A St. Patrick’s Day Celebration Cake or "Just Cake"

 We liked and ate up this cake.  Although, as Ben put it, it’s “just a cake.”  He said, “I mean, it’s a really good cake, but it’s just a cake.” Then I said, “But its got HERSHEY’S KISSES Dark Chocolates filled with Mint Truffle and green mint buttercream.”  And he said, “I know, those things add to it and they make it really good, but it’s still just a cake.”  So I shrugged my shoulders and ate my cake.
I am not Irish.  I don’t think I have any Irish ancestry.  I have never been to Ireland and I don’t have any desire to ever go to Ireland.  Yet, on March 17th I still feel like I need to wear something green and eat corned beef and cabbage.  It’s sociological.  Growing up I would shutter at the thought of people pinching me on that date.  I have a keen sense of my personal space and I hate for it to be violated. Especially by people I am not close to.  So I always wore some shade of green to school or, later in life, work on that day.  The grocery stores always remind me that I need corned beef in March, and I like corned beef, so I buy it.
Here are ten things I have done in the name of St. Patrick’s Day (and I know next to nothing about the holiday or the Irish culture):
 
-Braved a super seedy “beer and cheap wine” bar on a Sunday night with my then boyfriend/now husband. (Because it used to be illegal to sell liquor on Sundays in the city we live in.)
-Won a free pint of Guinness, at a Irish pub called “The Harp” in Kaiserslautern, Germany, for guessing the correct date St’ Patrick’s day falls on. (Later that night my sister and I stood on our bar stools and danced to “You Can Leave Your Hat On” by Joe Cocker.”)
-Drank a green beer with Granny at Cactus Pete’s in Jackpot Nevada.
-Own a green shamrock studded pair of panties.
-Drank countless “Irish Car Bombs” (I still shudder at the thought).
-Boiled corned beef at least three times in my life (I believe I have cooked it more than that but I distinctly remember three times).
-Forgotten to wear green 1 time in my life on March 17th(that I can remember).
-Dressed both of my kids in green on March 17th.
-Spent hours looking through patches of clover in my parents’ front lawn looking for four leaf clovers.
-I made a chocolate cake with HERSHEY’S KISSES Dark Chocolates filled with Mint Truffle and green mint buttercream.
 
What do you do for St. Patrick’s Day?
A St. Patrick’s Day Celebration Cake or “Just Cake”
 
Ingredients:
-One 16.5 oz. Devil’s Food cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
-1 egg + 4 egg yolks
-1 cup fat free milk
– 1/3 cup. Oil (I used grape seed oil you could use vegetable oil)
-10 oz. bag HERSHEY’S KISSES Dark Chocolates filled with Mint Truffle.
Preheat oven to 350° F.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix for 2 to 3 minutes on medium high speed (until well combined).  Pour batter into a parchment lined 9” X 13” cake pan. Stud batter with ~30 (frozen) kisses (evenly spaced). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until cake pulls away slightly from sides of pan.  Let cake cool completely in pan.  After cake is completely cool, frost it and then remove from pan by parchment edges.  Cut into squares and EAT!!! Serves 8 to 16.
Basic Buttercream (with green and peppermint):
 
Ingredients:
-8 Tbsp. unsalted, room temperature butter (1 stick, you may use salted butter)
– 3 to 4 c. powdered sugar
-2 to 3 Tbsp. heavy cream
-pinch salt
– 1/8 tsp. peppermint extract
-green food coloring (add a little at a time until desired color is reached)
Cream butter and sugar (adding sugar ½ c. at a time) until mixture begins to look slightly dry (large crumbles).  Add cream 1 Tbsp. at a time until desired consistency is reached.  Add salt and peppermint extract.  Add food coloring a little at a time until desired shad is reached.  This recipe will thickly frost a 9” X 13” cake.

2 Comments

  1. The photos look great…but why does everything green have to be mint flavored????? I used to always make corned beef and cabbage, I love it, but didn’t last year OR this year…I am pretty sure I drank a bunch of Jameson’s last year too, but not this year…although I am quite unintentionally wearing a green tshirt…was at the top of the clean laundry pile…so there you go, serendipity…..

  2. Bluemel's says:

    That looks St. Patty’s worthy to me! I put green food coloring in the bottom of AnnaLynn’s cup and let her pour her own milk. She was AMAZED when it ‘magically’ turned green 🙂 Oh, and we did eat ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ for breakfast. Cuz I don’t like cabbage-or corned beef for that matter. Plus it’s cheap. And easy.

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