Pistachio Cupcakes OR Irish Cream Cupcakes, with Cream Cheese Frosting, 03/17

While there was no planned St. Patrick's Day cupcake (for a few reasons--A) I'm not Irish and don't quite feel the pull, B) I decline to celebrate days when I don't get them off from work, and C) anything remotely "Irish" reminds me of Notre Dame and I do all I can to avoid THAT upchuck reflex), I received some St. Patty's Day themed cupcake holders, and so the plan materialized. There are two types because I wanted to try the Pistachio cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart's book (and the green reminded me of St. Patrick's Day anyway), but because of nut allergies, I also made Bailey's Irish Cream cupcakes, from Crazy About Cupcakes (having made them before, I knew they would turn out well. Cream cheese frosting went with both flavors, although the Bailey's cupcakes have green sprinkles, while the Pistachio cupcakes have green-tinted frosting, just to be different. I tried a new frosting technique from one of my new cupcake books, A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes, a recent birthday present. You frost your cupcakes and use the back of a spoon to pull the frosting up (it was initially used on a cupcake that had "ocean waves" as the decoration)I think it might have worked better with frosting that wasn't as pliable as cream cheese frosting, but it still looked different and gave it some texture. Hopefully the close-up will illustrate it well enough.