Usually for St. Patrick’s Day, I make my all-time favorite recipe, Guinness chocolate chip cupcakes with a chocolate ganashe. The only problem is that I don’t like to serve these to the kids, for the obvious reason (even though the alcohol is baked off, it just sounds bad, right!?)
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On St.Pats this year, I did the traditional big dinner; braised corned beef, cabbage with balsamic reduction, roasted carrots and potatoes. For dessert, I waited 3 days before FINALLY getting to it, (hey, I was busy with my daughters fundraiser) chocolate cupcakes with buttercream mint frosting.
The dinner turned out great, and I used Pioneer Woman’s recipe from FoodNetwork. It was pretty easy and the oven did most of the work. The cupcakes were delish and simple, and definitely will keep them on the menu for next year. I’m so grateful for tradition and our friends that we celebrate St.Pats with each and every year. The kids LOVE tradition and look forward to it. It’s always a fun time and watching the kids grow together over the years brings me so much joy.
For the cupcakes, prepare a box mix of Betty Crocker Devils Food Chocolate cake mix as directed.
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Frosting Ingredients:

  • Two sticks of butter, room temp
  • 6 cups of  powdered sugar
  • 4 TBSP milk
  • 1 tsp mint extract
  • 6 drops green food coloring
  • pinch of salt

Directions

  1. In the bowl of your electric stand mixer, mix the two sticks of butter very well on medium speed.
  2. Once the butter is smooth, add the powdered sugar, mix slowly then turn up the speed.
  3. Add the milk, mint, food coloring and salt.
  4. Do check the labels of your food coloring – I know it sounds silly, but WILTON brand is NOT safe food coloring for nut-allergic people. It’s made in a facility with tree-nuts and peanuts. We use McCormick brand
  5. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix some more until everything is combined very well.
  6. Sample it and adjust as needed.

I promised I would talk about piping here, too. So this is for you Jill 🙂
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How to Pipe your frosting:

  1. Find a large plastic cup and put your piping bag inside the cup, with the piping tip already in.
  2. Fold the sides of the piping bag over the outside of the cup.
  3. Add your frosting to the piping bag
  4. Once the piping bag is full, take the bag out of the cup and twist the top
  5. on a plate, test out your piping, get the air bubbles out.
  6. Now you’re ready to pipe your frosting!

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