Rainbow cupcakes are a fun and easy bake to make with children of any age on a rainy afternoon or just because you feel like baking. All you need is a standard cake batter and gel food colours to make the colours of the rainbow. Either start with the bottom of the rainbow (purple) in the bottom of your cake cases and work your way up to the top of the rainbow (red) or start with the red and offset each colour to make a rainbow shape ending in purple on top. You can also do this for a large cake if you prefer. Just make sure you have enough bowls for all the separate colours of cake batter before starting or you may end up having to do the washing up half way through!

Just in case it’s been a while since you were singing nursery rhymes I was always taught

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vein – although for baking I combine indigo and violet as purple.

Rainbow Cupcakes

2015-04-17 06:09:01

Yields 12

Bright coloured cupcakes to make on a rainy afternoon or just because you feel like it. Made with a vanilla cake batter.

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Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

15 min

Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

15 min

Ingredients

1. 125g Castor sugar
2. 125g Unsalted butter (softened)
3. 2 Large eggs (beaten)
4. 1 tsp Vanilla essence
5. 125g Self raising flour
6. Splash of whole milk
7. Gel food colours - Red, Yellow, Blue (you can buy the other colours of the rainbow if you prefer but all the other colours of the rainbow can be made from these 3).

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180c for a standard oven and 160c fan.
2. In a freestanding mixer or by hand cream the softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Combine the vanilla essence with the beaten eggs and slowly add to the buttercream while mixing. If needed add a spoonful of the flour to stop the mixture splitting.
4. Stir in the flour.
5. Add the milk a little at a time until the mixture falls easily from a spoon / spatula.
6. Split the cake batter into 6 bowls and add gel colour to each bowl using cocktail sticks or similar. Mix until the colour is even, add colour a little at a time adding more if you want a deeper colour.
7. The colours you need are - red, orange (can be mde with red and yellow), yellow, green (can be made with blue and yellow), blue & purple (can be made with blue and red).
8. Set out cake cases in your baking tray (if you have one) to help them keep their shape then spoon in the colours in order. The images above show cakes made both with purple at the bottom then red at the top in the centre and also cakes started with red at the bottom ad colours added to the side of the case so that a rainbow shape is formed with purple at the top.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes for small cupcakes - larger cake cases may take a little longer - check with a cake tester if unsure - it should come out clean.

Notes

1. Red yellow and blue can be used to make all the colours of the rainbow.
2. Using a cupcake baking tray to hold the cake cases helps them keep their shape.

By Jenny Hampson

Modern Family Baking http://modernfamilybaking.com/