Pot of Gold Cupcakes
As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Make these pot of gold cupcakes for your whole crew this St. Patrick's Day! They'll love the rich, dark chocolate cake with the rainbow striped frosting, and the gold coin on top is such a fun touch!
It's the start of a brand new week!
And I could not be happier about it because it's MARCH!
All throughout the dreary, blustery, bitterly cold months, I just keep my eyes on the prize that is March. March may come in like a lion, but it goes out like a lamb. Even though on Sunday, the first of March, we were being pelted with freezing rain and the slush was 3 inches deep, all I could think about was that in a few short weeks it will be Spring! Hooray!
Another reason I love March is because St. Patrick's day falls during this month. I have a lot of Irish in me, and in my younger days I used to love to spend the whole holiday in the pub, listening to the traditional folk music and sipping on pints of Guinness.
Now that I am a mom I can't really get away with doing stuff like that any more, but I do still love to celebrate the holiday with as many fun, Irish-inspired recipes as I can. Look out for a few really great ideas that utilize authentic Irish ingredients over the next few weeks.
But for today's post, I'm going with something that's probably more fun than it is authentic.
This is just a cute idea that the little ones are sure to love. If they're anything like my kids, that is! My kids go ga-ga for anything rainbow. Or chocolate!
The cupcake base is a deep, dark, chocolate that is so moist and soft, yet sturdy enough to stand up to a generous swirl of frosting. I love this recipe because it all happens in one bowl, easy-peasy, and you don't even have to mess around with melting chocolate. I used a combination of this "black" cocoa and just regular, unsweetened cocoa powder. It gives a nice, deep color while still providing a bold, chocolate flavor that comes through like whoa. Also I love how it kinda looks like a black cauldron, in a way.
You can use any kind of frosting you like, but I'm pretty partial to this Swiss buttercream. It's so silky and light.
But the real star of the show is the rainbow swirl. I thought you guys might be interested to know how to pipe striped frosting! It's actually really simple, you just use a thin, clean artist brush to swipe stripes of gel paste food coloring down the inside of your pastry bag. Then fill it with buttercream and squeeze it out, just like you normally would.
Top them off with a gold (chocolate) coin and you've found your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Hope you enjoy!
This post contains affiliate sales links.
Ingredients
- Gel paste food coloring in Red,, Lemon Yellow, Kelley Green, Royal Blue, Violet, and Rose Pink
- 1 batch Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 1 batch Simply Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes
- 30 chocolate coins
Instructions
- Using a thin (clean) artist brush, paint stripes of food coloring along the inside of a large pastry bag fitted with a 1M tip.
- Fill the bag with Swiss buttercream and pipe the frosting on the cooled cupcakes.
- Garnish each cupcake with a gold coin.
Allie - I'm 24 and I still love rainbow and tie dye! I guess I never grew up. Haha. These are an adorable and absolutely creative dessert to celebrate St. Patty's Day.
Aw- thanks so much Erin! I have to admit I still love rainbow too! I guess we are just young at heart 😉 Thanks sweetie!
They're perfect!!! My son's class is having a party so I signed up to bring chicken nuggets...Im going to scratch that out and sign up for cupcakes...these!
Haha- I bet the kids love them! Thanks so much Veronica and have fun baking! 🙂
that frosting is stunning! and the cupcakes look so chocolateyyyyy
They are- super chocolatey! I love that recipe it's the best I have found. Thanks so much Kayle! Hope your week is off to a super start sweetie!
These are adorable. Love the rainbow frosting 🙂
Thank you so much Aimee!
These cupcakes are sooo cute! And that rainbow swirl frosting looks sooo much easier to do than I thought a swirl frosting with that many colors would be... yummy!! 🙂
It's pretty simple, right Jen? I love that trick- so clever. I'm so happy you enjoyed; thanks for the sweet comment dear!
These are absolutely adorable! So fun and festive. Pinned.
Thanks so much and for pinning too!
These are gorgeous my friend! How do you make everything so dang amazing! My kids would inhale these cute little things.
I hear you on the weather. March is usually what I long for too. But I'm wondering if that won't happen til April this year. As snow is growing increasingly outside right now!
Oh well, it's bound to get here sooner or later. Have a great one friend!
This snow is nuts, right??? We got like a foot how about you? So much for Spring haha! Thanks Melanie!
Tell me about it. I can't wait until all this snow melts (it's snowing right now :-() and I get to enjoy my deck once again. Love these cupcakes. They are super cute and I can't wait to try out the striped piping technique. How fun is that?
Right?? I always thought that was such a great trick. It's snowing where I am too Lynn! We got about a foot dumped on us today. Eep! Thanks so much for the sweet comment Lynn and I hope you're keeping warm!
That's so cool how you did the frosting! I love these!
Thank you so much Meriem!
They look amazing, Allie!!! BTW I've found my new favourite vanilla cupcake (we had both chosen the same recipe some time ago, do you remember?). So I thought you might wanna give it a go. It's Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes and I found it at 52cupcakes.blogspot.com (instead of extract I used vanilla paste as I usually do). I haven't posted it yet but I made it last week and it's totally worth it!
Ah! I remember that recipe! I have actually tried it myself and it's great!
Allie, I love this! It's super creative and they look so very tasty.
Thank you so much Marissa!
Dang girl! These are incredible. And I totally think you deserve a whole day at the pub, sipping beer! 🙂
Gah I do deserve it! It's been too long man... thank you!
How fun! St Patrick's day is an underappreciated holiday!
I totally agree Laura!
Gorgeous! I love this colour combination
So do I Culinary Mama! And so do my kids, lol. Thanks so much!
You demonstrated how to do the rainbow swirl in the pastry bag so nicely. It looks so pretty and I love the name of the cupcakes. Perfect for Saint Patricks Day. I am the same as you when it comes to March. It's just a matter of time before Spring!
Woo hoo! I'm ready girl. So glad you thought I demonstrated it well. I was worried my photos wouldn't make it clear enough. Thank you so much sweetie!
Allie,
These are so cute, and they look pretty darn delicious. Nothing beats Swiss meringue buttercream 🙂 I know - March brings some hope to the end of the cold, plus day light savings kicks in, so finally it doesn't get dark so early. Believe it or not, there's no Irish in me (lol!), but I love St. Patty's Day for the rainbows. I LOVE making rainbow desserts, and my kids love eating them, so it's a win-win.
Yes! Rainbows are so much fun for St. Patty's and totally necessary when the weather is at its dreariest. I couldn't agree more! Thank you so much Aida and I hope you're keeping warm sweetie!