March Cupcake of the Month & More!!!

Gummy Shamrock Cupcakes

1. Frost a cooled cupcake with white icing.

2. For the shamrock, flatten 3 green gumdrops or spearmint leaves with a rolling pin (sprinkle on a little sugar, if necessary, to keep the candies from sticking).

3. Use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter (about 1 1/2 inches across) to cut a heart from each flattened leaf.

4. Place the hearts together on the cupcake to form a shamrock.

5. Cut a stem from the excess of one of the flattened candies and set it in place below the 3 hearts.

Although I am loving the "Cupcake of the Month" and we will be partaking of them...our family fav for St. Patrick's Day desserts is....

YEESSSS!!! The Mint Chocolate Brownie! If I ever did NOT make them for St. Patty's Day, I would have my bags packed for me....that's how much my kids LOVE them!!

I usually don't have a lot of "homemade cooking time", so I do it the easy way!!!

1. Make my favorite family size brownie mix and let cool.
2. Frost w/my fav buttercream frosting, adding green food coloring and mint extract.
3. Either top w/chocolate glaze or drizzle melted chocolate chips along the top.

Chocolate Glaze:
3 ounces (90 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon (14 grams) unsalted butter
In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Spread over the mint filling and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until the chocolate glaze starts to dull.

But if you have too much time on your hands AND you are an over-achiever, click here for the complete, from scratch recipe!

Lucky Clover Cupcakes!



1. Place paper liners in 32 standard muffin cups, then fill each halfway with the batter.

2. For each cupcake, roll three balls of foil (ours were 2/3 inch in diameter) and insert them evenly around the perimeter between the liner and the tin, as shown. (You can also use marbles)


3. Bake the cupcakes for a few minutes less than the package suggests (because there's less batter per cup than usual), or until a toothpick comes out clean.

4. Allow the cupcakes to cool, then remove them from the tin.

5. Cover each with green frosting (our ratio was 1 teaspoon of green food coloring to one 16-ounce can of white frosting).

6. Use a toothpick to draw leaf veins, and insert a 2-inch-long piece of green licorice for a stem.



Looking for a Heathly Dessert or a side dish for your Irish dinner??? Try this cute Leprechan Jello served in a hollowed out lime!!!

3-ounce box of lemon-flavor gelatin
6 limes
Sugar
1 teaspoon of whipped cream

1. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with plastic wrap, leaving several inches of overhang on each side (this will make removing the gelatin easier). Combine a 3-ounce box of lemon-flavor gelatin and 1 cup of boiling water in a medium bowl, stirring until the gelatin is dissolved. Stir in 1 cup of cold water, then pour the mixture into the baking dish. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and chill the gelatin for 4 hours or until firm, then slice the gelatin into 1/2-inch cubes.

2. Cut off the top quarter of each of 6 limes, then, without cutting into the fruit, slice a thin layer of peel from the bottom of each one to help them stand upright. With a small knife, cut around the inside of each lime's rind to loosen the pulp, then spoon it out to make a shell.

3. Place a pinch of sugar and 1 teaspoon of whipped cream in the bottom of each shell, then fill each lime pot with gelatin gold. Makes 6.

Enjoy and I will have some St. Patty's Day dinner ideas to post this weekend!!!
(At least that's the plan for now!)