Pistachio Cupcakes to Make for Your St. Patrick's Day Celebration

This recipe for Pistachio Cupcakes is perfect for a St. Patrick's Day celebration with its hint of green and tasty enough for any day of the year.

My father loved pistachios. He used to buy them in large bags and was a frequent flyer at Baskin Robbins for a scoop of pistachio ice cream. Maybe that's why I like them.

I've used ground up pistachios on top of chocolate ganache cupcakes already and I thought the hint of green would make a fun St. Patrick's Day dessert. After all, I am a little Irish on my mother's side and my name is Patti.

Making Pistachio Cupcakes

The secret ingredient is using pistachio pudding mix in the batter. It does give the cake a hint of green but feel free to add a bit of green food coloring if you want for a deeper color.

Filling the cupcake liners is important. The pan shows cupcake liners about 3/4 full.

This group is only filled halfway.

Here's what happens. If you fill the liner too much then you will not have enough batter to fill all 24 liners and they will overflow on the pan. (P.S. they still taste great)

Decorating the Cupcakes

To decorate the cupcakes I used my standard buttercream frosting and added a few green sprinkles. You could use your favorite canned frosting for this easy cupcake recipe too. You could also add a bit of green food coloring to the frosting if you want to get more St. Patty's Day festivity.

These pistachio cupcakes are very moist even though it's based on a standard cake mix. 

We ate of few of them but since we are empty nesters I had my husband take the rest to our church for their Friday fish fry where you can buy any number of homemade desserts.

The buttercream frosting is pretty rich but I think it's worth it. Especially if you can limit yourself to just one cupcake. However, therein lies the problem.

Click Here to Save to Pinterest!

Pistachio Cupcakes

Yield: 2 dozen

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 17 minutes

Additional Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 42 minutes

This recipe for Pistachio Cupcakes is perfect for a St. Patrick's Day celebration with its hint of green, but tasty enough for any day.

Print

Ingredients

• 15.25 oz cake mix in vanilla or white
• 3.4 oz pistachio pudding mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup of butter - softened
• 4 cups of powdered sugar about 1 pound
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 - 1/4 cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine pudding powder, cake mix, eggs, water, oil
3. Mix on medium speed for a few minutes until well combined.
4. Scoop into lined cupcake pans at about 1/2 full.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick placed into the center comes out clean.
6. Remove and cool completely.
7. Meanwhile, make the frosting by combining softened butter with vanilla and powdered sugar. Blend on medium speed. Add milk and blend on high. Add more milk until you get the consistency you like for spreading on cupcakes.

Notes

The pistachio pudding mix adds a little hint of green to these cupcakes but feel free to add a couple of extra drops of green food coloring if you like.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 248Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 44mgSodium: 207mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 0gSugar: 26gProtein: 2g

Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram