Rainbow Cupcakes

So ... this past weekend I decided to make Rainbow Cupcakes. I'm so excited with how they turned out. Most of the cupcakes turned out to be a really nice size, but the last one ended up being a little small, so I did what any good baker would do ... I cut it open and took a picture. It may be a small undecorated cupcake, but it turned out great.

Before I tell you how I made them, just let me say that this was by no means my idea. I have seen cupcakes like these on the Internet and have been wanting to try them. I made a tie-dyed cake back in June, but I had never tried cupcakes before. These were a little time consuming ... but the end result was well worth the effort.

So here's how I made them ...

I started off by just making regular vanilla cake batter ... nothing real special. But here's where the special part comes in. I divided the batter among 6 bowls. I used an ice cream scoop and tried really hard to get them equal, but I learned when I got to the end that some bowls had a little more batter in them than others. More on that later...

After I divided the batter, I added a little gel color to each bowl.

And here's where the time consuming part came in. I put a scoop of red on bottom ... then a scoop of orange ... then a scoop of yellow ... then a scoop of green ... then a scoop of blue ... then a scoop of purple ... then it occurred to me that I should have done it in reverse order so that the hot color ends up in the center and the cool color ends up on the outside. Oops! So then I did the rest of them in reverse order. I also got faster at it by putting a scoop of purple in the remaining 11 cups ... and then a scoop of blue in the 11 cups ... and then a scoop ... you get the idea. The colors spread out as they settled and looked like this ...

Can you see my "oops" cupcake in the corner? Normally I fill both pans and put them in the oven together. Not this time. I figured I could fill the second pan in the time it took the first pan (19 minutes) to bake. I was wrong. It really took me a long time to fill that second pan. I got to the bottom of each bowl and still wanted to make more cupcakes. So I got out every rubber scraper I own and began scraping every last bit of batter out of each bowl. I got 25 cupcakes ... but the last one was really tiny. So ... as mentioned earlier, I used it for a photo shoot.

And this is what the cupcakes looked like as they cooled. Look for my "oops" cupcake.

These little darlings are now individually wrapped in plastic and safely tucked into a freezer bag and resting comfortably in my freezer.

***On a side note ... cupcakes stay fresh and moist if they are individually wrapped in plastic, placed in a freezer bag, and frozen for a few days. I always try to bake early and freeze.***

I'll be thawing these little beauties and decorating them on Wednesday. Stay tuned to see what I do with them. You won't be disappointed. ;)