St Patty's Green Velvet Cupcakes

I wanted to make something special for mine and Ryan's work colleagues for St Patrick's day so it HAD to be green. One of the blogs I read and LOVE because she has the greatest ideas (um how cute is THIS!?!?) is Bakerella, and she made green velvet cupcakes last week. So I decided to give them a whirl.

Bakerella's Green Velvet Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 oz. green food coloring

Start by mixing all the dry ingredients in one bowl, and all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Be careful with the green food coloring, I got it ALL over my hands and the kitchen. Even after the batter is mixed, it'll still stain your fingers!

The wet ingredients:

Add the wet to the dry ingredients, and mix well.
(SOO green, right?!?!)

Use a spring ice cream scoop to fill your cupcakes. I got a little overzealous and overfilled my cupcakes so I only got 20, but if you only fill them 2/3 full you should get 24.

Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes (or until they look "done"). I baked mine for 25 minutes and they got a little dry. Let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups powdered sugar

Mix the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add vanilla. Then add sugar, making sure to scrape down the bowl in between the cups.

This makes a LOT of frosting, so I had to be super generous when frosting my cupcakes. I think it's a recipe to frost a cake, which is why it makes so much. But it tastes so good, you can put the extra in a tupperware in the fridge and keep for a few weeks.

Bakerella has the most darling sprinkles, so she topped her cupcakes with little shamrocks. I just had green sugar, so mine weren't AS cute as hers, but they were delicious!

Ryan tried one tonight:)