Rainbow cupcakes

The big kid, aka, Felicia, gets on baking tears sometimes.  Last week, she was rippin' up some cakes and cupcakes, and by ripping up, I mean she made 2 batches of cupcakes in one night and made a cake for a friend at school the next night.  She's taking family and consumer sciences (otherwise known as Home Ec) as an elective, and her teacher told her to make something for some extra points.  So she came home, pulled out Betty Crocker and invented her version of rainbow cupcakes.  Now, I've seen pictures of rainbow cupcakes, but I've never seen how one goes about making them.  I've been too lazy to look it up, but her version came out so bright and colorful that I wouldn't dream of trying it another way.

Here's the pictorial how-to, if you are so inclined to give this a try:

First, find your favorite cake mix.  I'm sure you could use a box version, but Felicia chose to go it from scratch.  From Betty Crocker:

Quick Yellow Cake
makes one 9x13 or two 9-inch cakes
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Take the butter out of the fridge to soften and preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare one 9x13 pan or two 9-inch round pans by greasing them thoroughly with butter or non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening. You can also flour them, if you want, although this isn't strictly necessary. Sprinkle a little flour over them, tilt and shake to distribute evenly, then tap out the excess over the sink.

In Felicia's case, she just made cupcakes so she got to skip all of the above by just placing liners in the pan.

Mix the ingredients together in the order they're listed - creaming the softened butter and sugar first, then adding the eggs, flour, salt, baking powder, and finally the liquids. Using an electric beater, beat everything together on low for 30 seconds, then high for 3 minutes.

If you don't want rainbow cupcakes, then proceed to the pour and bake section below.  If you do, then follow along here.  Divide the batter evenly into 6 bowls.  Choose your 6 rainbow colors.  Felicia used gel food coloring, as we've found it offers the brightest colors.  Mix one color into each bowl until the batter has the vibrancy you are looking for.

Once you have your colors mixed, take a ziploc sandwich bag and fill the bag with the batter - one color per bag.

Once you have the batter in the bag, be sure to close the top and then snip a corner of the bag for easy squirting.  Make a quick squirt in each cup.  It doesn't have to be precise or even.  In fact, the more uneven you layer your colors in, the cooler your cupcakes look when baked.  Continue this process for all six colors.

 

Once you have all of your colors added to your cupcakes/cake, you are ready to bake.

[POUR AND BAKE SECTION] Immediately pour into the prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops spring back slightly when pressed.

(CAKE INSTRUCTIONS ONLY) Let cool on wire racks for at least 15 minutes, then flip each pan over onto the rack and tap gently all over. Lift the pan slightly. If the cake doesn't feel like it's falling out smoothly, lay a slightly damp kitchen towel over the pan and tap again. If necessary, let the cakes cool more. If they have been baked thoroughly, however, they should fall right out of the pans once they've cooled a little and the sides of the cake have shrunk back from the pan.

After the cupcakes cool, frost/decorate as desired.  Felicia experimented with frosting, and she chose to top these off with some butter cream frosting with a few sprinkles on top. 

These were so cute and good - too bad we forgot to take a picture of the inside - just another reason to make them again soon!