Ah, I am green with envy for those of you having green beer this St. Patrick’s Day/weekend!
Why not beer down with a green velvet cupcake? Or perhaps, green coffee? Or green tea?
I used my own cream cheese frosting recipe from a previous post, given that it was 1.15 am by the time cupcakes were birthed from a small Black & Decker toaster oven, half a dozen at a time, every 8 to 10 minutes at 300F. I made a total of 36 cupcakes. Because the convection is higher in a smaller oven, I filled about 1/2 to 3/4 full of an ice cream scoop prior to dropping it on each cupcake liner.
For coffee, I used instant Folger’s coffee — just because it’s quick.
Let your cream-cheese come to room temperature while you are preparing your cupcakes; pre-sift your icing sugar. For dairy-free cream-cheese frosting, you can find vegan cream cheese from organic markets. Disclaimer: I have yet to run a vegan-friendly trial.
My co-workers loved the green velvet cupcakes. They loved how moist and chocolatey they were.
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp of unsweetened, cocoa powder (It is important to use slightly less cocoa for the green to show!)
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup light cooking oil of your choice
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- Lactose-free Buttermilk Mixture:
1 cup Almond Milk* (coconut flavoured, preferrably) + 1 tbsp & 1 tsp white vinegar - 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tsp green food gel
If you plan to use liquid food colour that you can easily get from the supermarket, use lots! (Roughly half a bottle) — but cut down on the almond milk by 14 ml to maintain the same proportion of liquids - ½ cup black coffee
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, use a mixer to combine the sugar and cooking oil.
- Mix in the eggs, buttermilk mixture, vanilla and green food coloring until combined.
- Stir in the coffee.
- Use a spatula to lightly combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, a third of each at a time, mixing after each addition, just until combined. (Do not overmix)
- Line your tin with cupcake liners! (easiest step)
- Pour the batter evenly into each pan.
One ice-cream scoop if popping it in the oven; lesser in a toaster oven. Add Oreo cookie chunks in each cupcake before they go into the oven! It’s like, “Oh, cookie? Surprise!” - Bake 18 to 20 minutes for cupcakes on the middle rack; depending on your oven, check at the 16th minute. I redid this recipe using a Black & Decker Toaster Oven; it took me 8 to 10 minutes. The cupcakes will continue to cook as you let it to cool in step #10.
- Let the cupcake tray cool on a cooling rack for at least 2 minutes; then, continue to cool each individual “muffin” or uniced cupcake on the rack.
- Frost the cake with cream cheese frosting when the cakes have cooled completely.
This clearly isn’t my best frosting techniques. It was 2 am and I didn’t want to add extra icing sugar to toughen it up (and make it sweeter in the process).
You can find my cream cheese frosting recipe here. There are days when I don’t use a recipe for cream-cheese frosting! Do this the lazy eye-ball way:
Use a hand mixer to cream together: 1 stick of room temperature cream cheese, 1 tsp vanilla essence, a quick tiny splash of milk and just enough sifted icing sugar to thicken. You can do this while drinking Baileys or Irish Cream. (Just kidding)
Happy St. Patty’s!
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