Green Velvet Cupcakes – these cupcakes are the perfect St. Patrick’s Day dessert with their green velvet cake and rainbow buttercream frosting! Created by our contributor, Lauren Kapeluck of EllenJay Events.
As we prepare to say goodbye to winter and hello to spring, I have just the cupcake to get you all excited! It’s bright and cheerful and full of color! It has a little something to do with RAINBOWS! And since St. Patrick’s day is coming up too, I thought I would throw in a little something green for good measure. So here we go with quite possibly one of the tallest and most colorful cupcakes you have ever seen…Green Velvet Cupcakes with Rainbow Frosting!
For years I have been seeing Hi Hat cupcakes all over the place. I’ve never tried one, but I’ve been dying to make them. As I started envisioning this rainbow cupcake idea in my head I thought, this could be the perfect time to try the chocolate shell hi hat technique. After all, these chocolate dipped cupcakes look quite tempting on their own, but imagine some unsuspecting cupcake lover sinking their teeth into one of these only to find a hidden rainbow on the inside!
Not only is there a rainbow on the inside, but there is green velvet cake. It’s the same concept and recipe as a red velvet cake the only difference is swapping out the red food coloring for green. Of course they must be baked in a gold cupcake wrapper to resemble the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Now I think that covers all the bases for the perfect St. Patrick’s Day treat!
I’m loving the way these turned out with the swirls of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple frosting! They are beautiful on there own, but even tastier when dipped in the chocolate! When they are sliced down the middle, the “wow factor” really comes in. Couldn’t you just stare at these gorgeous rainbows all day long!
Green Velvet Cupcakes
Green Velvet Cupcakes – these cupcakes are the perfect St. Patrick’s Day dessert with their green velvet cake and rainbow buttercream frosting!
- Yield: 24
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Green Velvet Cake:
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ounce green gel food coloring
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
- Gold cupcake wrappers
For the Rainbow Buttercream:
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ – ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Gel Food Coloring (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple)
- 6 disposable piping bags
- 6 large round piping tips
For the Chocolate Shell:
- 24 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
Instructions
Make the Green Velvet Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line muffin pans with cupcake liners.
- In medium bowl combine flour, cocoa powder and salt. Whisk until well combined.
- In bowl of stand mixer combine sugar and vegetable oil and beat on medium until well combined.
- Add eggs to sugar and oil mixture and beat well after each, scraping down sides of bowl.
- Add the vanilla and green food coloring and mix well.
- Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternating and scraping sides of bowl as necessary.
- Combine baking soda and vinegar in small bowl, it will foam. Pour into batter and mix for about 10 seconds.
- Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Let cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling.
Make the Rainbow Buttercream:
- In bowl of stand mixer combine shortening and butter and beat on medium speed until creamy about 3 minutes.
- Gradually add confectioners’ sugar 2 cups at a time and mix well, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.
- Add heavy cream as necessary until you reach desired consistency.
- Mix in the vanilla.
- Separate icing into 6 different bowls and tint with rainbow colors. (use the following amounts of icing to make each colors: purple = 2 cups, blue = 1 1/2 cups, green = 1 cup, yellow = 3/4 cup, orange = 1/2 cup, red = 1/4 cup)
- Place frosting in piping bags fitted with large round tip.
- Starting with the purple pipe a circle of frosting on the bottom, then move to the blue, green, etc. until you have used all the colors to create a rainbow.
- Place frosted cupcakes in freezer to harden for 15 minutes. This will ensure the frosting does not fall off the cupcakes when you dip them upside down in the chocolate.
Dip the Cupcakes in Chocolate:
- Combine chocolate chips and vegetable oil in a heat proof bowl and place over top of a saucepan of simmering water.
- Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth and remove from heat.
- Pour the chocolate into a tall glass that is wide enough to fit the cupcake, and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
- When ready to dip remove cupcake from freezer and hold the cupcake at the bottom and dip straight down into the glass of chocolate and remove allowing any excess chocolate to drip off.
- Allow cupcakes to harden for about 15 minutes.
these are so fun!
So pretty and perfect for St. Patty’s Day. Plus, my little guy would LOVE all that frosting. 😉
Just loved your recipe so I linked it in my blog!
Oh happy day 😀 Too cute for words!
OMG! These cupcakes are GORGEOUS….I’m definitely going to try these out! Thank you soo much for sharing this wonderful recipe Lauren! xoxo