These boozy shamrock shake cakes are minty, made with Bailey’s Irish Cream and a malted vanilla frosting. This dessert is perfect for St.Patrick’s Day. You can also make them alcohol-free for kids.
Need more boozy St. Patrick’s Day desserts? Try my Bailey’s Cheesecake or these Irish Cream Cupcakes.
St Patricks Day Cupcakes
If you love minty Shamrock Shakes, then you’ll love these cupcakes! They’re minty fresh and topped with a vanilla malt frosting. They’re the perfect dessert to serve up for St. Patrick’s Day.
I will take any excuse to bust out a themed dessert, especially one that made with some Bailey’s Irish Cream. There’s a hint of Bailey’s in both the cupcake and the frosting, but if you need a kid friendly option, I’ve provided that as well.
What do these cupcakes taste like?
It’s been years and years since I’ve had a Shamrock Shake, so of course I hit the McDonald’s drive thru to grab one. Wow, they’re so minty! As someone who loves mint desserts, it’s still a little too sweet and strong for me.
These cupcakes are just the right amount of mint flavor without being too overpowering. It’s balanced out with some sweet vanilla flavor and a vanilla malt frosting that tastes like a milkshake.
Of course, the Bailey’s adds a little twist of Irish cream flavor the help balance out the mint as well. These are adapted from my favorite yellow cupcakes, so they’re perfectly light and fluffy to.
Malted Vanilla Frosting
My vanilla frosting recipe is absolutely perfect, but I made a few alternations to flavor this frosting to give it more of a milkshake vibe by adding some vanilla malt powder. If you have trouble finding malt powder, then swap it out for powdered sugar.
You’ll notice my recipe starts with cold butter. This is not a mistake! Cold butter is my secret for achieving perfect frosting for decorating cupcakes.
How to make St. Patrick’s Day themed Cupcakes
- Dye them green! I recommend buying a thicker gel from Wilton or Americolor (check your local craft store such as Michael’s or JoAnns) and you can often buy a single color. I used Leaf Green. The liquid variety often require you to add a lot of coloring in order to achieve a good color.
- Get some shamrock cupcake liners – any green and white liners will work!
- Top them with shamrock sprinkles from Sprinkle Pop
- These are decorated with a 1M piping tip
How to make these Alcohol-free for kids
These two simple swaps will make these cupcakes alcohol-free and safe to serve to kids. In the cupcake batter, swap out the Bailey’s Irish Cream for milk. In the frosting, swap it out for additional heavy cream.
Storing frosted cupcakes
These can be stored in a cool, dry place in an airtight container for up to 3 days once they are frosted. If you live in a hot and humid environment, then I would suggest that you refrigerate cupcakes that are frosted and allow them to come to room temperature before serving.
Print
Boozy Shamrock Shake Cakes
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 cupcakes
- Category: Cupcake
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These boozy shamrock shake cakes are so cute and made with Bailey’s Irish Cream. This dessert is perfect for St.Patrick’s Day!
Ingredients
For the cupcake
- ¾ cups (143g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (59 ml) vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon mint extract
- ¼ cup (59ml) sour cream
- 1 ¼ cups (175g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (118ml) milk
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) Bailey’s Irish Cream (see notes)
- Green food coloring
For the frosting
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, cold
- ¼ cup (28g) vanilla malt powder
- 3 ½ cups (455g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) Baileys Irish cream (see notes)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
For the cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla and mint extract. Beat on medium speed until well incorporated and the batter is lighter in color, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Next mix in the sour cream and beat until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients. Alternate adding half the dry ingredients and half the liquid ingredients at a time and mix just until the flour starts to incorporate. Add the green food coloring and mix until combined. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir the batter from the bottom to the top to ensure it’s well mixed.
- Using a large cookie scoop, divide the batter evenly, filling each liner 2/3 full. Bake at 350°F for 14-16 minutes. Test the cupcakes for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cupcake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cupcakes are done. Cool Completely.
For the frosting
- Cut the butter into pieces. Using the paddle attachment, whip the butter for 5-7 minutes, scraping down the bowl occasionally, beating until the butter is very fluffy.
- Adding the vanilla malt powder and 2 cups of powdered sugar the vanilla extract & heavy cream. Beat until well combined, and fluffy. Add remaining powdered sugar and Baileys. Add a pinch of salt. Ensure the powdered sugar is well combined, then and whip for 2-3 minutes. Frost cooled cupcakes.
Notes
- Alcohol-free cupcakes: In the cupcake batter, swap with milk. In the frosting, swap with heavy whipping cream.
- Sour-cream substitute: Greek yogurt or plain yogurt is best
- Malt powder substitute: Swap it out with powdered sugar
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 450
- Sugar: 48.5g
- Sodium: 174mg
- Fat: 22g
- Carbohydrates: 60g
- Fiber: .4g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 76mg
Made these tonight, my green came out a bit more grinchy than shamrock green, but thats not a problem! My husband stole 2 right out of the oven, was scooping the frosting out with a spoon and putting it on the tops i cut off, as I was frosting them! They were easy and very delicious!
So glad you enjoyed them! Thank you!
I will be serving these cupcakes tonight. The instructions do not tell me when to add mint and milk. The batter was very runny and took a half hour to bake. I made the frosting and decided to frost one and taste it. I’m not impressed. It is dry and really has little taste to me, however my taste buds aren’t working properly. I’ll take cupcakes and get feedback from my friends.
Hi Sharon, you’re right, the mint extract was missing (should be added with the vanilla). To add the milk, it is listed in step 3 when you alternate adding the wet and dry ingredients, but if that’s not clear, I can certainly fix it, thanks for pointing that out. This batter is very thin, so sounds like you didn’t do anything wrong there, but if you baked them for a half-hour, then you had to have over-baked them, unless you made jumbo-sized cupcakes, this would be way to long for a standard size cupcake with is about 3 tablespoons or 1/4 cup of batter.
Hi julianne
Your boozy shamrock cupcakes look lovely I was just wondering were you got mint extract and vanilla malt powder and the shamrock sprinkles, you probley think it’s odd asking since I’m from dublin ireland never seen these itams here I would like to get these itams any suggestions were i could purchase them
Yours sincerely
Patricia obrien 🇮🇪
Stay safe
Hi Patricia, the mint extract can be found in our grocery stores, as well as the vanilla malt powder, but if you click on the link in the post, or the recipe card, it will take you to Amazon and it’s available there. I also linked to the Sprinkles in the blog post, they’re from a shop called Sprinkle Pop.