RAINBOW ICING CUPCAKE RECIPES

Steps:

• Make the cupcakes: Prepare cake batter according to box instructions. Divide batter into five bowls. Add a few drops of red into one bowl, yellow in the second, green in the third, blue in the fourth, and two drops blue plus two drops red into the fifth. Stir each bowl, adjusting the amount of food coloring you want until you have five colors of cake batter. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray or line with cupcake liners. Spoon a little of each color batter into each cup of the tin, until they’re filled two-thirds of the way up. Bake according to box instructions. Set aside to cool. Make the frosting: In a large bowl using a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar, beating on low until combined, then whip in vanilla, heavy cream and salt. (Add more heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, if you’d like a thinner consistency.) Divide frosting into five bowls, adding food coloring to each and stirring, like you did with the cake batter. Place each color in a resealable sandwich bag and snip off one corner. Lay out a piece of plastic wrap. Use each bag to pipe out a line of frosting in each color, side by side. Roll up the plastic wrap, creating a tube of frosting. Twist the ends closed, then slip a star tip on one end. Trim the plastic wrap that sticks through the star tip. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and fill a cupcake tray with 10 cases.
• Beat the butter, vanilla and caster sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Gradually whisk in the eggs, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
• Mix in the flour and a pinch of salt until just combined. Divide into five bowls and colour each a different shade with a drop of food colouring. We chose red, yellow, green, blue and purple.
• Starting with the end of the rainbow (in our case purple), evenly spread 1 tsp of the mixture into each cupcake case using a piping bag or the back of a teaspoon. Top with 1 tsp of the next colour and spread – be careful not to mix the colours together whilst bringing the mix all the way to the edge of the case. Repeat until all the colours are used up and you’re left with an even layer of red on the top.
• Bake for 15 mins, until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
• To make the buttercream, beat the butter until very soft. Add the icing sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt and whisk together until smooth (start off slowly to avoid an icing sugar cloud). Beat in the milk until combined.
• Pipe the buttercream on top of the cupcakes using a circular nozzle, or spread on with a palette knife. Top with sprinkles, if you like.