St. Patrick secret shamrock chocolate bundt cake

Surprise your friends and family this St. Patrick's Day with this fun Secret Shamrock Chocolate Bundt Cake! Green vanilla cake shamrocks are hidden inside of a chocolate cake for a fun dessert.

Hi friends! So if you've been hanging around the blog for awhile, you've probably noticed I have literally zero St. Patrick recipes on here. But that is about to change! I made a surprise-inside cake for my class Valentine's Day party this year, and it was such a success that I just had to re-make it for a different holiday. The closest one is St. Patrick's day so... here we are 😉 I present to you, my St. Patrick Secret Shamrock Chocolate Bundt Cake! This cake combines my go-to foolproof chocolate cake recipe with green vanilla shamrocks for a super fun surprise!

I am currently like... T-minus 8 hours away from my spring break and I am absolutely feeling it! The daylight savings thing totally doesn't help, to be honest, I got to school this morning and it was still dark outside. Like how depressing is that! Thankfully, I have this cheery, fun, delicious cake to get me through it. I'm also excited to be debuting my brand NEW bundt pan that I got for Christmas! Because yes, clearly food bloggers get food gifts at Christmas, duh. 😉

This was my first time making my staple chocolate cake in a bundt pan and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised! The cake is super moist, rich, and the texture is to-die-for. Basically the reason why I don't need a different chocolate cake recipe in my life every again. So I'm sure you're wondering how the secret shamrock happens. What you do is you bake a tiny green vanilla sheet cake, cut it with a shamrock cookie cutter, and then bake the shamrocks inside the chocolate cake. HERE is the super easy tutorial I followed! It really just sounds harder than it actually is, and the results are so fun!

Make this secret shamrock chocolate bundt cake for St. Patricks! Or change up the color and shape and use this recipe for whatever occasion you want. Happy baking! 🙂

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

St. Patrick secret shamrock chocolate cake

Prep Time45 minutes mins

Cook Time2 hours hrs

Total Time2 hours hrs 45 minutes mins

Course: Cakes

Servings: 12

Author: Valentina | The Baking Fairy

Ingredients

• *for the green shamrock cake*
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup {½ stick} unsalted butter softened
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ⅔ cup whole milk
• 4-5 drops green food coloring
• *for the chocolate bundt cake*
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cups dark cocoa powder + extra for dusting pans
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cups whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
• 1½ cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

• First, prepare the green shamrock cake. Preheat the oven to 350F.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Add in the butter, and beat on low until it's incorporated and has a sandy texture.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla, and add them to the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
• Finally, pour in the milk, and beat on medium-low until smooth and creamy. Add in the food coloring, adding more or less as needed to reach desired hue.
• Line a quarter sheet pan (13x9) with parchment and spray with nonstick spray. Pour the batter on top and smooth out, then bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before handling.
• When cooled off, use a medium shamrock cookie cutter and cut out as many as possible from the green cake.
• Now, make the chocolate cake batter. Preheat the oven to 350F, and spray a bundt pan very well with baking spray.
• In medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• In a measuring cup, mix together milk and vanilla.
• In a stand mixer, at low speed, beat butter and sugar till blended. Increase speed to high and beat for 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• With mixer at low speed, alternatively add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, starting and finishing with the flour. Beat until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with a spatula. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.
• Pour about half of the chocolate cake batter into the bundt pan, then place the shamrock cakes into the pan UPSIDE DOWN, very close together. Pour in the rest of the chocolate batter. Slam the pan onto the counter a few times to make sure the batter gets all around the shamrocks.
• Bake for 55-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. You may have to cover the pan with foil and let it continue baking for 10-15 minutes if the top is getting hard but the inside is still soft.
• Let the cake come to room temperature, then turn out of the pan onto a plate. Enjoy!

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