I honestly don’t think I am capable of letting a holiday go by without making cupcakes. When I was a kid, on St. Patrick’s Day my family didn’t do much to celebrate, not anything really – aside from avoiding getting pinched at school. When my kids were little, I always did the corned beef and cabbage for dinner, but it wasn’t until I had grandchildren that I really got the spirit of the holiday. Who knew Leprechauns could be so much fun? The mischievous little fellows get into all sorts of trouble on St. Patrick’s Day doing things like turning our favorite foods green and making messes everywhere they go.

These St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Cupcakes are certainly not original. I can’t remember where I first saw them, but when I cam across some rainbow striped Sour Power candy strips at Dollar General the other day, I knew it was a sign that these cupcakes just had to be made. I believe that the AirHeads brand makes a similar rainbow striped candy.
St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Cupcakes
ingredients and supplies:
a batch of your favorite cupcakes
1 recipe Buttercream Frosting, tinted green with food coloring
miniature marshmallows
gold sprinkles
Sour Power or AirHeads rainbow candy strips
pastry bag fitted with a grass tip (Ateco #133 or Wilton #233), optional

Directions:
1. Bake cupcakes according to package directions. Meanwhile, prepare buttercream frosting and tint with green food coloring.
2. Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes. Optionally, pipe grass onto the top of each cupcake.
3. Cut about 1 to 1/2 inches from each rainbow strip – otherwise they will be a little too long. This also provides a great snack while you are making the cupcakes. Press each end of the rainbow into the top of the cupcake, as pictured. Gently press a few miniature marshmallows into the frosting around the ends of the rainbow, to form the clouds. Sprinkle on the gold.
Tip: I recommend adding the rainbows no more than 2 hours before serving, or they may begin to droop and loose their shape.
How does your family celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?


St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 12 of your favorite cupcakes
- 1.5 cups buttercream Frosting tinted green with food coloring
- 1 cup miniature marshmallows
- gold sprinkles
- 4 Sour Power or AirHeads rainbow candy strips
- pastry bag fitted with a grass tip Ateco #133 or Wilton #233, optional
Instructions
- Bake cupcakes according to package directions. Meanwhile, prepare buttercream frosting and tint with green food coloring.
- Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes. Optionally, pipe grass onto the top of each cupcake.
- Cut about 1 to 1/2 inches from each rainbow strip – otherwise they will be a little too long. This also provides a great snack while you are making the cupcakes. Press each end of the rainbow into the top of the cupcake, as pictured. Gently press a few miniature marshmallows into the frosting around the ends of the rainbow, to form the clouds. Sprinkle on the gold.


How cute! I just love how these turned out.
I can’t let a holiday go by without cupcakes either. Why should we?
These are adorable! We don’t do much for St. Patrick’s day other than maybe wear green. 🙂
love the colors and decorations on these cupcakes. they look amazing and i bet they taste just as good as they look.
Very cute! We love to make cute things like this for St. Patrick’s Day. The kids get such a kick out of it. 🙂
These St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Cupcakes are fantastic. It looks so adorable you don’t want to eat and then when you really look at it and see how delicious it looks – you can’t keep you hand from reaching over and taking one. Thank you very much for this great recipe.
these are SO cute!!! i love the little rainbows on the top. Sugar high!
what a cute idea, my kids would love these!
I really love these cup cakes and I have never saw those types of candy before to use for the rainbows. I’ll be checking out the store next to me and see if I can find some to make some of my own cupcakes. Thanks for sharing.
They are so pretty! What a great idea to use AirHeads rainbow candy strips!
I love these, and what a fun idea to add the Airhead rainbows and gold sprinkles! SO many fun touches!