St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes topped with Baileys Irish Cream frosting and a decorative white chocolate Shamrock.
This made from scratch chocolate cupcake recipe is so much tastier than a cake mix cupcake. A festive St. Patrick's Day treat made even yummier with the addition of fluffy Baileys Irish Cream frosting. Topping each cupcake is a decorative green-tinted Shamrock made with white chocolate! These tasty cupcakes and my Shamrock Sugar Cookies are perfect desserts to make for a St. Patrick's Day party!
Our family has had a lot of fun celebrating St Patrick’s Day over the years. When our son was little he was fascinated by Leprechauns so we would make up hilarious scenarios of what tricky little Leprechauns would do for St Patrick’s Day. While he was sleeping the Leprechauns would come and paint green stripes on our white Maltese dog. They would also take all our underwear out of the drawers and hang it all over the house. Also, these mischievous Leprechauns would paint the snow in our front yard green! Of course, they would always leave a pot of gold! (chocolate wrapped gold coins).
St Patrick’s Day is such a fun holiday to celebrate with everything green and some awesome Irish food.
More St. Patricks day recipes to try:
Irish Stew
Irish Colcannon
Baileys Irish Cream Macarons
Shamrock Sugar Cookies
Bacon Kale Potato Salad (a great spinoff of Colcannon)
Tips for St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes:
- You can make the frosting ahead of time and refrigerate. If necessary, bring back to room temperature a bit before you piping or spreading frosting on cupcakes.
- I used a Shamrock cookie cutter to make the decorative topper. Other ideas for decorating are using green sprinkles, jelly beans, or adding a tad of green food coloring to the frosting.
- A box cake mix will work if you are in a hurry or want something easy for making the cupcakes, but my preference is always using a made from scratch recipe.
- If you prefer an alcohol-free frosting substitute the Baileys Irish Cream with 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.
* This post was originally published March 3, 2012. I occasionally update with fresh tips, content and photos. Current update February 28, 2020.
St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup butter softened
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk
Frosting
- 1 cup butter room temperature
- 4 cups icing sugar
- 7 tablespoon Baileys Irish Cream
Chocolate Shamrocks
- 8 oz white chocolate good quality
- green gel food colouring
Instructions
Chocolate Cupcakes
- Heat oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
- Line cupcake pan with paper liners for 18 cupcakes
- Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in large bowl until fluffy.
- In separate bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add alternating flour mix and buttermilk to mixture, beating just until smooth.
- Pour batter into prepared cupcake pan.
- Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Cool completely before frosting.
Baileys Irish Cream Frosting
- Beat butter and icing sugar together until fluffy.
- Add 7 tablespoons of Baileys Irish Cream, beat until well combined.
- If necessary add more Irish Cream until spreadable consistency.
White Chocolate Shamrocks
- Melt 1 cup white chocolate in double boiler or microwave (50% power). Spread evenly onto parchment paper.
- Before chocolate cools, dip tip of toothpick into green food colouring gel. Then using tip of toothpick make swirls into the chocolate.
- Let cool, then cut out with Shamrock shaped cookie cutter.
- You may have to cool in refrigerator for short time to harden enough to cut shapes.
Nutrition
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