I made everything a lot smaller, so I had very little frosting. For this, I used a sandwich bag, which gave the very beautiful edges of leaves. Although, feel free to experiment or use whichever tip you like best.
Lobo Universe 