If you’re looking for a last minute idea for St. Patrick’s Day, here are some delightful cupcakes. They are filled with ganache made with Irish Cream, but if you’re making these for the kidlings, you can use regular heavy cream instead.
Here’s the recipe, but if you’re in a hurry and need to use a cake mix, I won’t hold it against you. The important part is the filling (whooeee, it’s potent!) and the decorations.
| Pot o' Gold Cupcakes | Print |
- GANACHE:
- 4 ounces good quality dark chocolate, chopped
- ½ cup Irish Cream liqueur (like Bailey's)
- CAKE:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature - divided
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup whole milk
- 2 cups cake flour
- ¼ cup cocoa
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoons baking soda
- Green buttercream icing, sufficient to frost 24 cupcakes
- Junior mints (optional to use in place of ganache for pots of gold)
- MAKE GANACHE:
- In a small pan on low heat, combine the chocolate and Irish Cream. Heat and stir gently until chocolate is melted and mixture looks well blended. Set aside, stirring occasionally while the cakes are made.
- MAKE CAKES:
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- Line 2 cupcake pans with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy.
- Slowly add sugar, beating continuously, and scraping bowl often. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add egg YOLKS, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the vanilla, buttermilk and whole milk.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Beginning with the dry ingredients and ending with the wet, add alternately, approximately ⅓ of each mixture at a time, scraping the side of the bowl often.
- Whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into the batter.
- Fill cupcake cavities ⅔ full and bake for approximately 20 minutes. A toothpick should come out cleanly when inserted into the middle of a cupcake.
- Cool in pans on racks for 5 minutes, and then turn out the cupcakes to cool thoroughly.
- Place ganache in a piping bag with a large round tip. Press tip into the center of each cupcake, almost to the bottom, and squeeze gently while pulling the tip back out. Don't try to put too much ganache in each one; they'll crack if you do. The remaining ganache will be used to make the pots of gold.
- Cover each cupcake with green buttercream icing. (I used a large closed star tip).
- Pipe a round "pot" on each cupcake. With a paintbrush, add gold powder. If you don't have any, yellow frosting or candy will do. OR you can use junior mints, cut the top off so a little white shows, and "paint" it with yellow food coloring.
- Place a small strip (about 3" of sour striped candy on each cupcake with one end next to the pot of gold.
Filling the cupcakes with Irish Cream Ganache
Frost ’em purdy!
Add a little magic gold dust (or see other options in the recipe).
If you’d like more ganache in each cake, make two holes in each cake, or try unwrapping the cupcakes and squeezing the tip in the sides of the cakes.
This is the last St. Paddy’s recipe for this year. Onward….Easter is only a few weeks away!
Lorinda