I must admit, these green velvet cupcakes surprised me! I've attempted numerous recipes for red velvet cake and have failed miserably. I've never been satisfied with any of the recipes I've tried- they have been too dry, no flavor, or just a weird flavor! However I tried once again, changing a few things to my recipe, and this time turning them green instead of red for some St. Patrick's Day flair, and they turned out great! Maybe it's the luck of the Irish?! They are extremely moist, have the perfectly delicate crumb, and they taste great! A nice buttermilk flavor with a hint of chocolate. I almost made myself sick from eating too many. What's new right?

Green Velvet Cupcakes with Rainbow Swirled Frosting

I figured I would go along a little more with the St. Patty's day theme and go for a rainbow swirled frosting! I was so happy with how it turned out. So bright and colorful! I've included a tutorial for this technique. This frosting idea would be perfect for a Dr. Seuss birthday party, don't you think? You could do so much with this technique. I've already got so many ideas for future cupcakes!

Green Velvet Cupcakes with Rainbow Swirl Frosting

I didn't have enough green food coloring to get them the shade of green I wanted, so they aren't a pretty green like I wished they would be. That's okay though, next time! They still tasted GREAT!!! (even if they do remind me of The Grinch)

Green Velvet Cupcakes

3 cups cake flour

1 T. cocoa powder

1/2 tea. salt

1 1/2 cups oil

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tea. vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

1 oz. green food coloring (add more if you desire)

1 T. white vinegar

1 tea. baking soda

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cupcake pans with 24 papers. In a large bowl beat together the sugar and oil. In a separate bowl, sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Add eggs and vanilla into the oil mixture one at a time, mixing until incorporated. Then alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk into the oil mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Add the food coloring, adding more until you reach your desired shade of green. In a small bowl combine vinegar and baking soda, letting it fizz for a few seconds. Then fold the fizzing mixture into the batter. Scoop into prepared cupcake tins, no more than 3/4 way full. Bake at 350 for 13-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For the frosting:

Prepare a batch of frosting, enough to frost 24 cupcakes. I used Swiss Buttercream.

Divide evenly into 6 bowls. Color each bowl a different color of the rainbow. ROY G BIV!! I have a storage drawer full of gel food colorings, and about 5 of every color BUT red! So I had to go with burgundy. Hey, I had a few setbacks but they still look and taste delish! I'll be prepared next time :)

Put each colored frosting in its own separate (empty) piping bag. Snip the end off with scissors.

Carefully put each bag inside one bag with your preferred tip, (I used a 2A). Leave a little room between the ends of the rainbow bags and the entrance of the tip, so no colors get lost (hopefully).

Twist the end and pipe away! It's a little odd at first because it is so big and full, but you'll get the hang of it.