Green Velvet Cupcakes
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Green Velvet Cupcakes are just like the red ones, only green! Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes! They’re velvety soft and moist with a hint of chocolate and topped with whipped cream cheese frosting.
Feeling extra festive? Make red velvet cupcakes together with these green cupcakes for a Christmas party!
Why You’ll Love These Green Cupcakes
- Fit for Celebrations: Green Velvet Cupcakes can be a festive choice for St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, or any event where green is a prominent color such as Earth Day, a garden party, a color scheme party, or for your favorite sports team.
- Common Ingredients: These homemade green cupcakes are made with regular ingredients that you probably already have at home like flour, baking powder and salt.
- Soft and Velvety: While other recipes might use cake flour, I will show you how to make these cupcakes just as soft and tender with all-purpose flour and cornstarch. This makes the crumb extra velvety and melt-in-your-mouth soft.
Ingredients You’ll Need
*NOTE: Full ingredient amounts and instructions are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
For the Green Cupcakes
- All-Purpose Flour – Stir, spoon and level when measuring. Or use a food scale to weigh it.
- Cornstarch
- Cocoa Powder
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Unsalted Butter
- Granulated Sugar
- Large Eggs
- Buttermilk – Or milk plus vinegar/lemon juice. (See recipe notes.)
- Oil – Canola or vegetable.
- *LIQUID Green Food Coloring – NOT gel. I found it at my local Kroger store.
- Vanilla Extract – Use pure vanilla extract for the best flavor.
RECIPE TESTING NOTES: The green food coloring needs to be LIQUID. When I first made this recipe I couldn’t find the liquid food coloring at Walmart and tried using a whole tube of green food coloring gel. It didn’t mix in very easily and looked more like a yucky olive green than a deep green, as pictured here. Crazy enough, it darkened some the next day, but it still was not the green I was going for.
In my first test of this recipe I also used vinegar like in my red velvet cupcakes recipe (which enhances the red color). But I chose to leave it out the second time and used liquid green food coloring instead, which I was able to find at my local Kroger store (Smith’s). {McCormick also has some if you can find it.} This resulted in the beautiful green cupcakes pictured.
CONCLUSION: Learn from my mistake and use liquid green food coloring, otherwise you may get an olive green colored cupcake by using green food coloring gel.
For the Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream Cheese – Brick/block style, not from a tub.
- Powdered Sugar
- Salt
- Vanilla Extract
- Heavy Whipping Cream
You can make this frosting in one bowl or two.
Helpful Tools
Before I share the step-by-step photo tutorial, you will need a few helpful tools.
- Fine Mesh Sieve – To sift the dry ingredients.
- KitchenAid or Electric Hand Mixer – To cream the fat and sugar together and mix the batter.
- Cupcake Pans – To bake the cake batter in.
- #24 Trigger Scoop – To evenly divide the batter and easily drop it into the cupcake pan.
- Silicone Spatulas – My favorite bundle with a different size/shape for everything.
- Wilton 6B Piping Tip – If you want the same look for the frosting.
NOTE: These are Amazon affiliate links, where I earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
How to Make Green Velvet Cupcakes
Be sure to scroll to the recipe card for printable instructions.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin tins with paper cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, corn starch, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt, TWICE, with a fine mesh sieve.
PRO TIP: I like to sift my dry ingredients onto parchment paper to create a funnel for pouring into the mixer later on.
- Place butter and sugar in an electric stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Cream until fluffy and light.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing completely between each addition. (Mixing the eggs separately helps them emulsify correctly.)
- Add the buttermilk, oil, green food coloring, and vanilla. Mix until combined. Scrape bowl.
- Add the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated. Do not over-mix.
- Immediately spoon batter 2/3 full into cupcake lined muffin tins; about 20 cupcakes.
- Bake at 350˚F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs and the cake springs back when touched. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting Ideas
You can’t have (red or) green velvet cupcakes without cream cheese frosting.
You can find my classic cream cheese frosting recipe right here on my blog. As this recipe makes 20 cupcakes, you will most likely need to 1.5-2x the recipe in order to pile it high, as pictured.
I opted to use my whipped cream cheese frosting for these green cupcakes. It makes plenty (about 4 cups) of frosting and tastes just as delicious, if not better, and is certainly lighter than regular cream cheese frosting.
For St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes
To decorate these as St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes you can top them with:
- Gold Chocolate Coins
- Sprinkles – Gold, green, or whatever you like!
- Rainbow Belts Candy
- Rolos – For the “Pot of Gold.”
How to Store Green Velvet Cupcakes
If using cream cheese frosting, you will need to refrigerate any frosted cupcakes.
- To store frosted cupcakes: Place the frosted cupcakes inside of an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days. Remove leftover cupcakes from fridge 20-30 minutes before serving to take the chill off the cake.
- To store unfrosted cupcakes: Place unfrosted cupcakes inside of an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
- To freeze unfrosted cupcakes: Wrap in plastic wrap (in groups of up to 6, or individually) inside of an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 2 months. Defrost at room temperature.
- To freeze frosted cupcakes: Partially freeze cupcakes until firm enough to wrap individually. Then place in an airtight container to freeze completely. Remove plastic wrap and thaw in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
Recipe Tips
- Sift the dry ingredients. Since we are using all-purpose flour instead of cake flour in this red velvet cupcakes recipe, I highly recommend sifting the dry ingredients — twice. This can be done with any fine mesh sieve. Sifting the dry ingredients will help distribute things better and create a lighter, fluffier cupcake. Be sure to stir, spoon, and level the flour when it’s measured as well, so that it’s not packed into the measuring cup. If you have a food scale, weigh the flour instead.
- Use room temperature ingredients. For the batter to come together correctly, the refrigerated ingredients must come to room temperature. Pull them from the fridge 30-60 minutes before using them.
- Use LIQUID green food coloring NOT GEL. I already explained this above in my recipe testing notes. Simply put, the liquid color incorporates more easily and hides the brown color of the cocoa better.
- No buttermilk? You can make it! Add 1 Tablespoon of distilled white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup. Pour regular milk to reach the 1 cup line. Stir and let it sit for 5-10 minutes before using it.
- Use a scoop for filling the cupcake liners. I like to use a #24 scoop (affiliate) to fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full. This creates consistently sized cupcakes and ensures the cupcakes will all bake evenly.
Green Velvet Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (210 g) all-purpose flour
- 4 Tablespoons (40 g) cornstarch
- 2 Tablespoons (10 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup (237 ml) buttermilk, room temperature – see notes
- ¼ cup (59 ml) oil, (canola/vegetable)
- 1 ounce (2 Tablespoons) green food coloring, liquid coloring, not gel
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin tins with paper cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, corn starch, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt, TWICE, with a fine mesh sieve. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale. Add eggs one at a time, mixing completely between each addition.
- Add the buttermilk, oil, liquid green food coloring, and vanilla. Mix until combined. Scrape bowl.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in mixer. Mix until just combined. Do not over-mix! Use a #24 scoop to divide batter into cups 2/3 full. Will make 20 cupcakes.
- Bake at 350˚F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs and the cake springs back when touched. Allow to cool completely before frosting. I used my Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting recipe.
Notes
- Homemade Buttermilk: Add 1 Tablespoon of distilled white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup. Pour regular milk to reach the 1 cup line. Stir and let it sit for 5-10 minutes before using it.
- To store frosted cupcakes: Place the frosted cupcakes inside of an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days. Remove leftover cupcakes from fridge 20-30 minutes before serving to take the chill off the cake.
- To store unfrosted cupcakes: Place unfrosted cupcakes inside of an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
- To freeze unfrosted cupcakes: Wrap in plastic wrap (in groups of up to 6, or individually) inside of an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 2 months. Defrost at room temperature.
- To freeze frosted cupcakes: Partially freeze cupcakes until firm enough to wrap individually. Then place in an airtight container to freeze completely. Remove plastic wrap and thaw in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
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