Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In the spirit of St. Patty's Day I made green velvet cupcakes with creamcheese filling. YUM. Red velvet is one of my FAVORITES, so I had to make sure these were good. I used a red velvet and cream cheese filling recipe from Lick The Bowl Good and added green food coloring to make it deliciously green! I also added a cream cheese clover for decoration (and as a good excuse to add more cream cheese).

The batter is made of:

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon green food coloring
• 3/4 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 tablespoons sour cream (for those of you thinking EW, it worked really well in keeping the cupcakes flat and moist)

The filling is made of:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons lightly beaten egg
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

This recipe is awesome because it only makes about 8 cupcakes. Who really needs 24 cupcakes sitting around the house? Its also great because it doesn't need frosting! The filling is sweet and savory enough to give you that extra punch. But make sure you refrigerate the leftovers or else the cream cheese will go bad.

First beat the cream cheese and sugar together until well mixed. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until well mixed. In a different bowl combine vegetable oil, sugar, vinegar, egg, food coloring, vanilla, and sour cream. Stir until well mixed. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Now, fill 1/4 of the cupcake liner with the batter. Then fill another 1/4 with filling (or more depending on how much you like cream cheese!). Fill another 1/4 with batter. Finally pipe a clover design on top with the filling.

It's easiest to create these batter/filling layers when you pipe them into the liners from a baggie. This prevents the mess from a dripping spoon and also makes each cupcake more even. Just turn the baggie inside out and reach your hand into the it. Then create a cup with your hand inside the inside out baggie, and pour the batter into this cup from the outside. Then pull the top of the baggie off of your hand. This will catch all of the batter inside of the baggie and leave you with a clean hand and piping bag! I always use plastic baggies to pipe in my batter, and it never fails me!

(Inside out baggie with hand cupped inside)

I put the cupcakes in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, but I think it was a minute or two too long. Next time I'll put them in for only about 18 minutes. I'll also add more filling.

When you first take them out of the oven, the clovers will be a little bit broken because of the rising cupcakes, but as you let them cool, the cupcakes will fall and the clovers will recover. The cupcakes were SO good, and I will definitely make them again. I highly suggest trying out these fun creations. And since the color and design can change, you can use them for any occasion!