St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting are a cute, fun idea for school parties or after dinner dessert for the kids! Make the batter or icing white or green and decorate with rainbow sprinkles and gold coins.
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While we believe you never need an excuse to make delicious homemade cupcakes, the holidays sure do give us a really great reason to come up with new sweet treats for parties and of course, just to get into the holiday spirit. St. Patrick's Day calls for lots of rainbow themed foods, like these funfetti muffins, chocolate lucky charm muddy buddies and rainbow fruit and dessert board.
You'll find us making chocolate covered pretzels, beautiful mermaid themed cupcakes, candy charcuterie boards and cute cups of dirt for any occasion.
So of course we're adding green, gold and rainbow themed cupcakes to our recipe list for St. Patrick's Day. You can technically make these cupcakes for any occasion simply by changing the icing color and sprinkles used, just as we do when making patriotic cupcakes in the summer.
Ingredients
To make St. Patrick's Day cupcakes, you need 1 cake mix box, plus the ingredients indicated on the box (this is usually eggs, oil, and water)
To make the buttercream frosting, you need:
- Butter: unsalted, room temperature butter. You can also make a cream cheese frosting by substituting the butter with softened cream cheese.
- Confectioner's sugar: also called powdered sugar.
- Vanilla extract
- Milk: any type of milk, such as dairy or plant-based.
- Green food coloring
You'll also need these supplies:
- St. Patrick's Day sprinkles:
- 2 standard size muffin tins
- 24 cupcake liners
- A piping kit: or use a plastic baggie and a piping tip.
- Gold coins: plastic or edible chocolate coins.
Step-By-Step Instructions
These St. Patrick's Day cupcakes are incredibly easy because I use store bought cake mix instead of fiddling with a homemade batter. However, I do make a homemade buttercream frosting, which is also incredibly easy.
STEP 1: Following the instructions on the cake mix box, preheat the oven and make the batter.
STEP 2: Mix in 3-4 drops of green food coloring, adding more if desired to reach the shade of green batter you'd like. Alternatively, you can make half of the batter green and half white. To do this, just reserve half in a bowl while dying the other half green.
STEP 3: Line 24 standard muffin cups with cupcake liners. Fill ⅔ of the way with the batter.
STEP 4: Bake for the amount time on the package and until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Make The Frosting
STEP 5: While the cupcakes cool, make the frosting. Cream the butter and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer.
STEP 6: Add the confectioner's sugar one cup at a time, beating on low. It will be crumby by the time you are finished. Add the milk and beat on low until it's thick and smooth. If you are adding in green food coloring, now's the time to do it. Start with 3-4 drops and add more until you reach the green that you want. Alternatively, reserve half of the icing to have some white cupcakes too.
Decorate The Cupcakes
STEP 7: Fill a piping bag to the maximum line and tie with a rubber band. If using a plastic baggie, cut a slit in the corner large enough for a piping tip to fit. Insert the piping tip and fill the bag with frosting, sealing with a rubber band.
STEP 8: Squeeze the frosting over the cooled cupcake. Add St. Patrick's Day themed or rainbow sprinkles immediately to ensure they stick. Decorate with gold coins or other St. Patrick's day cupcake decor.
Enjoy!
How To Store
Buttercream frosted cupcakes should be stored in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
Unfrosted cupcakes will keep a few days longer. If you make them ahead of time, store in the fridge and make the icing and frost them the day you serve them.
Recipe FAQs
If you'd like to keep them for up to 1 week, you can store them in the fridge after they are iced or before.
You can follow the recipe for homemade cupcake batter in this cupcake recipe.
Recipe
St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 package cake mix
- 12 tablespoon butter, room temperature
- 3 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 cups confectioner's sugar
- 3 tablespoon milk
- green food coloring
- 24 gold coins, chocolate or plastic
- St. Patrick's Day sprinkles
Instructions
- Following the instructions on the cake mix box, preheat the oven and make the batter.
- Mix in 3-4 drops of green food coloring, adding more if desired to reach the shade of green batter you'd like. Alternatively, you can make half of the batter green and half white. To do this, just reserve half in a bowl while dying the other half green.
- Line 24 standard muffin cups with cupcake liners. Fill ⅔ of the way with the batter. Bake for the amount time on the package and until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- While the cupcakes cool, make the frosting. Cream the butter and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer. Add the confectioner's sugar one cup at a time, beating on low. It will be crumby by the time you are finished. Add the milk and beat on low until it's thick and smooth. Add 3-4 drops of green food coloring, using more until you reach the green that you want. Alternatively, reserve half of the icing to have some white cupcakes too.
- Fill a piping bag to the maximum line and tie with a rubber band. If using a plastic baggie, cut a slit in the corner large enough for a piping tip to fit. Insert the piping tip and fill the bag with frosting, sealing with a rubber band.
- Squeeze the frosting over each cooled cupcake. Add St. Patrick's Day themed or rainbow sprinkles immediately. Decorate with gold coins or other St. Patrick's day cupcake decor.
Notes
Nutrition
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