Rainbow Cupcakes
Servings 18 cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter slightly melted
- 1-1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
- 3 Large Eggs
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/3 cup Sour Cream full fat - room temperature
- 1/2 cup Milk - 2% or whole milk warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1-1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- Gel food coloring in rainbow colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
Buttercream Frosting
- 2 cups Unsalted Butter slightly melted
- 5 cups Confectioners' Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- Rainbow Sprinkles optional, for decoration
Instructions
How To Make Cupcakes
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar until thoroughly combined, for about a minute.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until smooth (about 1-2 minutes).
- Next, beat in the sour cream and milk.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just mixed.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Divide batter evenly into six small bowls
- Use the gel food coloring to make six different colors of batter: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
- Line 18 muffin cups with paper cupcake liners.
- To create a beautiful layered rainbow look, you’ll want to layer the batter by color in the muffin cups. Start with two teaspoons of purple batter in the bottom of all the paper muffin liners, which will help to distribute the batter between all 18 cups evenly.
- Repeat the steps with the green, yellow, and orange batter in all muffin cups to create layers of colors. Finally, top with the red in each muffin cup. Each muffin liner should be about two-thirds full.
- Bake your colorful cakes for 15-16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean
How to Make Buttercream Frosting
- Beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla on high in a large mixing bowl until nice and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
- Pipe this on top of the cooled cupcakes using a piping bag.
- Top with sprinkles if desired
Notes
- Make sure to use gel food coloring because it won't add extra moisture to your frosting as water-based food coloring would. For bold, bright colors, I love to use Chefmaster Liqua-gel in the following shades: super red, neon brite orange, lemon yellow, leaf green, neon brite blue, and neon brite purple.
- It's best to fill each of the cupcake paper liners with a layer of color before moving on to the next color rather than focusing on layering one liner with every color one by one and then moving on. This ensures that you have enough colored batter for each cup before starting with the next color.