Rainbow Cupcakes

I signed up to bring a snack to my son's preschool class for St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to make something special, so I made rainbow cupcakes. The cupcakes have 5 different colors of batter in them. I iced and then topped with a rainbow of sprinkles, with a gold chocolate coin at the bottom.

Everyone seemed to love them (although I think I could have just brought in the coins and it would have been a hit too!). The cupcakes were slightly time consuming, so I don't think I'll make them again until next St. Patrick's Day!

Top of the cupcake. Gold at the end of the rainbow.

To make the cupcakes, you will use a white or yellow cake recipe or box mix. Make the cake recipe/mix according to the box directions. Separate the batter into 5 different bowls. Add yellow, green, red, blue and purple food coloring (mix blue and red together if you don't have purple), with 1 color per bowl. Add 1 tablespoon yellow batter to the cupcake holder, smooth to the edge of the wrapper or pan. Next add a tablespoon of green and carefully smooth to the edge. 

Repeat with the red, blue, and purple colors. Bake according to the recipe/box directions.

I did two different batches; one with regular food coloring and one with gel icing colors. The food coloring produced more of a pastel colored cupcake and the gel icing colors produced a much more vibrant color. (see pics below)

You could also make a rainbow cake, but tent aluminum foil over the top of the cake pan so the top of the cake does not get too brown.

Looking at side of cupcake. (Food Coloring)

Looking at inside of cupcake. (Gel Colors)