St. Patrick's Day Parfait

We normally don't do anything for St. Patrick's Day.  I dress my oldest son in green so he doesn't get pinched at school and my younger kids in green so they don't get pinched by him.  But this year, I thought I'd change things up a bit and at least make a special dessert. I figured I better try it out early to make sure it was tasty (and really, who minds eating something yummy twice?).  Maybe I'll even look for a craft or fun activity to do with the kids too. 

St. Patrick's Parfait:
Lime Pound Cake (Personal Size) see below
1 lrg box Vanilla Pudding prepared according to directions on box add green coloring if desired
2 cups lucky charms
cool whip and sprinkles to top (optional) 

The little lime cakes take the longest but even those aren't too hard. I made those first so they would have time to cool. But if you want to save time or don't have Greek yogurt on hand, you can use a white cake mix (make according to directions) and green food coloring (and even lime juice if desired).

Lime Pound Cake (Personal Size)
adapted from Lemon Lavender Greek Yogurt Pound Cake  by bake your day

ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup (6 ounces, weight) Key Lime Greek Yogurt (or plain)
1 Tbs. lime juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lime zest

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

green food coloring (optional)

directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 2 cupcake pans with cooking spray or line with cupcake liners.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or mixing bowl, you can do this all by hand or with a hand mixer), cream the butter. Gradually add the sugar and cream until light and fluffy, about 7 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each until fully incorporated. Add the greek yogurt, lime juice, vanilla extract and lime zest mix until combined. 

Slowly add the dry ingredients (I usually add half the flour then the baking powder, baking soda and salt then add the rest of the flour) and mix just until incorporated. Add green coloring until colored to your liking. 

Scope the batter into the prepared cupcake pans (about 1/2 full or a little less) and bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges begin to brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool in the pans for few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

While these are baking, I made the vanilla pudding and put it in the fridge. Once the cakes are cool and the pudding is set you can assemble them. Layer the cake, then a couple heaping Tbsp's of pudding, then sprinkle with lucky charms and then repeat all the layer. Top with cool whip, sprinkles, or more lucky charms.

My kids really enjoyed these but next time I think I might make them only single layer for the littler ones since they were full before they got to the bottom little cake.

Aren't my taste testers just the cutest?  What do you normally do for St. Patrick's Day?

For printable recipe and nutritional info click:

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