Happy St. Patty’s Day, everyone! Hope you’re all having fun getting fantastically sloshed. I would be out and about with the rest of the city, but my Trusts & Estates professor decided to schedule a make-up class for 9 am tomorrow. My body no longer bounces back from late nights as quickly as it used to, so instead I am quietly celebrating at home. Baking. Seriously guys, my life is out of control.
Using liqueur in cake is basically the same as drinking, right? Right. I would have actually preferred to use Bailey’s Irish Cream to keep up the whole St. Patty’s Day theme, but I didn’t have any on hand. It was either Kahlua or Godiva, and I just didn’t think coffee would taste as good with mint.
After my carrot cake cupcake debacle, I made sure not to overfill the baking cups this time, and the cupcakes turned out beautifully. They looked adorable, and smelled glorious — you could actually smell the liqueur quite a bit, but the whole chocolate-liqueur thing really works.
The most important part of this particular cupcake was the frosting. I mean, I can make chocolate cupcakes any day, but it’s St. Patty’s Day, so clearly the frosting had to be green. And since the frosting was green, that obviously meant it had to be mint-flavored. This recipe made about 3 cups of frosting — way more than I needed for the cupcakes, so now I have a ziplock baggy fully of mint buttercream chilling in the freezer.
These pictures really don’t do the cupcake justice — the frosting was actually a little more green, not quite so pale and pastel-y. Very holiday appropriate. The only thing missing from the picture is a nice four leaf clover decoration. Do they make four leaf clover sprinkles?
All I have to say about these cupcakes is…chocolate + liqueur + mint = yum. The cake itself wasn’t very sweet, so it was perfectly balanced by the minty sweetness of the frosting. Each bite was moist and fluffy, and accompanied by surprising whiffs of alcohol. Definitely a good St. Patty’s Day treat.
Godiva Chocolate Cupcakes (Adapted from AllRecipes.com’s Chocolate Cupcake recipe)
Ingredients:
– 3 tbsp butter
– 1 cup sugar, softened
– 1-1/3 cups flour
– 1 cup sugar, softened
– 1-1/3 cups flour
– 1/4 tsp baking soda
– 2 tsp baking powder
– 3/4 cup cocoa powder
– 1/8 tsp salt
– 2 large eggs
– 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
– 2/3 cup milk
– 1/3 cup Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 350.
(2) In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla.
(3) In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add to the wet mixture gradually, alternating with the milk and liqueur. Beat well.
(4) Fill muffin cups a little over 1/2 full.
(5) Bake for 15 to 17 minutes.
Mint Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
– 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
– 1 stick butter or margarine (I actually prefer “I can’t believe it’s not butter!”)
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 1 tbsp mint extract
– 3 cups powdered sugar
Steps:
(1) Cream together shortening and butter.
(2) Add vanilla and mint extracts.
(3) Gradually stir in powdered sugar. Mix until smooth.
(4) For a nice green color, add about 10 drops of green food coloring.
How much butter and sugar in the cake? You didn't mention the measurements . . .
Sorry! Can't believe I forgot to include those measurements. I've edited the post, but it's just 3 tbsp butter and 1 cup of sugar. The cupcakes aren't that sweet, which I like, but you can always add up to 1/2 cup more sugar if you like them sweeter.