If you are looking for an easy recipe for Green Velvet Cupcakes or a Green Velvet Cake for St. Patrick’s Day, I’ve got you covered! These easy St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes have been of my most popular holiday recipes for years. This simple green velvet recipe is fun, festive and delicious, especially when topped with cream cheese frosting!
Red velvet cake is all the rage for Valentine’s Day, so naturally St. Patrick’s Day brings visions of green velvet cupcakes and green velvet cake. How many things could one make with a batch of green velvet cake batter? How about green velvet cupcakes, green velvet mini cupcakes, green velvet whoopie pies and green velvet cake pops. Oh, and you can also make green velvet cake, of course! These are the perfect easy St. Patrick’s Day desserts.
Green Velvet Cake
For the record I made all of them. Also for the record, yes, I am crazy. I am also Irish, which somehow seems like a good defense for making four different items clock full of green food coloring to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Though most likely it has far more to do with my being crazy.
I’ll be spreading these out over a few different blog posts, but let’s start with making the green velvet cake recipe. Here’s what you need…
Green Velvet Cupcakes
Grease your cake pans, muffin tins, whoopie pie pans, whatever method you decide to go with. Or be crazy like me and do them all. Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with whisk. Add in remaining liquid ingredients. Whisk until blended and sit aside. I waited until the very end to add the food coloring, because frankly, that much food coloring scares me and I had to work out the courage to do it.
Place all dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together well.
Now take a deep breath and dump all that food coloring, yes the entire bottle, into the wet ingredients.
Not too bad. But now stir…
Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or two until well combined and green as the day is long. Note, this is NOT the time to accidentally crank the Kitcheaid on to high. Unless you want a green, and slightly vinegar smelling kitchen. Avoid that at all costs, nobody needs that much green velvet in their lives.
Look it’s St. Patrick’s Day in my kitchen!
Pour the batter into cake pans or cupcake pans. I did the cake and cupcakes first, and than added 1/4 cup of flour to the remaining batter to thicken it up a bit before putting it in the whoopie pie pan.
Care to lick the spoon? Me, not so much, which is a first in my cake making history.
Baking times will vary based on what you are using. For one 8″ cake pan, it was about 22 minutes for me.
Regular size cupcakes were around 16, mini cupcakes about 13 and the whoopie pie pan was about 13 as well.
Green Velvet Cake And Green Velvet Cupcakes Recipes
Green Velvet Cake
Ingredients
CAKE
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 Tablespoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 oz green food coloring
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 1 package of softened cream cheese
- 1/4 cup softened butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 bag powdered sugar 2 lb bag
- Milk as needed
Instructions
CAKE
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease your cake pans, muffin tins, whoopie pie pans, whatever method you decide to go with.
- Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with whisk. Add in remaining liquid ingredients. Whisk until blended, the stir in food coloring and sit aside.
- Place all dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together well.
- Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or two until well combined.
- Pour the batter into cake pans or cupcake pans.
- Baking times will vary based on what you are using. For one 8″ cake pan, it was about 22 minutes. Regular size cupcakes were around 16 minutes, mini cupcakes and whoopie pie pans were both about 13 minutes.
FROSTING
- Cream together cream cheese, butter and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Gradually add in powdered sugar and continue mixing. Add in milk as needed to reach the desired consistency. Store frosting and frosted cupcakes in refrigerator.
Notes
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
You can frost straight from the bowl, though I use my handy Ziploc bag to pipe on my frosting.
Now frost and decorate until your little heart is content. I used about half of my frosting for the green velvet cupcakes and green velvet whoopie pies, and put the remainder in the fridge to be used to make green velvet cake pops. Here are some of the super sweet cupcakes…
The cute shamrock sprinkles and fun cupcake liners!
Check out how pretty and green they are. My daughter was thrilled! Well at least until I stopped her mid-cupcake realizing that I hadn’t taken a picture of the great green insides of these babies.
And for those that would like something a little smaller – green velvet mini cupcakes…
And best of all, my kitchen somehow came out of this without any big globs of green anywhere. Whew.
These velvet cake recipes are so much fun. Are you looking for a different color velvet than green velvet? I have some yummy options for you in every color of the velvet rainbow, if that’s a thing. First up red velvet cookie bars.
How about pink velvet cupcakes!
Sweetapolita has a gorgeous purple velvet cake.
Sprinkle Bakes has some stunning blue velvet cupcakes.
I even have some orange velvet cupcakes!
And if you look hard enough, you can even find a yellow velvet cake.
Now that we’ve covered the velvet rainbow, check out green velvet whoopie pies!
Natalie says
Totally using this idea!
Lesa says
I was thinking of making Green Velvet Cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day and saw all the comments on this page. Not a one that I saw said anything about the green food coloring making your tongue or lips turn green. Can I assume that doesn’t happen? I know it doesn’t with Red Velvet. My daughter made a Blue Velvet at 4th of July but used the gel instead of food coloring and the guests ended up with blue lips.
Christi says
Lesa, I haven’t had that happen (though I have noticed anything blue seems to have that impact). I think, and this is just my theory, that when you bake something (the cupcakes) the food coloring does not tend to come off the way it does if it’s not baked (the frosting). I do not heavily tint my frosting for this reason, but I’ve yet to have issues with my baked goods. I also get to the color I need then call it good and don’t go overboard. Hope that helps!
Jeanna says
Love this! I have been going to do this, too. In fact, I’ll save about 1/3 of the batter to add mint to, since I & my mother in the nursing home love mint flavored things – the rest of the family don’t. Anyway, I often in March add green food coloring to cookies & cakes. I also love the Shamrock Shakes at McDonald’s. 🙂
Sara says
I am really looking forward to trying these for a St. Patricks Day party that I am going to! They look GREAT! And I love the green color! I am planning on making them with Bailey’s Irish Buttercream Frosting recipie that I found though… Hope it turns out good…. I also had a question, I have never made Red Velevet from scratch so I was not sure is all you do add red food coloring instead of green to the same ingrediants as you have here?
Greg says
Hi! Roughly how many cupcakes would the given amount of ingredients churn out? 🙂
Talking about regular size cupcake trays.
Christi says
Greg, it was a pretty standard recipe, so about 24 cupcakes. 🙂
Jodi says
Making this for my best-friend’s groom. A Green Bay Packers groom cake to be exact. Thanks so much for this!
Superhero Mom says
This will be great! My nearly 6-yr old daughter is a huge Green Lantern fan! Guess what kind of cake she’s getting for her birthday! 🙂
jtfghswMD says
great cupcakes!!!!
Jane says
May i know the size of cup u used? Thanks 🙂
Christi says
For the cupcakes? Standard and mini. 🙂
Rebecca says
I was thinking of making these for a wedding where the colors are green and gold. But her green is a little on the blue side. Do you think adding a few drops of blue would be a good idea?