Easy Rainbow Cupcakes (The Healthier Alternative!)

Planning on organizing a family picnic or a summer party? Well, RAINBOW CUPCAKES will be a beautiful addition to the list of finger foods! They're not only colorful and bright, but they're also tasty too!

Any wording in bold means a healthier alternative.

RAINBOW CUPCAKES (makes 6 huge cupcakes/muffins)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar ( don't put any! )
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil ( i used olive oil)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• red, yellow, green and blue food colorings { refer to my "healthier options" footnote if you wish to use natural food colorings instead of the conventional safe food colorings, if not, just continue reading the directions below! (: }

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 6 cups from a 12 cup muffin tin (or line with paper cups). 
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 
• In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Pour in dry ingredients and stir until just combined. 
• Divide batter evenly into 5 small bowls; each should have a little more than 1/3 cup batter 
• Add about 2 -3 drops of food coloring to each bowl to make red, orange, yellow, green and blue batters. Stir well, so no streaks of plain batter remain. Add additional food coloring if necessary. 
• Starting with the blue batter, add a small spoonful to each of the 6 greased muffin cups (just over 1/2 tbsp in each). Repeat with all remaining colors, working from green to yellow to orange to red, adding each subsequent spoonful on top of the previous color. Do not attempt to spread the layers of color out (as it can cause layers to combined), but allow them to spread on their own. 
• Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center, comes out clean. 
• Cool cupcakes on a wire rack before storing in a container

Additional Ideas:

• You can do frosting on top of these cupcakes just like any other normal cupcake, use buttercream frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar ( or less)
• In a large bowl, beat together butter, milk, and vanilla. Gradually add in the confectioner's sugar until frosting reaches a thick, spreadable consistency. You will probably use 2 1/2-3 cups.
• Pipe or spread frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Healthier Options:

1. As some people are more health-conscious, food coloring may not appeal to them. Hence, I've researched and come up with alternative ways of getting that bright color in the rainbow cupcakes!
2. green food coloring - substitute with matcha green tea powder 
3. yellow food coloring - substitute with turmeric powder 
4. red food coloring - dried hibiscus flowers 
5. purple food coloring - red cabbage
6. If you wish to make healthier buttercream frosting, try making the vegan frosting.
7. Enjoy experimenting with various tweaks in this rainbow cupcake recipe! It can be sinful, but it can also be healthy! It all depends on the quality of the ingredients you put into it. Enjoy! (:

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