RAINBOW CUPCAKES WITH VANILLA CLOUD FROSTING

RAINBOW CUPCAKES WITH FLUFFY CLOUD-LIKE VANILLA FROSTING THAT IS GUARANTEED TO MAKE ANYONE WHO SEES THEM SMILE. NO CAKE MIX, STILL EASY.

Rainbow Cupcakes have been a looooooong time in the making for this blog. They are one of my absolute favorite desserts to make which most people who know me would immediately guess. When I would make surprise cakes or birthday cakes for my favorite clients I would usually make them towering rainbow cakes. In fact, these rainbow cupcakes have been on the calendar for me since before I even started this blog 10 whole months ago (I can’t believe it has been 10 months already!) and I can’t think of a better way to toss aside all the hearts, pink and cupid and celebrate the month of March.

Let’s just get this out of the way ahead of time… yes, these cupcakes have food coloring. No, I don’t normally use food coloring in recipes and yes, I know it isn’t healthy/good for you/GMO free/it kills baby seals and kittens around the world I’m sure. 99% of the things I make/bake in our house are made with whole foods, not processed or minimally processed and be it important or not, organic. Which is exactly why I have no qualms about making these gorgeous cupcakes for us to enjoy the one time a year that we do. And yes I gave them to the little ones too. But c’mon, if you were a kid, wouldn’t this make you smile?

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter , softened
• 2 1/3 cups sugar
• 5 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk , warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
• Rainbow colors of Gel food coloring
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar , sifted
• 1 tablespoon clear vanilla (if you use normal vanilla it will not be as white, but will be just as delicious)
• tiny pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons of milk

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In your stand mixer cream the butter and sugar together until much lighter in color, like a easter-y spring yellow (2-3 minutes).
3. Add in the egg whites and vanilla until totally combined.
4. Add the salt and baking powder to the flour.
5. Add in the dry ingredients and the milk alternating 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of milk at a time.
6. Add one cup of the batter to 6 different bowls.
7. Color each bowl with your gel food coloring in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
8. Mix until the colors are fully combined.
9. Your choice here: Spoon or ziploc bags.
10. Either add the batter to 6 sandwich size ziploc bags and pipe just enough to make a thin layer of each color (maybe 1/4 inch tall batter layers)

OR

• with a small spoon, spoon just under a tablespoon of batter into each cup.
• Start with purple, then blue, then green, then yellow, then orange and finally red.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes.

To make the frosting:

• Whip the butter in your stand mixer with your paddle attachment(I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one with a built in scraper) until you see the butter is lighter in color (1 minute).
• Add in the vanilla.
• Add in the powdered sugar in 1 cup increments with the milk 1 tablespoon at a time, ending with powdered sugar.
• Mix on high for 1 minute after each addition.
• Your frosting should be SUPER light and fluffy, just like a delicious vanilla cloud.
• Using a closed star tip and decorating bag, pipe your frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.

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