Lucky Cake Designs for St. Patrick's Day

Blimey! It's almost time again for the green beer swigging blokes wearing "Kiss me, I'm Irish" pins. Luckily, St. Patrick's Day also means lots of fun in the kitchen decorating cakes. With your skills and the following original ideas, you might be handed a pin of your own to wear: "Kiss me, I'm the cake decorator!"

Lucky Leprechaun's Hat

To create a cake in the fashion of this little guy's hat, bake a dome cake (in a mold or oven-safe glass bowl) and, to form the brim, a single layer round cake that is a bit wider than the dome.

Torte and fill the dome cake. Ice the round cake with green tinted buttercream. Set the dome on top and ice it too.

Next comes the hat's broad band. Here are a couple ways to create this. Cut a ribbon of fondant and wrap around the hat. Or pipe outline with chocolate buttercream and then using the star tip, fill it in.

Now add a gold buckle (orange-yellow icing or fondant) Coat with leprechaun gold dust (edible gold glitter).

(If you can't find the non-metallic, edible gold glitter locally, you can find it online.)

And for good luck, add a green shamrock onto the hat. You can do so by gently pressing a shamrock cookie cutter into the buttercream so that it leaves an imprint. Then, using the star tip and dark green icing, fill in the shamrock. Or use the cookie cutter to cut out the shape from fondant.

To make sure that the hat is level and fits together well, watch the free video on baking an even, level cake:

The above video is a sample from "Cake Decorating Made Easy!" Volume 1.

Here's what one reader had to say about our Video Books:

"I'm having so much fun with your ebooks that I thought I might share a few photos of my first ever attempt at making and decorating a cake...

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Chris Douglas
Perth, Western Australia

And here are more magical St. Patrick's Day cake ideas:

Create a character cake, the quick and easy way, using a character pan complete with directions. But then add your own St Paddy's Day touches, like a leprechaun bow tie to Sponge Bob.

Pipe a pretty rainbow and pot of gold scene. First ice your cake with pastel blue for the sky. Then pipe tufts of emerald green grass and a rainbow. Add a pot of gold at one of the rainbow's end. Create the gold coins with a round tip and a sprinkling of edible gold glitter. Pipe your St. Patrick's Day message and sprinkle with the glitter.

Model your cake after a pot of gold. After filling the cake, frost with yellow-gold or chocolate brown buttercream. Place a rainbow (homemade or purchased at a party or craft store) over the cake, and plant the ends in the top of the cake,
Cover the cake with sugarcrafted gold nuggets and coins that have been rolled in edible gold glitter.

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What's better than green beer? An Irish Coffee bundt cake topped with freshly whipped cream and sprinkled with shamrock cake confetti and/or green sprinkles! Add a little mischief in the form of leprechaun party picks. Serve immediately.

Create a good luck charm cake. Bake and frost or glaze (green of course!) an angel food or bundt cake. Purchase or make enough Irish good luck charms (jewelry or plastic) for those being served. Thread each charm onto a clean, green ribbon.

Place the charms inside the center, and dangle the ribbons over the sides of the cake for guests.Or use the wedding charm cake method. To do so, bake two round cakes. While filling, add the charms between the two layers and close to the edge with ribbons dangling over the sides. Each person can then easily pull a charm from the cake before or after slicing.

Bring a wee bit of Irish charm to your cupcakes. Purchase a box of Lucky Charms cereal, and dig out the four-leaf clovers, blue moons, shooting stars and all the rest (just pretend you're a kid again!). Generously frost the cupcakes with green tinted buttercream. Then decorate each cupcake with a few of the marshmallow charms.

Finally, here's one more tip: If you want the actual cake to also be green, select a cake recipe, such as white, lemon or butter, that will be easy to tint green. Or choose one that's already got a bit of green, such as pistachio or key lime.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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Samantha Mitchell, Co-Author
Cake Decorating Made Easy! Vol. 1 & 2
The World's First Cake Decorating Video Books

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For more tips, tricks and secrets of the
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