Chocolate Shamrock Cake

While St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday geared toward adults, I think it’s fun to make sure that what I make is also kid friendly. This cake is a perfect compromise for adults and kids alike. Big people get a decadent piece of cake, while little people take part in a scavenger hunt. What’s the best part about this cake? Wondering who will get the “lucky” piece or the piece with a four-leaf clover on it!

Ingredients

• 1 basic yellow cake recipe
• Buttercream frosting 
• 1 bag or package of green candy melts
• 1 package or container of rainbow sprinkles
• Gold sprinkles
• Yellow food coloring (optional)
• 1 9×13 cake pan

Directions

1. Make one basic yellow cake recipe according to the instructions in 9×13 cake pan. Once the cake has cooled, cover it in a smooth layer of buttercream frosting and chill it in the refrigerator while you prepare the chocolate shamrocks.
2. To make the green shamrocks, draw out a few different shapes on paper. Make sure to extend the stem a little bit longer than normal, as this is what will be inserted into the cake. Place a piece of parchment or wax paper on a baking sheet then slip your shamrocks drawing right under it.
3. Place candy melts in a disposable plastic pastry bag and heat it up on 50 percent strength in your microwave for 1 minute. Take the bag out and massage it to disperse the heat spots, then continue to heat in 30-second increments until fully melted.
4. Cut off a very small tip from a corner of the bag and begin to pipe out shamrocks onto wax paper with the drawings underneath. You can make as many or as few as you would like but remember to have more three leafs then four!
5. Place green shamrocks on the wax paper in fridge for 15 minutes or freezer for a couple minutes.
6. Remove cake from fridge and gently insert shamrocks into cake.
7. Sprinkle “gold dust” (gold sprinkles) over the entire cake. Place rainbow sprinkles around base.