Rainbow Cupcake Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper baking cups. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl until evenly blended; set aside.
• Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Pour in the flour mixture alternately with the milk mixture, mixing until just incorporated.
• Divide the cake batter into four separate bowls. Add a few drops of food coloring into one bowl of batter and stir; add more food coloring, if necessary, to reach the desired shade. Repeat with the remaining colors and bowls of batter.
• Using a different spoon for each color batter, spoon a small spoonful of each color into the cupcake liners, until 1/2 to 3/4 full. Do not mix the batter once it is in the cupcake liner. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes clean, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Prepare cake mix according to package directions., Divide batter into six separate bowls, tinting each with food coloring to make purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red batter. Fill prepared cups two-thirds full, alternating tablespoonfuls of colored batter., Bake 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely., In a bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until soft peaks form. If desired, using a new small paintbrush, paint five stripes with food coloring inside a pastry bag fitted with a round tip. Fill bag with whipped cream. Pipe over cupcakes.

Steps:

• Make the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with white paper liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Stir together the milk, lemon juice and vanilla in a small bowl; set aside (the milk will curdle). Beat the butter, 3/4 cup sugar and the lemon zest in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Beat in the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk mixture in two batches, until combined. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat briefly until smooth.
• Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with a mixer on high speed until foamy. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar; continue beating until stiff glossy peaks form, about 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, fold the beaten egg whites into the batter in two batches. Divide the batter evenly among 6 small bowls; tint each with 1 to 3 drops gel food coloring, stirring to distribute the color.
• Divide the purple batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups (about 1 1/2 teaspoons per cup) and gently spread to cover the bottom; layer the blue, green, yellow, orange and red batters on top, gently spreading each color but making sure not to swirl the colors together. (The liners will be full.) Bake until the tops of the cupcakes spring back when gently pressed, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
• Meanwhile, make the frosting: Whisk the sugar, egg whites, water, vanilla, cream of tartar and salt in a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until combined (do not let the bowl touch the water). With the bowl still over the simmering water, beat the mixture with a hand mixer on medium-high speed until stiff glossy peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and let cool 5 minutes. Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Generously pipe onto the cupcakes.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and fill a cupcake tray with 10 cases.
• Beat the butter, vanilla and caster sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Gradually whisk in the eggs, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
• Mix in the flour and a pinch of salt until just combined. Divide into five bowls and colour each a different shade with a drop of food colouring. We chose red, yellow, green, blue and purple.
• Starting with the end of the rainbow (in our case purple), evenly spread 1 tsp of the mixture into each cupcake case using a piping bag or the back of a teaspoon. Top with 1 tsp of the next colour and spread - be careful not to mix the colours together whilst bringing the mix all the way to the edge of the case. Repeat until all the colours are used up and you're left with an even layer of red on the top.
• Bake for 15 mins, until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
• To make the buttercream, beat the butter until very soft. Add the icing sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt and whisk together until smooth (start off slowly to avoid an icing sugar cloud). Beat in the milk until combined.
• Pipe the buttercream on top of the cupcakes using a circular nozzle, or spread on with a palette knife. Top with sprinkles, if you like.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.
• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together three times. Set aside.
• Beat egg whites in a bowl until foamy. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar and continue beating just until soft peaks form.
• Beat butter in a separate bowl until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Gradually add remaining 1 cup sugar and cream and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk a small amount at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Add egg whites and mix well.
• Set out 6 bowls. Add 1 drop of food coloring to the bowls, using a different color in each bowl. Divide the cupcake batter evenly between the bowls. Stir until the coloring is evenly distributed throughout the batter. Add more food coloring, a drop at a time, until desired color is reached.
• Using a tablespoon, spoon the first colored batter into the bottom of each cupcake liner in the prepared pan. Gently spread out to the edge of the liner to create an even layer. Repeat with remaining colors.
• Bake in the preheated oven a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly in pan, then remove to cool completely on wire racks.

Steps:

• Mix the cake batter according to package directions.
• Evenly divide prepared batter into several different bowls. The amount of bowls will depend on the amount of colors you want for your cupcakes.
• Add a generous amount of gel food coloring to each bowl until you have a vibrant batter.
• I usually mix 7 bowls - red, orange, pink, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
• Line your muffin tin with paper cups and then begin spooning the colored batter into the cups.
• Add batter color by color, one tablespoon of red in each of the cups, then added a tablespoon of orange on top of the red, and so on until all colors were used. The colors will not "leak".
• Fill the cups approximately 2/3 full of batter.
• Bake as directed on the box.
• Allow the cupcakes to cool completely, and frost to your liking.
• I used whipped cream cheese frosting to give the cupcakes a "cloud" effect.