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Shamrock Cut Out Cupcakes with mint green frosting in the shape of a shamrock.

Shamrock Cut-Out Cupcakes

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: buttercream, buttercream frosting, chocolate cupcakes, shamrock cupcakes, st patrick's day cupcakes
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 24
Calories: 244kcal
A simple, yet fun technique perfect St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes!
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
  • ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa best quality available
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract best quality available
  • 1 cup boiling water

Mint Buttercream

  • 1 cup butter 2 sticks, salted, or unsalted
  • ¼ teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract best quality available
  • ½ teaspoon mint extract
  • 2 to 3 drops green gel food coloring optional
  • 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream half and half or milk

Instructions

Chocolate Cupcakes

  • Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
  • In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  • Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
  • Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
  • Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
  • Bake cupcakes for approximately 18-22 minutes.
  • Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

Mint Buttercream

  • In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute).
  • Add salt (if needed).
  • One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
  • Add vanilla and mint extracts as well as gel food coloring if using, and beat to combine. (Add a few drops of food coloring at first and add more as needed.)
  • Add about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating.
  • Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
  • Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached. If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes, the frosting should be nice and thick. Continue to beat another minute or so. The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.

Assembly

  • When the cupcakes have cooled, used a small serrated knife to cut off the tops of the cupcakes, using the cupcake liner as a guide. Keep tops matched with their cupcakes.
  • Use a small shamrock cookie cutter (available HERE ) to cut out the shamrock shape from the cupcake tops.
  • Mound a bit of green frosting onto the center of the (now topless) cupcakes. You’ll want the frosting domed a bit so that when you press on the cupcake top, the frosting will come up into the cutout shape a bit.
  • Place the cutout cupcake top, and press down a bit. *If desired, before adding cupcake top, sprinkle cutout top with powdered sugar.

Nutrition

Calories: 244kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 238mg | Potassium: 85mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 37g | Vitamin A: 71IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 46mg | Iron: 1mg