March celebrates two popular ethnic holidays: St. Patrick’s Day for the Irish and St. Joseph’s Day for the Italians. Thanks to the filling, this simple recipe for pistachio flavored cupcakes honors both holidays. You can split the cupcake batter to make half Irish and half Italian cupcakes.

Cupcake Mix

Preheat the oven to 350F. In an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat until light yellow in color. Add the vanilla; add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and pudding mix. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture alternately with the milk (begin and end with the flour mixture); mix until well combined and smooth. Add a few drops of green food coloring, if desired, and mix until well incorporated and evenly colored. In an electric mixer, whisk egg whites until soft but not dry. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Pour the batter into each cupcake liner or use a pastry bag to pipe the batter into the liners; add the batter until each liner is about ¾ full. Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes until a tester inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. Cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes and remove from the pan to continue cooling on the rack. Repeat with the remaining batter. Yields 24 cupcakes.

St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes

In an electric mixer on low speed, cream the butter and 4 cups of the confectioner’s sugar until smooth; Add the vanilla. Add the remaining confectioner’s sugar and egg whites to the batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue mixing on high speed for 5 minutes until light in color. Add a few drops of the green food coloring to the mixture and mix until well incorporated and evenly colored.

Fill a pastry bag or pastry injector with the buttercream frosting. Insert the frosting into the center of each cupcake. Then frost each cupcake with the remaining buttercream frosting. Sprinkle with shamrock shaped or green sprinkles.

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St. Joseph’s Day Cupcakes

In a large bowl, mix the ricotta, sugar, and lemon extract with a rubber spatula until well combined. Add the chocolate chips; stir. Fill a pastry bag or pastry injector with the cannoli filling. Insert the filling into the center of each cupcake.

In an electric mixer, whisk the cream into peaks, approximately 2-3 minutes. Add the sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form. Fill a pastry bag with the frosting and frost each cupcake. Garnish each cupcake with chopped chocolate or chocolate shavings.