Happy St. Paddys’ Day 2013: Green Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I hope you all have had a great St. Patrick’s Day weekend this year!  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I ran the Rock ‘n Roll USA Half Marathon (my 10th half!).  The next race I’ll be participating in is the Rock ‘n Roll Nashville Half Marathon in April.  I can’t wait to spend the weekend with some of my girlfriends (who live near and far), including these two awesome bloggers: Becky and Lianne.  If you have any Nashville suggestions for us, please send them my way!  Anyone running this race?

Earlier this week we had some friends over for dinner, and although we made Mexican for the main dish- I thought we needed a something green to brighten up the dessert.  Of course, Pinterest inspired me to try a new cupcake recipe, and fortunately it turned out delicious and green!

Today’s celebration included Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner.  We topped it off with a small dessert- the last 2 green cupcakes to celebrate another great St. Paddy’s Day weekend.

Green Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Inspired & Adapted from: She Wears Many Hats & AllRecipes.com
Serving: 24 mini-cupcakes

For this recipe, I used the same frosting (just smaller amount) as I used on the Banana & Chocolate Chip Cake.

Cupcakes
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup 2% milk
1 package of Jell-o Pistachio Instant Pudding mix

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

In a stand mixer cream together sugar and butter.  Then stir in the eggs, one at a time; then add a vanilla and baking powder.  Stir in the flour and mix well.  Next, add in the milk, and mix until the batter is smooth.  Lastly, add in the Jell-o Pistachio Instant Pudding mix, combine well.

Spray the cupcake tin with cooking spray.  Then fill in each cupcake compartment halfway with batter.

I used the mini-cupcake tins, so I baked the cupcakes for 15 minutes.  If you’re using a different sized tin, add additional time.  The best way to check for doneness is to insert a toothpick into the center for the dough, if it comes out clean- it is done.  After they are done baking, take them out of the oven.  Allow them to cool before taking them out of the tin or decorating with frosting.

To make the frosting, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla in a stand mixer.  Finally, add in the powdered sugar, a little at a time (otherwise it’ll make a mess).

St. Patty’s Day Vegetable Pastries

Happy St. Patty’s Day everyone!  I hope all of you will be indulging in some green beer, corned beef and cabbage or yummy Guinness cupcakes!

This is an exciting weekend for us, we have friends visiting- so it’ll be a full house.  Also, a group of us are running the Rock ‘n Roll USA Half Marathon!  The weather couldn’t be any better for this race.  It’s unbelievable how warm it is, especially since it’s only March.

If you still need a recipe for a fun Irish dish, these pastries are delicious- especially for all of your vegetarian friends.  Today, locals in Ireland tend to gather in pubs for a pint (or two) and some simple home-cooked food.

St. Patty’s Day Vegetable Pastries
Adapted from: Vegetarian Times (March 2011)

I came across this recipe in last year’s magazine.  Although I didn’t make them then, I tried out this recipe this year.  You could change it up and add meat (ground beef or turkey) to these, swapping for the rutabaga or just making more dough since there will be more filling.  They are great appetizers, or just a side treat with a bowl of soup.  This made about 15 pastries, but it depends on how thick your dough will be.

 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
8 tbsp cold butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion (or 1/2 big one), chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 rutabaga, peeled & chopped
4 small potatoes, peeled & chopped
2 carrots, peeled & chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1 egg
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

In a stand mixer, mix together flour and salt.  Then add in butter, 1 tbsp at a time.  Meanwhile, stir in the ice water.  Keep mixing until the mixture holds together.  Shape the dough into a ball or disk, and wrap it in parchment paper or plastic wrap.  Chill for 1 hour in the fridge.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Stir in onion, celery and garlic, cook for about 5 minutes.  Then add in the rutabaga, potato, carrots and thyme.  Cook the ingredients for another 10-15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.  Once they are cooked, pour the mixture into a food processor.  Process the veggies so they are smaller pieces, but not until they are pureed.  I held it down for about 3 seconds.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and mustard.  Then, add the mustard dressing, Gruyere cheese, salt and pepper to the vegetable mixture.  Stir all of the ingredients until the cheese has melted.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.  Coat the baking sheet with cooking spray.

Take a portion of the dough and roll it out on a flour surface (also remember to flour the rolling pin).  The dough should be between 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick.  Cut out 5-inch disks from the dough.  I had used a bowl, but you can use a pastry cutter or anything else you have on hand.  Continue to cut out the pastries until you are done with the dough.  Remember that you can use the remaining dough to add it to the bigger piece, so all of it used.

Place about 1-2 tbsp of filling onto one side of each dough.  Fold the other half of the dough to make a moon shape.  Press the edges of the dough together, you can crimp the edges with a fork.  Repeat with the remaining circles and filling.

Bake the pastries for about 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.  I did flip them over about halfway through, so both sides would have similar color.