Friday Five: St. Patrick's Day Yummies!

Just in time for this St. Patty's Day this weekend I'm sharing some of the yummy things I've whipped up in the past week or so to celebrate at home, school, and work.

 

Start St. Patrick's Day off right with a well rounded breakfast. I used my favorite basic pancake recipe with whole wheat white flour and tinted with Wilton icing colors to get vibrant hues.

For the kiddos: "Rainbow" pancakes, banana "clouds", and a scrambled egg "pot of gold"

For the grown-ups: Rainbow silver dollars

If you're looking for a treat that is colorful and only requires a few ingredients (but a bit of time to assemble), try out these rainbow rice krispie treats. I was inspired by this blogger, but I think that her recipe made them too crisp and if I made them again I would add more marshmallows and perhaps a dash of heavy cream during the cooking phase to make them chewier.

The colors didn't come out nearly as vibrant in this photo as they were in person

The in production shot before I portioned them...

These St. Patty's cake pops are stunners, but require MANY hours of dedication to create. I got the idea for a rainbow cake pop from this blogger's beautiful picture tutorial, but wasn't confident I could handle the wrapping of layers of cake without just squishing it all up into a mess. Instead, I opted to roll each color out between sheets of wax paper and then layered them in rainbow order. After a 6 hour rest in the fridge, I cut the big block of cake into small rectangles. I realled wanted to make sure they stayed together when dipping in the chocolate, so I rested them in the freezer for another 30-60 minutes before inserting the sticks and dipping them.

Funky lighting because I snapped this as they were chillin' in the fridge while I dipped another batch 

Outside: Green chocolate and some festive sprinkles

Inside: Surprise! Rainbow cake!
The poor lighting in my kitchen at 11pm when I finished these does not do them justice:-(

This "adults only" Guiness/Jameson/Bailey's cupcake will leave you with a buzz as well as a sugar rush. I shared these a few years ago (see my old post here) and have been making them yearly ever since.

 

Once again, not a great photo because I finished them at night and then I snapped this in our lunchroom just now

For those of you who are trying to behave and follow a diet (like me!) here's a healthy St. Patty's Day treat - Green Fruit Salad!

Diced kiwi, honeydew melon, and green grapes