St. Patrick's Day Party Snacks: Pot of Gold Cupcakes

These easy Pot O' Gold cupcakes look like little chocolate pots filled with delicious leprechaun gold. Bake a tray of this recipe for your child's St. Patrick's Day celebration at school or let your children help you make them for a fun activity at home.

Prepare chocolate boxed-cake mix according to box baking directions for your altitude. For a great home made chocolate cupcake recipe, check out Allrecipes.com. A variety of cupcake recipes are available including low-fat, no-fat, soy, protein-plus, and diabetes friendly versions.

Use brown cupcake paper liners if you can find them. Using St. Patrick's Day themed cupcake liners will distract from the overall look of the chocolate leprechaun pots. If you cannot find brown or black liners, try the palest white ones you can find. Often the chocolate cakes is visible through the liner after baking and will not be distracting.

Prepare Chocolate Frosting

Prepare chocolate frosting by mixing 2 3/4 cups confectioners sugar and 6 tablespoons cocoa powder. Beat this into 6 tablespoons of butter, already smooth. Add 5 tablespoons evaporated milk. (You may also use 2% or whole milk.) Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add more milk or sugar as needed to achieve the right consistency.

Spread a generous topping of chocolate frosting over each cooled chocolate cupcake pot.

The "gold" for the Irish leprechaun pot can be made from a variety of different options. For the most realistic looking Irish leprechaun gold, choose small gold-foil wrapped chocolate coins. Yellow M&Ms or other yellow candy coated chocolate candies, yellow Skittles, or yellow Sweet-Tarts candies all work well to resemble gold coins. Another option: Check the local baking aisle for metallic-coated sprinkles. Candy sprinkles that look like tiny gold balls are available, and completely edible.

Whatever you choose for you leprechaun gold, place a mound of it into the frosting in the center of each cupcake chocolate pot. Do not spread the candy all the way to the edge. Leave a rim around it to look like the rim of the pot with the candy inside it.

Look for Twizzlers (or other fruit licorice sticks) candies in yellow or gold. If you cant find lemon or orange varieties, red will suffice. The pull-apart Twizzlers are best because you can pull the candy sticks into two thinner sticks and they will bend easier than the thick ones. Either way, stick one end of the fruit licorice into one side of the chocolate leprechaun pot and loop the top over to stick in the other side.

Now you have a platter of perfect little chocolate pots filled with leprechaun gold and handles for your children or students to enjoy.