Thursday, March 15, 2012

Green Velvet Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream Frosting



This past weekend some of our good (Irish) friends threw their annual St. Patrick's Day Party. We had been unable to attend the past few years but our calendar opened up so we lucked out this year. They always supply all the alcohol and ask everyone to bring a snack or treat to share. Obviously I chose to bake something.

I have not one, but TWO cookbooks dedicated to cupcakes. For serious. I spent about an hour searching through these books and others and just couldn't find anything that was striking my fancy. Yup, I said that.



After turning to my friends pinterest and google, I finally came across this recipe for Green Velvet Cupcakes. I was extremely happy with how these turned out. They were very moist and have continued to stay moist all week long. I made these last Friday and a week later they are still moist and flavorful. I promise, I'm eating one as I type this.



Since this was an adult party, I wanted to make these a little bit boozy. I opted for a Baileys buttercream frosting. The Bailey's flavor came through very strongly but not overpowering. It will not disappoint.



Note: If you don't have buttermilk-which I didn't-just add 1 T white vinegar to a measuring cup. Fill the rest with milk to 1 cup and let sit about 5 minutes. Honestly I can't tell you what this does or why it works because I'm not a chemist, but I've found multiple websites suggest this and so I did it. The cupcakes may or may not have tasted exactly the same using plain milk. We'll never know...

Green Velvet Cupcakes
makes about 48 mini cupcakes plus 12 full size cupcakes (weird measurements, I know)

Ingredients:
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cocoa
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup oil (I used half cup of oil, half cup of unsweetened apple sauce)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 oz green food coloring (or channel your inner first grader and mix equal parts blue and yellow food coloring to make green)

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line muffin tins with cupcake paper liners.
3. Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with whisk. Add in remaining liquid ingredients. Whisk until blended and sit aside.
4. Place all dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together well. Normally I don't follow this process, and just throw everything in the mixing bowl; however, I really wanted these to turn out well so I did this extra step.
5. Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or two until well combined.
6. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, pour the batter into cupcake pans for full size cupcakes. For mini cupcakes use 1 Tablespoon measuring spoon.
7. Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 13-14 minutes for mini cupcakes and about 20 minutes for full size cupcakes)

Baileys Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
1 Cup Butter (2 sticks) softened to room temperature
2 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream liqueur

Directions:
Cream the butter in a stand mixer until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar until well combined. Add vanilla and Bailey's and mix for another 1-2 minutes. Feel free to add some extra Bailey's if you want it a little stronger! Enjoy!

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