Rainbow Cupcakes

As the end of term approaches, Uni life gets a bit surreal. The workload evaporates, people disappear to hometowns filled with real food and people over twenty five, and everyone makes the most of a final week with friends and freedom.  What better way to fuel the fun (food-wise, anyway) than stir fry, pizza and cake.  Fortunately I was kept away from the first two but I did promise to bring some form of cake-based creation.  Having spent the previous week making (or attempting) elegant, mother-appropriate Red Velvet cupcakes, I decided to abandon all dignity, embrace my inner-child and produce a rainbow.

Somewhat ironically, I got the idea while researching the Mothers Day-themed Flavour of the Month.  Rather than just use vanilla cupcakes which might not hide the taste of food colouring, I decided to use the Love Food: The Cupcake recipe for White Chocolate and Rose Cupcakes, substituting vanilla essence for the rose water, although this would work too.  I picked white chocolate because the mixture was still light enough to show the colours, and because of all the flavours in all the chocolate bars in all the world, white is my favourite.  I suspect that the high sugar content may have something to do with this.

Once I had made the mixture, I weighed it and divided it into five portions, with what would be the top (pink) layer with slightly more than the others, as it had a larger space to fill.  I dyed each in turn, using blue and red colouring for the purple, stirring carefully so that not too much air was lost.  I then layered the colours, starting with purple in the bottom.  The recipe didn’t stretch very far; I only managed to make nine, so next time I would probably double the quantities.  This also meant that some layers didn’t sit perfectly on top of each other, so it would be better to double the quantities if you are looking for a distinctly layered effect.   

For the icing I used the Love Food: The Cupcake vanilla butter cream recipe, which produces really fluffy, sweet, melt-in-your mouth, drool-over icing.  I wanted the topping to look quite plain because the sponge was so bright, but without looking dull or in anyway refined.  Again looking to my inner child (always a useful source of inspiration) I sprinkled edible gold glitter over everything and put a pink strawberry button on the top.

The cakes were slightly overcooked, but thankfully the white chocolate flavour still came through.  The colours inside produced a suitably joyous effect to delight children young, old and inner.  Whether you’re feeling blue, seeing red or going for gold, the rainbow effect is an easy, tasty, trippy way to add some colour to your celebrations.