St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Cupcakes

St. Patrick’s Day officially celebrates the patron Saint of Ireland, but most people just think of it as a day to drink green beer and color a river!  And truth be told I was never one to go over the top on the festivities. Like most, I would occasionally go to a bar with friends.  But that all changed when I married my half-Irish husband!  They are McGowans and they don’t get much more Irish than that.  And boy do they enjoy beer!  So much so that they consider it a disgrace to color it green.  But they actually do much more than drink for the holiday…

Every year we get the Irish family together for a big party with tons of food, decorations, games and of course sweets! Josh’s Uncle is always telling everyone that I am a pastry chef (I wish it was true!) so this year I decided to play along with the story and create some magical St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Cupcakes!

Making the gum paste Shamrocks is really easy and only requires a few tools.

 Tools Needed:

• Gum Paste
• Forest Green Gel Color
• Four Leaf Flower Cutter
• Kelly Green Disco Dust
• Small Fondant Rolling Pin
• Small Brush
• Edible Glue

Directions:

1. Add a few drops of forest green gel color to some white gum paste and knead it together until you no longer see any streaks.
2. With a small fondant rolling pin, roll out your gum paste.
3. Use a four leaf cutter to cut out the flowers.
4. To make the stem take a small amount of gum paste, roll it like spaghetti and then flatten the top.
5. Glue the stems to the back of the flowers.
6. Leave your four leaf flowers and stem out to dry overnight.
7. The next day place a piece of wax paper underneath your four leaf flowers to collect your excess disco dust.
8. Using a small brush lightly coat the top of your four leaf flowers and the stem with edible glue.
9. Sprinkle Kelly green disco dust over the glue.
10. Tap off the excess disco dust onto the wax paper and leave the flowers out to dry over night.

Next let me share with you my recipes for very vanilla cupcakes and vanilla buttercream! I hope you like the recipes as much as I do.

 

Very Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• Vanilla bean
• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of cake flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
3. Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and with a small knife scrape out the seeds.
4. Using the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the vanilla bean seeds, butter and sugar until creamy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition.
6. Next add the vanilla extract.
7. In a small bowl sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt.
8. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two additions, alternating with the milk.
9. Turn off the mixer and scrape the sides of your bowl and add the sour cream.
10. Turn on the mixer and mix until the sour cream is incorporated.
11. Fill your liners 2/3 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.
12. Let it cool in pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter at room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter until smooth.
2. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and mix well.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream and mix well.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 twice.

What are your plans for St. Patrick’s Day? I’d love to hear all about them in the comment section below!