Rainbow Cupcakes

Rainbow Cupcakes – The pot of Gold when done eating these is smiling faces!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
food coloring (red, blue, green and yellow)
Directions:

1. Put butter in a mixing bowl.
2. Sift dry ingredients together in separate bowl.
3. With a mixer, mix the dry ingredients in slowly with the butter.
4. Add 1/2 cup milk and the egg to the dry ingredients and beat until flour is fully moistened.
5. Add the remaining milk, vanilla and almond extract and beat for about another minute.
6. Evenly divide the batter into six small bowls. Dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color; Purple – 9 red and 6 blue drops, Blue – 12 drops, Green – 12 drops, Yellow – 12 drops, Orange – 12 yellow and 4 red drops and Red – 18 drops.
7. Line 12 muffin pan wells with baking cups. Evenly distribute the purple batter among the cups, then the blue, green, yellow, orange and then top with red, following the order listed. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of a spoon to cover the color underneath.
8. Bake at 375F for 15 to 18 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

I frosted these with a basic buttercream frosting however I divided the frosting in three parts and colored the divided frosting red, blue and yellow. I then put the frosting side by side in a piping bag and piped the frosting on the cupcakes. Don’t be afraid to load up on the frosting either because the cupcakes aren’t overly sweet. You could also leave the frosting white to be a cloud on top of the rainbow cupcakes.

I have seen these rainbow cupcakes in several places on the internet and I loved how colorful they were and had to try them. However I only saw the rainbow cupcakes with people using a cake mix so I wanted to try to make them from scratch and use my basic cupcake recipe. Let me tell you something though these suckers aren’t quick and easy to make, especially if you are OCD like me:) I had to make sure I had a perfect color layer in each liner. I am sure these would be a little faster if I just put the colors in the liners and didn’t worry about making it perfect but I can’t seem to do that! I have to admit that these cupcakes were so bright and colorful, and tasty that I am super glad I made them.