I'm sure some of you have heard of Pinterest. It's my new favorite site. If you haven't checked it out, I recommend doing so, I have found so many yummy recipes and craft inspirations there. I was recently looking for a fun dessert idea for the kids and came across a picture of rainbow cakes in mason jars. I thought I'd adjust it a bit and make rainbow cupcakes for my kids and I have to say, they came out fantastic!
Here's how I did it.
Ingredients: A box of white cake mix, plus all of the ingredients it calls for
A can of frosting
Plastic zip sandwich bags (six bags)
Sprinkles for decoration
First I prepared the cake mix as directed on the box. Next, I scooped 2-3 big spoonfuls into each plastic bag.
I added food coloring to each of the bags to make a different color of the rainbow. On the back of my food coloring box it tells the ratio of drops to mix to make the colors not included (orange and purple).
Once the colors were added, I sealed the bag and squished the color around in my fingers to mix it. I had some trouble getting the corners of the bag to mix, so I used a little spoon and mixed it up. A little messy, but it worked.
Next, I placed the cupcake liners into the pan and started layering the colors. I started with purple so it would be the bottom of the cupcake. I cut a small hole in a bottom corner of the bag and squeezed enough to cover the bottom of the liner. I did the same thing with blue, then green, yellow, orange and last, the red.
The box said to fill the liner half way and this would make enough for 24 cupcakes. Maybe because this was my first try, I ended up filling my liners a bit more than 3/4's and ended up making 12. If you hope to make 24, I would make two boxes just to be safe.
I baked them according to the box temp. and time and then checked them with a toothpick to make sure they were done.
Once cooled I frosted them. My kids prefer vanilla or butter cream frosting. I happened to have some pretty sprinkles in the cabinet, which I added to an extra special touch and I have to say the looked so pretty!
Here's a shot of the inside. The kids were really impressed. They only took about 15 minutes more than the usual cake box cupcakes to make but they are so much more fun. I will definitely try this one again.