Do you need a simple St. Patrick’s Day dessert that’s going to wow your friends and little ones and screams luck o’ the Irish, but won’t take all day? Or do you need a rainbow dessert for your kid’s birthday party? Well I have the perfect dessert for you – rainbow cupcakes!
So my daughter turned 5 a few weeks ago and requested a rainbow cake. We were also bringing rainbow cupcakes to her preschool class so we made these little beauties. They are also perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!
My family is Irish so we like to go all out for St. Patty’s day dinners. We’re having a few friends over for dinner next Sunday (which also happens to be the day after my son turns 2, so lots of fun for us this weekend!) and are going to have some traditional Irish foods like corned beef and cabbage, colcannon, Irish blaas, and of course, some rainbow jello. I’ll be sharing the rainbow jello and sources for some of the other Irish foods, so be on the lookout for those recipes!
Ok back to the cupcakes. These were a huge hit with the preschoolers and even my husband thought they were pretty cool, so there you go. I originally made 22 cupcakes with the cake mix I bought, but the cupcakes barely reached the top when cooked. I would maybe make 15-18 cupcakes with this recipe instead of trying to get 22-24. You tend to lose some of the batter when dividing and transporting so much.
Here’s what you need:
- White cake mix (and ingredients needed to make the cake)
- food coloring (I just purchased the Wilton Color Right Performance Color System which makes really bright colors which is key when you’re trying to get red.)
- Your favorite frosting recipe
- Cupcake liners
- Muffin tins
How to make Rainbow Cupcakes
Make the cake mix according to the directions on the box. I bought a new simple cake mix by Pillsbury that didn’t have any preservatives or food dye which I thought was pretty cool. I’m trying to buy more food with less preservatives and dyes so it’s nice when the option is there. I’m not going all out organic, but trying to buy more “simple” food.
Now divide the cake mix into 6 different bowls and add the food coloring to each bowl to make the colors of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
Then pour each bowl of batter into its own ziplock sandwich bag. Cut one corner of the bag to create a piping bag.
Place cupcakes liners in the muffin tins. Then pipe each color into the cupcake liner in the order of the rainbow in reverse. Start with purple, then do blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Shake the muffin tin a little to let the batter settle evenly.
Cook the cupcakes at the time and temp on the box. Or a good tip that I learned from a friend is to cook the cupcakes at 400 degrees and cook them for a few minutes less than on the box (make sure to check them frequently so they don’t burn). The cupcakes will then bake into peaks which make them easier to frost.
While the cupcakes are cooling, make your frosting. Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, frost them. I piped the frosting into a few big round blobs to make them look like clouds.
This was also a fun dessert to let my daughter help with a bit. She was in charge of helping with the food coloring. She also wanted to frost her own cake – it was her birthday so of course I had to say yes. 🙂
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Jenny @ Unremarkable Files says
These are cute! My daughter had a rainbow birthday party a few years back and these would have been perfect. I guess I’ll file it away for future reference if I can ever use this idea again.
Learn as We Go says
Thanks Jenny! Hopefully a rainbow theme for an event will come up in the near future. 🙂