In honour of St. Patrick’s day, I wanted to make something green. In my mind, the most obvious green is mint, and so I created this combination. Happily, President Choice brand imitation after-eights were on sale too, which added a classy look to otherwise plain cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup shortening
• 1¾ cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs, separated
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1⅓ cups cold water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream the shortening with 1 cup of the sugar. Add vanilla and egg yolks, beating well. Sift in the dry ingredients alternately with the water, beating after each addition. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form (points stay after pulling the beaters out of the bowl). Gradually beat the rest of the sugar into the egg whites. Fold the egg white mixture into the batter with a spatula or spoon. Blend well, but slowly and gently.

Fill about 24 cupcake papers to ¾ full. Bake at 350°F for about 15-20min or until a knife comes out clean from poking the middle of a cupcake. Let cool at least 15min before icing.

Icing

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• green food colouring
• peppermint oil or peppermint extract

Directions:

Beat together the butter and half the sugar. Add in the milk, and then the rest of the sugar. You can add milk or sugar until you get a consistency you like. Add a small amount of peppermint, probably only a drop or two, and taste before adding more. It shouldn’t take very much food colouring to get a light green. Spread on the cupcakes, or use a pastry bag and decorating tip for fancy effects.

Note: for extra mint, put half of an after-eight mint chocolate on top.

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