St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun Cupcakes

Celebrating the Luck of the Irish!

Step 1: An Idea

An Irish lass myself, I knew I had to come up with something spectacular for St. Patrick's Day this year.  Luckily for me, I stumbled upon a great cupcake blog called "Sugar Swings! Serve Some" that had just what I was looking for. I decided to go with chocolate cupcakes again because they were specifically requested. I iced them with a green Sprinkle's buttercream frosting.

Step 2: Heads

Heads with indents for eyes

I started, as Sugarswings suggested, with the heads. These consisted of vanilla tootsie rolls softened in the microwave for 10 seconds and then rolled into ball shapes. Remember to pull off a little bit for the hands and nose. The nose gets attached right away, but the hands don't get added until later. I rolled them all and set them to cool on wax paper. The only real difference, at this point, is that I pressed little holes for eyes into the faces with a toothpick. These were later filled with black gel that I dabbed in with the same toothpick that I created the holes with. She used a food pen to draw them on. 

Step 3: Hats

mini-marshmallows and candy melts

I then made the hats as Sugarswings directed. She suggests piping circles on the wax paper with green candy melt waffers. After piping them all, but before they cool, you press a mini-marshmallow into the center to create a hat and brim. Once these cool, you are to dip the marshmallow top of the hat into the candy melt to coat it green. This worked, but the hats were a bit too rounded because of the excess candy melt. I decided to do it backwards. For the second round of hats, I dipped the marshmallows first and then pressed the already dipped marshmallows into the piped circles. It resulted in a cleaner hat with more definition. These second-round hats ended up on the cupcakes without leprechauns.  Once they were solid, I drew a little black "ribbon" around the brim with black gel. It was a bit sticky, but it does dry after awhile. When they were served, the hats were no longer smudging.

Step 4: Bodies

The bodies are made out of Hershey kisses with the points cut off. The flat surface allows for the head to attach more securely. First you cut the tips off, and then you dip them in the same candy melt as the hats. Obviously you would melt the chips in stages. It wouldn't be the same batch of melts, but it would be the same thing. This was my first attempt at working with the sugary substance, so I was shocked at just how easy it really is to work with. The piping is stiff yet forgiving, which is essential for newbies like me. 

Step 5: Assembly

Once all of the pieces are dipped and cooled, the heads are attached to the bodies with piped on candy melt. Then the hats were attached to the heads with piped on candy melt. The little hands were attached to the sides with the same candy melt. It works surprisingly well because it stiffens up so nicely when it cools. The red beards were added with a "leaf" tip. I simply piped it on around the "ears" and under the "nose".

Step 6: Decorating:

Once the little men were all assembled, I decided to pipe on more hair under the hat to fill him out more and added a reeses pieces to the brim for a gold buckle. The leprechauns were then added to the center of the frosted cupcakes. Grass was added with a different green frosting that I purchased already tubed and ready to go. I also added sparkly green gel to jazz them up. Finally,  piles of "gold coins" (reeses pieces) were sprinkled around the cupcake as though the leprechaun lost it on his journey. A dozen cupcakes were made with the leprechauns and a dozen were made with only hats. I did the same basic cupcake, though I tried to add a bit more gold.

Before deciding on hats, I tried to make cauldrons to hold the piles of gold, but I couldn't think of a way to make them. Looking back, I am envisioning a melted tootsie roll heated and formed into the shape of a pot and then dipped in chocolate melts or chocolate almond bark. It's funny how I just couldn't think of it then. Maybe next year...

 Step 7: Share!

I presented these to my colleagues at a staff meeting. They really loved them. The biggest problem was that nobody wanted to eat them. They thought they must have taken a lot of work and felt guilty about eating them. One of my friends at school actually left it on his desk for around a week. He only at one little part at a time. I, on the other hand, did NOT have that kind of self control. They were scrumptious! :-)