Leprechaun Hat Cupcakes

St. Patrick’s Day Recipe Craft: Leprechaun Hat Cupcakes

by Linette Gerlach

Whether you’re planning a St. Patrick’s Day party or just want to celebrate with the family, these fun Leprechaun Hat Cupcakes are sure to be a hit! The Leprechaun Hat Cupcake Wrappers are super simple and they really dress up your cupcakes to make them special for St. Patrick’s Day. Your kids will have a blast helping you put together the little hat wraps, decorating the cupcakes, and melting the chocolate.

The pattern and instructions below are for jumbo cupcakes but if you want to use regular cupcakes, just trim down the wrap a little to match the size of a smaller cupcake, and it will work well.

I use a chocolate mold to make the shamrock for the top of the cupcake, but you can substitute a cookie cutter and rolled fondant to make your shamrock, if you’d like.

Leprechaun Hat Cupcakes

Materials for the CUPCAKES:

Jumbo cupcake pan
Your favorite cake mix or recipe
Jumbo cupcake wrappers
Your favorite buttercream frosting (enough to ice all of your cupcakes)
Green candy/chocolate melts
Shamrock chocolate mold
Green food coloring
Leprechaun Hat Wrap (instructions below)
Large star cake decorating tip
Decorating bag for the frosting

Instructions for the CUPCAKES:

1. Bake your cupcakes according to the package or recipe directions. You may need to add a minute or two to your baking time if you’re making jumbo cupcakes

2. While the cupcakes are baking, melt your green candy/chocolate melts according to the package directions

3. Put the melted chocolate in a decorator bag, or squirt bottle and use the bag or bottle to fill shamrock shape chocolate molds. You can also melt some white chocolate and swirl the white and green chocolate together

4. Set your chocolates aside to cool

5. Color the buttercream frosting with green food coloring, until you get the shade you’d like. Remember that icing always gets a little darker as it dries

6. Once your cupcakes are baked and cooled, ice them using a star decorating tip and decorator bag. Put the icing in the decorator bag with the tip on it, and swirl the icing around the cupcake top from the outside to the center

7. Once your chocolates are cool and hardened, place a chocolate shamrock on top of each cupcake and set your cupcakes aside while you make your Shamrock Hat Cupcake Wrappers (instructions below)

Shamrock Hat Cupcake Wrappers

Materials for the SHAMROCK HAT CUPCAKE WRAPPERS:

Two different shades of green cardstock or scrapbook paper

A scrap of gold or yellow scrapbook paper

Shamrock Hat Cupcake Wrap pattern (you can make your own or print out this one)

Jumbo cupcakes (recipe and instructions above)

Craft glue or scrapbook tape (optional: if an adult is supervising, you can use a hot glue gun)

Scissors

Instructions for the SHAMROCK CUPCAKE WRAP:

1. Print out this Shamrock Hat Cupcake Wrap pattern. If you don’t have a printer, or if you prefer to make your own pattern, follow these steps:

Collect a piece of paper, a pencil, and a ruler

Make the Hat Brim by drawing a 4” circle; use a compass to make a perfect circle or trace the bottom of a 4” bowl (Refer to this image if you’re unsure)

Make the Buckle by drawing a square that is ¾” long and ¾”wide. Then, inside your square, draw another, smaller square that is 3/8” long and 3/8” wide (Again, refer to this image for guidance)

Create the Hat Top by drawing a long, thin rectangle that is 10” long and 1 ¾” wide

Create the Hat Band by drawing a long, thin rectangle that is 10” long and ½” wide

2. Cut out the pattern, lay it on your cardstock or scrapbook paper to use as a stencil, and cut out all the Shamrock Hat pieces with scissors. Use dark green paper or stock for the Hat Brim and the Hat Top; use lighter green stock/paper for the Hat Band, and use yellow or gold stock/paper for the Buckle

3. Once you’ve cut out the pieces, lay the thinner Hat Band on the wider Hat Top along the bottom and glue or tape them together. Then, glue the gold buckle to the center of the hat band

4. When the glue is completely dry wrap the Hat Band around the base of the cupcake, and glue or tape in place. The glue gun works great for this step, because it dries quickly

5. Sit the cupcake on top of the Hat Brim. You can anchor the cupcake to the Hat Brim with a little tape, or just sit it in place. If you need to move the cupcakes before serving them you should anchor them; if they’re not going far, just simply sit the cupcakes on the Hat Brim

6. When you’re ready to serve the cupcakes, just slide them out of their hats, and send the leprechaun hats home with your guests as party favors

AmazingMoms Tips

Make this hat in black (without the shamrock) and you’ll have a Mad Hatter top hat for the Alice in Wonderland movie!

If you don’t want to make the chocolate shamrocks, buy candy shamrocks at the store to top your cupcakes.