I’ve been slackin’ with the recipes. I know, my bad. I’ve been sort of lazy, but sort of busy at the same time. Haven’t done much baking lately, save for an experimental brownie/blondie recipe that I’m still working on. But seeing as how St. Patrick’s Day is coming up rapidly, I thought I’d do a little green baking tonight. No, not green as in environmental, but green as in Lyns from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies sent me some shiny green foil liners and a super awesome retro icing syringe (yes, it looks just like it sounds!) and I wanted to use them. The cool thing about the syringe is that you can use the smaller Wilton tips with it too. It comes with 6 of it’s own, but it’s nice to know you’ve got something that works with other stuff you have!

So I decided that since these really aren’t my actual St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes (I have a trick up me wee sleeve for that one *wink* and it’s something brand new) I’d do something I’ve done before, just in a different way. I made mint cupcakes; well they’re actually vanilla-mint, and frosted them with a cocoa Creme de Menthe frosting. But I dribbled a teeny bit of Creme de Menthe on top of each cupcake and let it soak in before I frosted them. Hey, if this isn’t a time of year for cupcakes made with alcohol, then I dunno what is. The shamrock toppers are actually drink stirrers, I just broke ‘em off and stuck ‘em in. The Creme de Menthe made the middles of the cakes green, as you can see in the bottom picture. Of course, these can be made sans-alcohol. Just use some more peppermint extract tinted green, or dye the whole cupcake green.

MINT CREME DE MENTHE MINI-CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• ¾ stick of unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup of sugar + 6 tablespoons
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 1 ¼ teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 ¼ cups of flour
• 1 1/8 cups milk
• Creme de Menthe

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Beat butter and sugar well, then add the egg. Mix until cmbined, then add extracts & milk.
3. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
4. Fill cups about ¾ full , and bake for 18-25 minutes.
5. Dribble ½ teaspoon Creme de Menthe over each. Let cool. When completely cool, frost.

I got 20 mini-cupcakes with this recipe. The frosting is a basic buttercream, made with peppermint extract, Creme de Menthe and cocoa powder. Some of the frosting has streaks of pale green going through it. Sadly, I don’t think it came out in the pictures.

They look like regular size cupcakes, I know, but maybe this will give you some perspective? Wilton 2A tip next to the liners.

Yum.

And there you have it. Be sure to check back here this week for my main St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes… and in the meantime…

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