St. Patty's Day Brownie Cupcakes

After my crazy rain run this morning, and a little needed rest & recovery, I decided to have a little mamma/daughter cooking time on a chilly afternoon while dadda was at work. Kapri was SO excited to make some yummy brownie cupcakes with a bit of green St. Patrick's Day flair!

We got our aprons on, set all the ingredients out on the counter, put on the 'Adele' station on Pandora & went to work.

she seriously spent at least 20 min licking every inch on one of the beaters!

She always wants to help me in the kitchen, so I try to find things she can assist with. The eggs is something we have to work on... she always accidentally pierces her little finger through them after I make the first crack...so I have to help her on that one and show her how to gently pull apart each part of the eggshell and let the egg fall into the bowl. She loves to pour in every pre-measured ingredient and especially loves to help stir and hold onto the electric mixer while it blends everything together.

While the brownie cupcakes were baking, we made some homemade 'green' icing using:

• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• A few drops of green food coloring 
• 1 tbsp. milk

You simply mix the butter & shortening together with a mixer in a large bowl. Add the 1st cup of sugar, mix really well, then add the 2nd cup and mix til it's super light & fluffy. After that, you add the vanilla, food coloring and milk...then beat it until fluffy again. So easy & sooo yummy...much better than the prepackaged tubs of frosting!

Once the brownies cooled (about 30 min), we each spread frosting on the brownies, added some green sprinkles then topped them with some candy clovers. I made those by drawing clovers on one side of wax paper and melting green melting chocolate in a plastic zip back. Then I flipped over the wax paper and traced/filled in the clovers with the melted chocolate and let them dry for a few minutes.

added our initials for fun as well

I love sweets!!! Too much I think...so does my kid...obvs. 

They go so well with a glass of cab too! Perfect way to end the night...kid in bed, feet up & blogging away.

love this 'rainbow' effect on my Tadaa iPhone app!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!