Green Colored Rainbow St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes

These St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes are perfect for your St. Patrick’s Day fun. Green Cupcakes topped with rainbow frosting and a candy rainbow are sure to be a hit with everyone. 

St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes

These St. Patrick’s day cupcakes are so fun to look at when sitting out on the dessert line up. A bright green cupcake topped with a frosting rainbow and a candy rainbow are perfect for being festive for St. Patrick’s Day. 

My kids love when I make holiday themed cupcakes. I try to make a fun cupcake for every holiday so we have a kid friendly dessert that they will love. These Rainbow St. Pasddy’s Day cupcakes are one of my kids favorites that I have created so I had to share them with you guys.

These St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes are perfect for having a St. Paddy’s Day party or just a dinner at home for St. Patrick’s Day where you want a fun dessert.

For this recipe I used homemade vanilla cupcakes and homemade vanilla buttercream frosting, but if you are short on time you can totally use a boxed cake mix and store bought frosting and skip the parts that are making them from scratch. 

St. Patrick’s Day Treats

• Rainbow Cake
• Rainbow Grilled Cheese
• Rainbow Sugar Cookies

Tips for Making homemade cupcakes

Follow the recipe. Each cupcake recipe is different. It is important to follow the recipe as directed. all of our cupcake recipes have been tested multiple times to make sure they are perfect.

Bring ingredients to room temperature. Cupcakes will bake best when the ingredients are brought to room temperature before mixing the cupcake batter. 

Allow cupcakes to cool completely. Before frosting the cupcakes let them cool completely. If you frost cupcakes while they are still warm then the frosting will melt.

Do not over mix. Over mixing the batter will lead to having tough and flat cupcakes. When making cupcakes you have to be careful that you don’t over mix the batter when you are folding in the flour mixture. If you over-mix your angel food cake batter your cupcakes will turn out flat. You want to mix everything just until mixed, over mixing will cause you to have rough and tough cupcakes. We all know that the best cupcake are light and fluffy. 

Fill the cupcake liners appropriately. You do not want to over fill the cupcake liners. Follow the directions for the specific cupcake recipe, if the recipe doesn’t tell you how full stick to the 2/3 full rule. Which is roughly 3 tablespoons of cupcake batter per cupcake liner.

Use the best kitchen tool for filling liners. If you are working with a thick cupcake batter then you want to use a spoon or a cookie scoop to fill the cupcake liners. If it is a thin cupcake batter then use a bowl with a spout or a glass measuring cup to pour in the batter.

Use quality cupcake liners. While you might not think it matters a cupcake liner but having a quality cupcake liner will make it so your cupcakes don’t stick to the wrapper and peel off nicely so you can see the perfect cupcake in it. 

Bake one tray at a time. Using the center of the oven rack and bake one tray of cupcakes at a time. This will give you the best cupcake results. 

Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. If you frost cupcakes while they are still warm then the frosting will melt.

Can I use All Purpose Flour for this recipe?

Cake flour and self rising flour are best to use for this recipe. They are what make the cupcakes light and airy. However if you do not have them on hand then you can use all purpose flour and make the substitution and then make the cupcake batter. You can use all purpose flour in this recipe however you will need to make some adjustments to the all purpose flour before using it. 

Substituting All purpose flour for Self-Rising Flour

When Substituting all purpose flour for Self-Rising Flour you want to add 1.5 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt for every cup of all purpose flour. 

For this recipe you will want to put 1.5 cups of all purpose flour into a large bowl. Add 2 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder and 3/8 teaspoon of salt to the flour and stir well to combine. 

Substituting All purpose flour for Cake Flour

Cake flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour, which makes baked goods softer and lighter. To keep these cupcakes light and fluffy you want to use cake flour. If you don’t have any you can make a substitute for cake flour with all purpose flour and cornstarch. When making all purpose flour into a cake flour substitute you need to remove 2 tablespoons of flour and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to each 1 cup of flour.

For this recipe you will want to add 1 cup of all purpose flour to a bowl. Remove 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour and then add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to the all purpose flour and mix well to combine. If you have a sifter, then sift the flour to aerate it. 

Variations of this Recipe

Add sprinkles. If you want to add more rainbow colors add a slight sprinkle of rainbow sprinkles.

Change up the cupcake flavor. I use vanilla cupcakes when I am making them b22ut you can use any flavor cupcake. If you want a cupcake flavor that you can color gree with food coloring almond cupcakes, angel food cupcakes, lemon cupcakes and chocolate chip cupcakes are all great flavor options. If you don’t care about them being colored you can use a dark cupcake like chocolate cupcakes or peanut butter cupcakes. 

Change up the frosting. I use vanilla buttercream, but you can change it up to another flavor that can be colored including almond buttercream, marshmallow buttercream and lemon buttercream.

What Candy is best for Making the Rainbow?

I find the best candy to use is the Airhead Xtreme Candy but you can find other rainbow candy options on Amazon that will work well too. 

How to Store Cupcakes

It is best to store cupcakes in an airtight container on the counter. Cupcakes are best to be enjoyed within 48 hours of making them. Frosted cupcakes are fine to be stored on the counter for a day or 2 but after that, they should be stored in the fridge. If you are storing them unfrosted you can store them in an airtight container or a plastic bag. If you are storing them with frosting on top I suggest using a cupcake storage container.

St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes Ingredients

• 24 cupcakes. I use vanilla cupcakes but you can also use 
• 1 batch vanilla buttercream frosting
• red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and purple gel food coloring
• 12 strips rainbow strip candy

Rainbow Cupcakes Supplies

• 2 pastry bags
• extra large star piping tip
• straight piping tip
• small paintbrush

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Green Food Coloring

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting ingredients

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 cup of shortening
• 2 pounds confectioner’s sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons hot water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

How to Make Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with the cupcake paper liners you choose. I suggest using gold paper cupcake liners to look like a pot of gold, but you can use any liners that you want to.

Place your self-rising flour, cake flour, and sugar in the bowl of your mixer. Mix them for a minute or two until they are well combined.

Cut your butter into tablespoon pieces. Slowly add your butter into the flour mixture one piece at a time, and continue mixing until you have reached the texture of sand.

Pour half of your milk into the flour mixture and mix just until the milk is incorporated. Use your rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of your bowl. Add your remaining milk and the vanilla to your batter and mix until combined.

Add the eggs to the cake batter and mix until combined. Add in the green food coloring until you have the desired green color. 

Scoop the batter into the prepared cupcake pan, filling each one 3/4 of the way full.

Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the cake pans so the pan on the top rack is now on the bottom and the pan on the bottom is now on the top rack. Continue to bake for another 10-13 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cupcake.

Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling wire rack until they have reached room temperature.

How to Make Rainbow Buttercream Frosting

Take the butter out and bring it to room temperature on the counter.

Add the butter and shortening and whip until they are both creamed together on medium speed in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or whisk attachment.

Once the butter and shortening are creamed and whipped ,lower the mixer speed to low and add the confectioner’s sugar until it is all mixed in.

Once the confectioners’ sugar is all mixed in add the vanilla extract turn the mixer up to medium speed and leave the mixer mixing for 5-10 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Before fluffing the frosting at a higher speed, if you need to scrape the frosting down into the bowl, if it is on the side of the bowl, do so using a wooden spoon or a silicone utensil.

If you need to thicken the frosting, add a little bit of powdered sugar. If you need to thin the frosting then add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time while it is mixing until it is the desired thickness.

How to Decorate St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes

Cut the tip off of the pastry bag and add an extra-large star piping tip to the piping bag. Using the paintbrush, paint a line of each gel food coloring starting at the inside tip and going halfway up the bag, making sure you are going in the color order of the rainbow.

Then, carefully fill the bag with the buttercream. Pipe the buttercream in a swirl on each cupcake, as you pipe the buttercream frosting on the cupcake the food coloring will make a rainbow on the frosting.

Cut the tip off the second pastry bag and add the straight piping tip. Fill the bag with buttercream. 

Pipe three small circles on the side of the cupcake and three small circles to the top of the cupcakes.

Cut the rainbow strips in half. Stick one side of the candy into each of the small dots of buttercream to create a rainbow shape.

St. Patrick’s Day Meal Recipes

• Shamrock Shake
• Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
• Irish Bangers and Mash
• Irish Soda Bread
• Leprechaun toast