These are super fun St Patrick’s Day cupcakes. Jazzed up box mix that tastes like a bakery cake, with a no-fail creamy filling and stabilized whipped cream topping.

Cupcakes are fun any day, but they’re especially cute when dressed up for the holidays. These little St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes start with a box cake mix, but have added ingredients to make them taste homemade.

There’s a sweet, creamy surprise inside that pairs perfectly with the lightly sweetened stabilized whipped cream.

st patrick's day cupcake with a gold coin and sprinkles

About the St Patrick’s Day Cupcakes:

Flavor: This is a simply flavored vanilla cupcake. You can use a different cake flavor if you’d like, but the white works well with the themed cupcakes. There’s an option to add Bailey’s Irish Cream Liqueur to the filling, which will kick up the flavor greatly.
Texture: There are 2 different textures to this cupcake. The sour cream added to the cake mix makes the cupcakes moist and tender. The creamy, pudding filling and the whipped topping add a cool creaminess to every bite.
Method: Although showcased as cupcakes, you could also make this into a poke cake if you’d like.

How to Make a Box Mix Taste Homemade

Box cake mixes have such a nostalgic flavor. The price is hard to beat and honestly the light, fluffy texture is, too. You can add a few ingredients to a box mix to have it taste more like homemade if you’d like.

Sour cream adds not only flavor, but a moist texture to the cake. Also, adding vanilla and a little extra sugar and salt help to alter the flavor slightly.

collage of how to make and fill cupcakes

Tips for Making the Cupcakes

Use an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer when mixing the cake mix to ensure it all gets blended evenly. It’s also important to remember to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as you mix.
The nonpareil sprinkles may shed their color if you overmix the batter. Gently fold the sprinkles in and be careful not to overmix.
Fill the cupcake liners to at least ½ full, but not over ¾ full or the cupcakes will not have a nice shape. If you fill them ½ full, you’ll end up with more cupcakes.
The Bailey’s Irish Cream Liqueur is optional for the filling. You can leave it out and still have a delicious cupcake.
When making the stabilized whipped cream, drizzle the gelatin mixture in very, very slowly so you don’t get clumps. Think just a thread-like drizzle into the mixing bowl while the mixer is running.
The gold coins are from the Dollar Tree, however you can use any gold coins you’d like. Chocolate gold coins would be awesome. You can even buy small Oreo cookies and use an edible gold spray to color them gold.

Storage Instructions

Because of the pudding filling and whipped cream frosting, you must store the cupcakes in the refrigerator.

These are safe to make 1 day in advance as they keep well in the fridge as long as they are covered. Leftovers will keep for a few days in the fridge, but the texture will be best on day 1 or 2.

St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes

4.50 from 2 votes

These are super fun St. Patrick's Day cupcakes. Jazzed up box mix that tastes like a bakery cake, with a no-fail creamy filling and stabilized whipped cream topping.

Servings 20

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 25

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Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

½ cup all-purpose flour divided
⅓ cup green nonpareil sprinkles
1 box white cake mix 15.25 ounces
1 cup water
½ cup sour cream full fat
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt

For the filling:

1 box instant vanilla pudding mix 5.1 ounces
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur optional
green food coloring

For the stabilized whipped cream:

1 ⅔ cups heavy whipping cream very cold
⅓ cup powdered sugar
1 ½ tablespoon cold water
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Make the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
Prepare a muffin tin by lining with cupcake wrappers. You'll need about 20 liners.
In a small bowl mix together 2 tablespoons of the flour with the ⅓ cup of green nonpareil sprinkles. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine all of the cake ingredients except for the sprinkles, mix well. (Remember to add in the remaining flour.) Use a hand mixer or stand mixer to make sure it is well mixed and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
Once the cake batter is mixed, gently fold in the sprinkle mixture. Be careful to not over mix as the color from the sprinkles will bleed into the batter if you mix too much.
Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, scoop batter into each of the cupcake wrappers in the muffin tin. Fill them just over halfway but no more than ¾ of the way.
Bake the cupcakes in the pre-heated oven for approximately 20 to 25 minutes or until they are cooked through. The top center will bounce back when you touch it.
When the cupcakes have finished baking, remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Make the filling:

While the cupcakes are baking you can prepare the filling. In a clean bowl mix together the pudding mix, cream, milk, and the Baileys (If you are not using the Baileys you can replace the Baileys with the same amount of heavy cream or milk).
Whisk in the green food coloring until you've reached the desired color.
Cover the mixture and set in the refrigerator for later.

Make the stabilized whipped cream:

Make the stabilized whipped cream for the topping. Start by putting the cold water into a small dish that is microwave safe.
Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and mix in. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes the mixture should be a solid texture, take the dish and place it in the microwave for 3 to 5 seconds. Take the dish out and stir, it should now be liquefied. If for some reason it is not liquefied try microwaving for another 3 to 5 seconds.
In the bowl of a stand mixer pour in the heavy whipping cream and begin whipping the cream on high using the whisk attachment.
Slowly add in the vanilla and powdered sugar.
When the cream becomes thick but not yet peaks slowly stream in the liquefied gelatin mixture. Make sure you drizzle this in very, very slowly so you don't get clumps.
Continue to whip on high until stiff peaks form.

Assemble the cupcakes:

When the cupcakes are cool, take a small knife and cut the center out of the cupcake, about the width of a quarter. When doing this it is easiest to have the knife at a small angle so that you're cutting a cone shape out from the center of the cupcake. Avoid going all the way to the bottom.
Remove the filling from the refrigerator. Either pipe the filling or spoon the filling into the centers of the cupcakes all the way to the top, it's okay to go a little bit above the top as well.
Fill a piping bag that has a large open star piping tip (Wilton 1M or 2D) with stabilized whipped cream.
Pipe swirls of the stabilized whipped cream onto the cupcakes.
Top each cupcake with sprinkles and a gold coin.
Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. These are great served same day however you can absolutely make them one day in advance.

Author Julie Clark

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cupcake recipe, holiday cupcakes