St. Patty’s Day Vanilla Shamrock Cake

This cake is SO CUTE and perfect for all of your St. Patty’s Day celebrations. It’s basically my vanilla birthday cake, but all dolled up in green.

What makes this St. Patty’s Day Cake the BEST?

• Easy to Make. Layered cakes can seem intimidating, but I promise you can do it. You just need simple ingredients, a few tools (see later in the post) and a little patience.
• Classic Flavor. When researching ideas for this recipe, I saw A LOT of green velvet cakes for St. Patty’s and I just didn’t know how I felt about green food coloring + chocolate. So we kept it simple, classic vanilla that everyone will love.
• Cute, but simple design. The vintage piping on cakes is so IN right now, and it may seem complicated, but it’s actually SO EASY. Just grab the tips I’ve linked in the post and a piece of parchment paper to practice a little bit before decorating.
• Adaptable. You could omit the green food coloring and shamrock St. Patrick’s Day Cake design and customize this for any holiday or birthday party. Pipe little daisy’s for a first birthday, hearts for Valentine’s Day, or little fruits like strawberries or lemons would be adorable!

Ingredients

• Butter. I recommend using a high quality butter like Kerrygold. I use salted butter for the cake batter and unsalted butter for the frosting.
• All Purpose Flour. Lots of cake recipes will call for cake flour or self rising flour, but all purpose is all you need for this one!
• Eggs. Lotta eggs. 3 Lg Eggs and 3 Egg Whites.
• Green Food Coloring. I prefer the gel food coloring. For this cake I did a mixture of Americolor Leaf Green, Laurel, and Forest Green for a more muted vibe.
• Buttermilk. I like to use buttermilk for cakes and cupcakes. If you don’t have any, you could use regular milk with a splash of white vinegar or lemon juice.
• Powdered Sugar. This cake is frosted with classic American Buttercream so you’ll need powdered sugar.

How to Make a St. Patty’s Day Vanilla Shamrock Cake

Make the st. patty’s day cake layers.

Preheat the oven to 350 and line 3 8″ round cake pans with parchment paper. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, and oil for 7 minutes. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed. While the mixer is going, whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt, in a separate medium sized mixing bowl. Set aside. Stir the vanilla extract and food coloring into the buttermilk. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and egg whites, then with the mixer on low, slowly incorporate the eggs into the batter. Once all the eggs are added, mix for 1-2 minutes, until smooth and glossy. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure no egg has settled in the bottom of the bowl.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk in 5 total additions, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Once incorporated, do a final mix with a rubber spatula, then evenly divide the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake at 350 for 25-27 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool for 5 minutes, then flip cakes out onto a cooling rack, let cool completely, then wrap in plastic and place in the fridge to chill.

Make the vanilla american buttercream.

Let the butter sit on the counter for 30-45 minutes before starting, but it shouldn’t be completely room temperature or too soft. Cream the butter in a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for 10 minutes, scraping down the bowl every 2-3 minutes.

Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 at a time, mixing on medium low speed for 3 minutes after each addition. Add the heavy cream 2 TBSP at a time until the buttercream reaches your desired consistency. Do a final quick mix with a rubber spatula to release any remaining air bubbles.

If you want to pipe on green shamrocks and/or vintage piping details, remove about 1 ½ C of the frosting and color it green with the gel food coloring. To get a deeper or more muted tone, add a tiny bit of black food coloring.

Assemble the vanilla shamrock cake.

Spread 2 tsp of buttercream onto a cake board or cake stand on top of a turn table. Place the first cake layer in the center of the board. This cake bakes up perfectly flat and does not dome when the instructions are followed closely. If your cake domes, make sure to level it off before stacking the cake.

Spread buttercream in a thin even layer, then stack the second layer. Repeat until all three layers are stacked. Apply the crumb coat, and smooth. Chill cake for 30 minutes to allow the crumb coat to set.

Apply the final layer of buttercream and smooth. For vintage piping, I used Wilton tips #32 and #16, but any two open star tips will work. And for the ruffles I used Wilton #67 but any leaf or ruffle tip should work just fine. If you’re new to piping I would suggest practicing on a piece of parchment paper first.

For the 4 leafed clovers, fit a piping bag with a small round tip and about ¼ C of the green frosting. Pipe shamrocks randomly all over the cake.

Slice and serve.

Print

If you loved this recipe for my St. Patty’s Day Vanilla Shamrock Cake, be sure to leave a star rating and review below and tag @buuckfarmsbakery on TikTok and Instagram. To save this recipe for later, click on the Pinterest icon on the recipe card above or on any of the images throughout this post.

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