Green Velvet Cupcakes

A friend gave me the original recipe years ago. I tweaked it a bit to make it green for a St Patrick's Day party at my son's preschool. The kids love to help decorate the cupcakes with green candy, green M&Ms or green sugar. A favorite is using a small Shamrock cookie cutter on green fruit roll-ups and placing them on top of the frosting.

3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp liquid green food coloring
1-1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp milk or cream
green food coloring paste

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Put paper or foil liners into a muffin pan. In a large bowl, beat together oil sugar, egg, vinegar, vanilla and green coloring with electric mixer until combined. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and baking soda. Add half to the egg mixture, add the buttermilk and then add rest of flour mixture beating well after each addition. Pour the batter into the cupcake liners until about 2/3rd full. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool. Makes about 10.

To make the icing, beat the butter until creamy with an electric mixer. Add the ice sugar gradually in 2 or 3 additions beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Add the milk 1 tbsp at a time until the icing is creamy. Add the food coloring, beating it in gradually until it's the shade of green you want.

This recipe is easy to double and you very well may want to. They tend to disappear fast.