RAINBOW Cupcakes

One of our family traditions is to allow the birthday girl or boy to choose a treat to take for their special "birthday treat"  for school, Sunday school, and dance class.  (what can I say we are overachievers)  My second daughter is turning 8 this weekend and had decided on cupcakes.  Well she decided she would ask everyone around her what their favorite color was to help her decide what color cupcakes she would choose.  She took her little note pad everywhere with her.  For a week she was polling anyone she could ask.  At the end of it all she realized there were A LOT of different colors, and A LOT of different colors people liked!  So the sweet-hearted little girl decided on rainbow cupcakes. "That way EVERYONE will have their favorite color!"  :oD

I am all for nourishing anything in my children where they are thinking of others, so off I went to the store to pick up rainbow cupcakes ingredients!!  It is a little extra work, but the results are MAGIC and oh so worth the extra time and love!

Start by making your favorite vanilla cake recipe.  Out of a box or scratch either one works!  Next decide how many colors your rainbow cake or cupcakes will have!  I chose 4 colors purple, blue, yellow, and red. It turned out very nicely.  You could pretty easily add green for the cupcakes and if you are really ambitious orange, but with the 4 I chose they filled the cupcake papers pretty quickly.

I used Ziplock bags to make this as mess free as possible.  This is a two person job.  I enlisted the hubby to hold the bags as I filled.  I eyeballed the cake batter, but you could of course measure it if you were so inclined.  Pour it into your Ziplock bags, and add the food coloring into each bag.  Close em up and enlist the kiddos to help squish and mix the batter.  Best to do this up at the table and encourage them not to get TOO enthusiastic about the mooshing.  Bags held together very well for us, happy to report no messes on this step!

Prep your cake pan or cupcake cups.  I like to spray them a tiny bit before I add the batter.  Start with your bottom most color.  Cut the tip off, be careful not to cut too much off of the tip.  You can always cut more, but not less.  Squeeze a drop of batter in each cupcake paper (for cake pans just add more)  I used the Ziplock bag like a pastry bag, and used a finger on my other hand to help stop the flow in between cupcakes papers.  (I am sure this could be done with bowls as well, and spooning in the batter you could try that as well) Repeat this step with each of your colors, if you run out of one color just skip it in some of the cupcakes, they turn out cute even without ALL of the colors :oD

It's that simple!  Bake, frost, and enjoy!  They come out of the oven like magic and are a big hit for the kiddos!

*TIP* I usually spoon out some of the batter into a few cupcake papers BEFORE I dye all of it.  I like to have a few dye free as a just in case for the kiddos with dietary restrictions for food dyes.

*TIP*  Here are a few cool links for you on Rainbow cakes to help inspire you!
Family Fun
Twig and Thistle
Playing House

Babble