St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes with Bailey’s Irish Cream, Frangelico and Crème de Cacao Buttercream Icing

As if my favorite espresso martinis weren’t decadent enough I made espresso martini cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day with buttercream icing made with Bailey’s Irish Cream and a few of its flavorful, sweet, high octane friends.

These friends play together beautifully and are three of the five ingredients in the espresso martinis that I love.

Bailey’s is creamy goodness.  Frangelico is hazelnut-flavored liqueur and Crème de Cacao has a light chocolate flavor.

For the cupcakes, I substituted the liquid ingredients in the batter with two espresso martinis.  Texturally, the recipe works but the intensity of the alcohol needs some refining but what I came up with for the icing is absolute perfection and I’d like to share the Irish love with you and how to decorate the shamrock cupcakes. 

To decorate the cupcakes, I took inspiration from classic Irish Belleek.

photo from Belleek.

Making the basket weave is not difficult.  I used a #47 piping tip.

What is very cool about this tip is that it is smooth on one side and grooved on the other.  This one tip will make both the smooth lines and the wavy lines of the basket weave.

Here’s how to make the basket weave design.

To finish decorating the top of the cupcake I made a shell border with a #14 decorating tip and brushed the border and the wavy cross lines with gold luster powder after the icing had crusted.

For the shamrock cupcake top decoration, I melted white candy coating and placed it in the Oreo mold using just the shamrock indentation. 

When the shamrock hardened in the fridge, I popped it out of the mold and brushed on luster powders over the shamrock in mallard green and gold and secured it on top of the cupcake with a dab of icing.

You can read the tutorial on making chocolate covered Oreos using the mold HERE.

I also think the cupcakes are pretty without the gold powder and more like the Belleek’s tone-on-tone pattern.

Either way…

Remember to eat these St. Patty’s Day cupcakes responsibly. 

Bailey’s Original Irish Cream, Frangelico and Crème de Cacao Buttercream Icing Recipe – original recipe by Marilyn

2 lbs. powdered sugar, sifted

1 1/3 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. amount total combination of Bailey’s Irish Cream, Frangelico and light Crème de Cacao (I used mostly Bailey’s then added a splash of Frangelico and Crème de Cacao each to bring it up to the 1/2 c. amount)

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (can substitute vanilla extract)

1/4 c. milk, to thin out to piping or spreading consistency

Beat butter with powdered sugar and liqueurs alternately.  Add vanilla and continue to beat.  Add enough milk to thin to piping or spreading consistency.

Makes approximately 5 cups.   Enough for 2 dozen cupcakes plus a few generous spatula tastings.

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