Shamrock Cupcakes!

I made these cupcakes for Sunday dinner and they are one of the kids favorite flavors!  I think that they all like mint, so these were a big hit.  I made a shamrock shake to go with these but I did not get any pictures of the shakes.  You will just have to use your imagination for them.  I just made a vanilla shake and put in mint extract and green food coloring.  Then we put whipped cream on the top and green sprinkles.  So fun!

To make the cupcakes I put 3 different recipes together!  So now I have one new recipe.  

So let’s make some shamrock cupcakes!

For the cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4 Tablespoons cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

4 large eggs

3 teaspoons mint extract

1 Tablespoon flour

1 1/2 cups mint chocolate chips

For the Chocolate Ganache: (from Tasty Kitchen)

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cup good chocolate chips

For the Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon canned milk

1 teaspoon mint extract

green food coloring

Andes Mints to decorate with

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Place 20 paper baking cups in muffin pans.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Set aside.  Beat the sugar and butter together in a large bowl until smooth.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the flour mixture gradually, stirring until well combined.  Stir in the mint extract.  Add the 1 Tablespoon of flour to the chocolate chips and stir. (This prevents the chocolate chips from all going to the bottom) Add to the batter and mix well.  Spoon the mixture into the cups.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.  Then put the cupcakes in the freezer for 20 mins.

To make the Ganache topping, melt and whisk together. (I melt them together in a Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave for one minute.  Be careful not to overheat. It won’t look melted but once whisked it is.  Dip the top of the cupcakes in the chocolate. Let set.

To make the frosting, beat the butter, powdered sugar and canned milk in a small bowl until smooth and creamy.  Stir in the mint extract and just enough green food coloring to turn the frosting mint green.  Put the frosting in a decorator bag using the no mess frosting idea and pipe a swirl on the top. Decorate with 1/2 an Andes mint.  Eat and Enjoy!

This is how I dipped the cupcake tops with the chocolate ganache:

They don’t look so pretty here, but when you put the green swirls of frosting on the top the will look beautiful and the ganache just makes them so heavenly that you really do not want to leave it off!
YUMM!

These are more of a brownie type cupcake.  They are very moist and heavy, not light and fluffy.  Just the way I like them!And then if you really don’t want to make any of these you can always just go to my new favorite place to eat, Schmidt’s Pastry Cottage, and buy one of these beauties!  It is a brownie dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with green sprinkles and put on a stick!  How fun is that?

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