Lime Vanilla Green Carnation Cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day

It’s that time of the year again to start churning out the green goods for St. Paddy’s Day. I’m not Irish but for me this up coming holiday is a good excuse for creative inspiration.
  

Recently, it seems like fake green carnations have been popping up everywhere in craft and dollar stores. They are hard to ignore and they inspired this cupcake design for St. Patrick’s Day.

I haven’t made an elaborate cupcake in awhile. This was a great opportunity to get back on the cupcake train.

To start, I made homemade marshmallow fondant out of key lime flavored marshmallows. Using three different sizes of a round cutter set, I cut out circles.

I used a sharp knife to cut slits all around the edges to frill them, piled them on top of each other and made a carnation topper.

An extra piece was created to fill in the center.

For the cupcakes I added lime extract and some lime zest to a vanilla cupcake batter and did the same to the vanilla buttercream.

The English have the expression “done and dusted” when they finish a task. My version is “done and disco dusted”. As usual, I couldn’t resist the sparkle so I used two different colors of disco dust to glitter these babies up.

The flavored marshmallows make the fondant process easier, saving the effort of flavoring and coloring. The lime vanilla combo worked well together to create a most delicious cupcake.

For the Lime Vanilla cupcakes:

 I used this vanilla cupcake recipe from Magnolia Bakery and added a teaspoon of lime extract to the batter as well as a tablespoon of lime zest. 

For the Lime Vanilla Buttercream:

I used this vanilla buttercream recipe from Magnolia bakery and added a teaspoon of lime extract to the batter and a few drops of green food coloring.

For the Lime Homemade Marshmallow Fondant:

Ingredients:

• Fit your mixer with the dough hook attachment, Cover the inside of your mixer bowl and the dough hook with Crisco or shortening. Then also grease a heat safe bowl, and a wooden spoon.
• Place marshmallows and water in the bowl.
• Microwave the marshmallows for 30 seconds at a time stirring the mixture in between with the wooden spoon.
• When the mixture is the consistency of Marshmallow Fluff,  transfer to the mixer and add  2 cups of the powdered sugar.
• Continue adding powdered sugar as the mixer works, one cup at a time until fondant forms.
• Cover your work surface with  your hands with Crisco or shortening.
• Dump the fondant on the greased surface and knead the fondant until all the sugar disappears.
• Wrap  in plastic wrap until you use it.
• Wrap leftover fondant tightly in plastic cling film and store in a zip lock bag.

Directions:

• Make and decorate cupcakes with buttercream frosting.
• Dust your work surface with powdered sugar.
• Roll out the fondant and cut out the circles. You will need one of each size to make one carnation.
• Using the paring knife, make small cuts close together other all around the outside edges of the fondant circles.
• Starting with the largest on the bottom and the smallest on top, stack the  fondant circles one on top of the other.
• Using the edge of the medium sized circle cutter, cut out a long half moon shape from one of the fondant scraps.
• On the rounded side, make the same cuts along the edge with the sharp knife. 
• Roll this up pinching the fondant together on the straight edge side.
• Press into the center of the pile of fondant circles and press the straight edge side into the center.
• Place the stacked circles in your hand and use your fingers of the other hand to pinch the bottom together to create a small fat stem and create the flower shape.
• Place on top of a frosted cupcake.
• Dip the paint brush into the alcohol and brush on the outer edges of the flower then dip the brush into the disco dust and brush on top of the alcohol.