Smiling Shamrock Shakes for St. Patrick's Day. Plus a giveaway!

This week I received a sweet St. Patrick's Day baking kit from McCormick along with some recipes they created for this holiday and decided to try out their Emerald Mint Milkshakes. Of course, I couldn't just make a milkshake and not jazz it up, so I decided to serve my milkshakes in edible cups. They turned out so cute and I really think it is a unique way to serve any cold drink.

In order to make your own edible cups, you will need to coat plastic cups with melted white confectionery coating, and the cups must not have grooves or ridges in them. At first I tried using some disposable plastic cups as molds, but the very bottom of the cup had an indentation and the hardened candy coating got stuck. So look around your cupboards for some plastic cups. I bet you have something already that will work. If, like me, you don't, you might want to check your local Dollar Tree, which is where I got the cups I used to make this project.

The original milkshake recipe serves three, but my edible cups each held about 2 servings, so I doubled the milkshake recipe. To determine how much milkshake you'll need for your edible cups, fill one of the plastic cups, you'll use as molds, with water and measure it.

Each of my edible cups is decorated with a smiling shamrock. I made my shamrocks smile and now I have a chance to make a few of you smile too. McCormick has offered to give away FIVE of their St. Patrick's Day baking kits to my readers. See the giveaway information after the recipe.

Smiling Shamrock Shakes in Edible Cups (makes 3)

Before you begin, if you aren't experienced with working with confectionery coating/candy melts or modeling chocolate, read my chocolate making tutorial which includes information on types of chocolate to use, melting instructions and the recipe for modeling chocolate (here.)  

Ingredients:

Edible cups -
16 ounces melted white confectionery coating/candy melts
white modeling chocolate or fondant to decorate cups  (recipe here)
McCormick green food coloring
black food coloring
powdered sugar to dust work surface

Emerald Mint Milkshakes from McCormick -
4 cups vanilla ice cream
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon McCormick peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon McCormick green food coloring

Supplies Needed:

3 plastic cups with a completely smooth interior
pastry brush
blender
rolling pin
shamrock cookie cutter
pizza wheel or knife
 #6 pastry decorating tips and #12 round pastry tip
fine tipped paint brush (food only brush)
black food coloring marker

Instructions:

Use a pastry brush to "paint" a thin layer of melted white confectionery coating inside your cups. Wipe off the rim with your finger. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining cups.

Remove the cups from the freezer and let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. You may need to re-heat your confectionery coating for 10 seconds in the microwave if it has gotten too thick before continuing. Pour some coating into the cup and swirl it around so that it completely coats the inside of the cup. Turn the cup upside down and shake it allowing the excess candy coating to fall out. Wipe the rim of the cup with your finger and set the cup immediately in the freezer. Freeze for 10-12 minutes. Set the timer; if the cups get too cold, the candy coating can crack. Repeat with the other two cups. Reserve the remaining candy coating.

Once the candy coating is set, you can easily just pull it out of the plastic cup.  Allow the edible cups to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before decorating.

Tint some modeling chocolate green with the food coloring. For directions go here. Dust work surface with powdered sugar. Roll out green modeling chocolate to 1/16" thickness. Cut out shamrock shapes using cookie cutter. Cut 6 long strips using a pizza wheel or knife. Color a small amount of white modeling chocolate black. Roll it out and cut out small circles using the tip of a #6 pastry decorating tip. Roll out some white modeling chocolate and cut out small circles using the tip of a #12 pastry decorating tip. Lightly brush some water on the back of a small black circle and press it onto a white circle to create an eye. Repeat. Lightly brush some water on the back of the white circles and press them onto the green shamrocks. Use a black food coloring marker to draw on a smile and some eye brows or eye lashes. Alternatively you could paint black food coloring onto the shamrocks with a fine tip paint brush.

Re-heat your remaining confectionery coating in microwave for 5-15 seconds. Use a fine tip paint brush to brush some coating on the back side of your decorations and attach them to the edible cups.

Your edible cups are now ready to be filled with milkshake. Aren't they fun?

To make your milkshakes -

Combine ice cream, milk, peppermint extract, and green food coloring in blender. Place lid on blender and blend on high speed until smooth. Pour immediately into edible glasses and serve.

Oh, and be careful not to overfill your cups, like I did!

If you like this idea, please share it with others by using the share buttons below. I really appreciate being Stumbled Upon and Pinned, and am always grateful to those of you that share my ideas on your website. I do request that you don't post my entire tutorial, but rather share a picture with a link. If you make this recipe, I'd love for you to send me a photo to beth@hungryhappenings.com so that I can share it in my Reader's Gallery. I link my recipes up to lots of websites that are listed here. Thank you for visiting Hungry Happenings - Beth

Now onto the giveaway.

Giveaway/Sweepstakes sponsored by McCormick

Prize:

1 McCormick Baking Kit (pictured above) - $20 value

5 winners will be selected

Mandatory Entry: 

Leave me a comment answering this question:

Do you make festive food for St. Patrick's Day? Is so, what do you like to make?

Bonus Entries

1 entry if you Follow Hungry Happenings via Google Friend Connect

1 entry if you "Like" Hungry Happenings on Facebook

1 entry if you if you "Like" McCormick on Facebook

Contest runs through March 9, 2012 at midnight EST. Winners to be drawn at random from all entries. Entrants must reside in the United States and be over 18 years of age. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. Odds of winning are based on the total number of valid entries (maximum of four entries per person.) Five Winners will be notified and have 72 hours to respond. If any winner does not respond in that time frame another winner will be chosen.

Items used to create this recipe that are available on Amazon.com: