March is the month that brings us March Madness (if sports are your thing, #cantrelate), St. Patrick’s Day, and of course, the beloved and ICONIC McDonald’s Shamrock Shake.
Back in the early 2000s, my dad surprised me and my younger brother with two Shamrock Shakes when picking us up from elementary school. He reached into the backseat, holding the cup like any normal person would, and I — being 8 years old and having no clue how physics works — decided that grabbing the cup by the lid was a great idea. I vividly remember telling my dad, “Got it!”, while my small hand gripped the lid of the slime-green shake.
Dad lets go of the base of the cup and gravity kicks in. The lid separates from the rest of the cup and a mountain of artificially-dyed green, minty goodness goes splattering ALL over the floor of my dad’s car.
They’ll be the perfect addition to any St. Patrick’s Day party you attend (or host!). You also won’t spend hours preparing these cupcakes, because the hack is to use a box cake mix. That leaves you with more time for festivities!
I’m an avid coffee drinker, and I’m a fan of all the fun coffee creamer flavors that are out there. I’ve run into the problem one too many times of being left with an awkward amount of creamer left in the jug. I face the dilemma of: do I pour the rest into my coffee and risk the ratio of coffee to creamer being ruined? Or, do I just dump the rest?
To stay in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, I used some non-alcoholic Baileys The Original Irish Cream Coffee Creamer to flavor the frosting for these cupcakes. If you’re looking for a bit of a boozy kick to your frosting, you can always flavor it with the original Baileys Irish Cream.
I’ve NEVER made homemade frosting. The only experiences I’ve had with frosting involve those tins of Pillsbury pre-made frosting and sloppily applying it with a knife to cupcakes I made using Sprite (because I didn’t have any eggs in my apartment).
If making your own frosting and piping it is something you’re unfamiliar with, then I recommend checking out this basic American buttercream frosting recipe to get you started.
I used this to get the ratio of butter to powdered sugar right. What you’re going to want is around 12 oz of softened butter and about 3 cups of powdered sugar. I noticed a discrepancy in the measurements. The recipe originally calls for 12 oz of powdered sugar, but that only comes out to 1½ cups, which will leave you with a thick, buttery mess. So stick to around 3 cups for the best results.
I wanted to do some research for myself, so I’d know the best techniques for making yummy buttercream frosting. If you don’t happen to work in the same office as baking professionals like our So Yummy producers, I recommend turning to this Cupcake Jemma video to see the best method for whipping this frosting up. I also knew nothing about piping tips, and this video does an excellent job of walking you through each type.
The only other ingredient I added was around 4-5 tablespoons of the Baileys The Original Irish Cream Coffee Creamer. Flavor your frosting however you’d like.
When your box cake mix cupcakes are out of the oven and cooled enough (don’t pipe frosting onto warm cupcakes unless you want a melted, gooey MESS), have fun with different piping designs. If you need a bit of a warm-up before piping on the actual cupcake, grab some parchment paper and test it out — that way you can easily scrape the frosting back into the piping bag when you’re done.
Buttercream frosting:
Cupcakes:
Decor:
Instructions for frosting:
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