Rainbow Bright Cupcakes
March is here and this weekend I thought I would work on something cute and sweet for St. Patrick’s Day. Shamrocks, leprechauns, pots of gold, maybe? But then I was bored … none of those things really inspired me for some reason. I just wasn’t feeling green treats so much I guess. Instead I was feeling full of color. So I decided on rainbows … and cupcakes … minus the pots of gold at the end.
I was also feeling like rainbow colored sprinkles … in my cupcakes.
I love these delicate jimmies by Mr. Sprinkles. (I love these even better, but the pastel colors aren’t available anymore. I’m still very upset about it. I could use them forever. For everything.)
Oh well, the rainbow sprinkles will work great for this bright little cupcake.
You’ll just need a couple. ; )
Stir them in the batter and bake away.
Taste the rainbow.
Cupcakes … Yum!
And so bright and cheery.
But for this project we need sugar cookies, too… so we can easily cut out rainbows to the right round size and shape.
Use two different size circle cutters for the cookies. I used a 2 1/4-inch round cutter and the bottom end of a 1M Wilton decorating tip to cut out the center.
But any round sharp-edged shapes you have on hand can work. Try using the cap to your sprinkles containers for instance. More on that below…
So to make the rainbows, I cut 2 1/4-inch circles, cut out the centers and then just cut off the bottoms so they could stand easily in frosting.
In the pic above, I tried two different center sizes. I liked the larger opening better.
After the cookies are baked and cooled, they can be covered with fondant.
Roll out white fondant and then cut out circles using the same size round cutters used for the cookies. Apply a thin layer of frosting to the top of the cookie and then place the fondant shapes right on top to secure.
Cut off any excess so your fondant shape matches your rainbow cookie shape.
And then it’s time to color. The fun part. For me anyway. I’m much better with a pen than directing icing from a tip in a smooth line, so this is right up my alley. Plus it’s pretty quick and less messy.
I used these Americolor Gourmet Writing Pens that I often use on pops. They work really great on fondant, so I think you’ll have fun with them.
First, make marks for each color so you can get a sense of how thick the lines need to be so each color is equal.
Start with red on the outside and draw even lines with each color until you reach the center.
Pretty cute.
But even cuter in the clouds.
To make the frosting look puffy, use a decorating bag fitted with an Ateco 807 tip and pipe large random dots of frosting around the edge of the cupcake. Use a knife to smooth out the sides and push the frosting up slightly so it looks like the clouds are bursting out of the cupcake liner.
Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top so the frosting looks fluffier … plus it will create a barrier so you can gently shape the clouds. Pat down any peaks with your fingertip and use a toothpick to help define the clouds.
Fluffy and puffy.
So these are some smaller circles I also made sugar cookies with. I used the bottom of a sprinkles cap because I didn’t have the right size cutter and for the center, I used the top of the Ateco 807 decorating tip.
I originally thought these would be the cupcake rainbow toppers, but they were just too small, so I did something else with them.
See… too little. They’d be great on mini cupcakes though.
After seeing how cute the puffy clouds on the cupcakes looked, I wanted to use them on the cookies, too.
So, I colored in about 2/3 of the rainbow.
And added frosting to the rest using the same technique for the cupcakes.
Too cute.
Rainbow Cupcakes
Ingredients
CUPCAKES
- 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 4 egg whites
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 2/3 cup salted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup rainbow sprinkles
FROSTING
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 4 teaspoons milk
- extra powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tin with baking cups.
- Sift flour, sugar and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and then mix together on low.
- In another bowl, stir egg whites, milk and vanilla together.
- Add butter to the flour mixture and mix together. As it starts to combine, slowly pour the milk mixture in and mix until completely combined. Stir in rainbow sprinkles.
- Fill baking cups a little more than halfway. Bake for about 16 minutes or until done. Remove and cool. Makes about 24 cupcakes.
- For frosting, beat butter and vanilla together. Add sugar slowly and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides and add milk. Mix until smooth and creamy. Note: Double the recipe if you will be frosting all 24 cupcakes like the pictures above, because I piled it on.
To decorate, you’ll also need:
- 24 sugar cookies – You can use the recipe from this post. 1/2 of the dough will make about two dozen cookies and you can freeze the rest for another time. Note: You can also make and decorate the cookies ahead of time.
- 2 1/4 inch cutter and Wilton 1M icing tip or similar size round cutters
- Fondant
- Americolor Gourmet Writing Pens
- Ateco 807 or Wilton 1M Tip with decorator bag and coupler to pipe the frosting
- Toothpicks
And just so you can get a little more of a St. Patrick’s Day feel with these… look how just changing the background makes a difference. Sprinkle a few Rolos candies or gold wrapped chocolate coins on the tabletop and you’ll be set for the seventeenth.
Enjoy! I hope you brighten someone’s day with these.
P.S. What’s your favorite St. Patrick’s Day sweet? Mine is probably these simple and addictive little truffles. As a matter of fact, I may need to go make some right now.
Update: I found these awesome gold wrapped chocolate coins at the Fresh Market this weekend. They’d look great with these cupcakes.
I’m on a sprinkle kick as of late too! >.< So much better than just green things for St. Patrick's Day! Adorable. :)
March 5, 2013 12:43 AMVery beautiful.
March 5, 2013 12:54 AMThese are so cute :)
March 5, 2013 12:54 AMThese are too adorable! And I love Mr Sprinkles :)
March 5, 2013 12:59 AMI l ove the volume in the clouds. They are so cute.
March 5, 2013 01:07 AMThe mini rainbow cookies are so cute!!!
March 5, 2013 01:10 AMThose clouds look too good to eat. And the rainbows? Flawless!
March 5, 2013 01:13 AMHey Cindy – I know. I so wish they would make their original colors again.
Mannie Tam – Thanks – I might even like them best. They were a last minute decoration and came out pretty cute.
Brit – thank you – I’m not sure about flawless but definitely fun.
March 5, 2013 01:16 AMLooks wonderful.
March 5, 2013 01:41 AMEveline.
I just love it… the web is all great. recipes are well written and detailed.
March 5, 2013 01:45 AMJust when I think you’ve made every cute treat possible… you make a new one! I love these! I love rainbow, and cupcakes… and with a cookie bonus I’m really sold! <3
March 5, 2013 02:11 AMOMG! LOVE THESE! Must give them a try! I love your creativity!
{{BTW, my girls received the Bakerella Cake pops kit and ALL the accessories plus books… we created lots of pops and a gigantic mess! Thanks! BEST XMAS DAY EVER!}}
March 5, 2013 02:31 AMLove Love Love! These are gorgeous!
March 5, 2013 03:12 AMThese are lovely!
Thank you!!!
March 5, 2013 03:26 AMWow they are so cute! I love them!!!
March 5, 2013 03:52 AMOMG! these are adorable!! I love them!! I just ordered some americolor food coloring today because i keep hearing how amazing it is!! cant wait!
March 5, 2013 04:11 AMI had a question though.. when using milk in frosting.. do u need to refridgerate the frosting?? or is it fine to leave out?? I have never known what to do so i either leave the milk out of the recipe or refridgerate.. just to be safe.. what would u recommend??
So cute and pretty! I’m going to make sprinkle cupcakes soon as I get me some!
March 5, 2013 04:26 AMThe fluffy clouds really caught my eye. Great tip on sprinkling with powdered sugar to help form a barrier when shaping!
March 5, 2013 04:44 AMSo awesome! Those fluffy clouds grabbed my eye right off the bat, and love your rainbows!
March 5, 2013 05:18 AMYou are an amazingly creative person. I so enjoy reading your posts and you absolutely deserve all the kudos you receive and more! Go Cake Pops!! Oh, and you’re also very generous towards other bloggers and that’s wonderful to see – xx from Oz.
March 5, 2013 05:26 AMOMG so sweet and cheery-made me smile :D
March 5, 2013 05:56 AMThese are just adorable Angie! I could dive right in.
March 5, 2013 06:00 AMThese are too cute!!!!
March 5, 2013 07:52 AMBelli e buoni…
March 5, 2013 07:53 AMThe cookies are adorable!
March 5, 2013 08:31 AMMy favorite St. Patrick’s Day sweet – Guinness Candied Bacon.
Yeah, bacon is a sweet now. *cue angels singing*
http://joandsue.blogspot.ca/2013/02/guinness-candied-bacon.html
these are so adorable!! I definitely understand not being in the mood to bake what you had originally planned to. I love mixing sprinkles into my batter :)
March 5, 2013 08:37 AMGorgeousness, all around! Love your ideas! xo
March 5, 2013 08:46 AMThese are just adorable!!! You always find an d new way to create something!!! love how you think!
March 5, 2013 08:48 AMSo awesome!!
March 5, 2013 08:52 AMThese are just BEYOND cute!!! That rainbow cookie! And the clouds!!!
Angie…I’d love to have your creative brain for just ONE day. ONE!
March 5, 2013 08:52 AMThese are sooooo cute :). My only thing is fondant never works for me – maybe I’ll try royal icing.
For St. Patrick’s Day – it may be the time of year but I like anything chocolate mint! Like the Andes mints you get at restaurants or Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. We even did chocolate cake, cake pops and dipped them in dark chocoalte mint candy melts – to die for lol.
March 5, 2013 09:47 AMi LOVE these! Call me crazy, but my favorite St. Patty’s Day treat is those fluffy sugar cookies with super sweet frosting. Every one else I know thinks that they are too sweet, but I love them! I also love green-tinted bagels from my local bagel place. BUT….my new favorite treat might just be these cupcakes!
March 5, 2013 09:54 AMThese have got to be the cutesst cupcake and cookie around. We are coo coo for rainbows in our house!
March 5, 2013 10:27 AMI love these cupcakes. My 3 year old twins want to have a rainbow birthday party and these will be perfect! Thanks!
March 5, 2013 10:29 AMYour rainbows are so perfect! I bet that you always stayed in the lines (of coloring books) when you were a kid :) Your cupcakes make me smile!
March 5, 2013 11:57 AMWish we had so many baking stuff here in France ..
March 5, 2013 12:02 PMThe rainbow cookie is such a cute idea.
March 5, 2013 12:03 PMBah!! So freaking cute!
March 5, 2013 12:21 PMThose are too cute! My daughter was born on St. Patrick’s Day so I have even more reason to go all out :-D
March 5, 2013 12:47 PMI love that you call them jimmies. My husband hates that term. To him Jimmy is a person always. So, of course, I bought him Just Jimmies ice cream and he had to mod the container to say sprinkles.
I love irish potatoes as a sweet. They are made from cinnamon, coconut and sweetened condensed milk and are pretty tasty. I get mine at the local chocolate shop right around this time of year.
March 5, 2013 12:52 PMOh, these are so adorable! For some reason, these reminded me of Rainbow Brite.
March 5, 2013 01:00 PMI love rainbow jimmies!
March 5, 2013 01:11 PMLooks amazing!
Do you think I’d need to double the recipe to make 2 8″ layers of cake?
March 5, 2013 01:49 PMI say this every time, but you have outdone yourself! Those are magnificent and I like the idea of scattering gold colored Rolos around them. I also wonder if seven minute frosting would work for the clouds since it has a marshmallowy type consistency. I don’t really have a favorite St. Patrick’s Day sweet, I usually make soda bread, but last year we made a cake with a rainbow baked inside. Check it out here: http://milkandcherries.blogspot.com/2012/03/happy-st-patricks-day.html
March 5, 2013 02:04 PMVery Cute!
March 5, 2013 02:20 PMYou are a creative genius!!! I think Little Buddy and I have to make these! xoxo
March 5, 2013 03:34 PMAbsolutely adorable!! Gotta pin this :)
March 5, 2013 04:44 PMLove these but have a few tips on the icing.. I use 3/4 cup unsalted butter and only a 1/4 cup of shortening. I also use 10% cream instead of milk ane use a sprinkle of fine sea salt. I also use 1/2 tsp of each vanilla and butter flavoring. It is so yummy. Some times I leave out the vanilla and it makes for a creamy flavour icing.
March 5, 2013 07:27 PMThanks everyone!!!
Decadent Diva – Giant YAY! So glad they enjoyed the toy.
Linsey – I leave it out of the fridge.
icakepops & Winnie – love how the p. sugar makes them look softer. Sometimes the frosting can be shiny.
Marica – Thanks
Jo and Sue – Sounds great!
Thanks Bridge!
Lantana – not crazy
Brenda – I was a professional colorer.
Seanna Lea – Bridget from Bakeat350 just made some of those.
The vanilla bean – I don’t think so
Rachel – it does sound yummy.
March 6, 2013 01:00 AMThese are so pretty and creative! Lovely!
March 6, 2013 02:37 AMThanks!
Just curious – why use salted butter instead of unsalted?
March 6, 2013 03:32 AMI baked them and oh my god I felt like I was in heaven thanks bakerella!!:)
March 6, 2013 08:48 AMThese are absolutely adorable. I’ve been trying to think of ways to make rainbow cupcakes – finding rainbow colored strip candy and such, but making them out of cookies is so much better!
March 6, 2013 10:00 AMSo cute. Love your creative streak. Question: I have a recipe for frosting that calls for 4 cups of powdered sugar which I assumed was equivalent to 1 pound. Just to make sure I googled and guess what — all kinds of different answers. (The explanation on the box confused me even more. Sounds like it would be 1/4 cup less then 4 cups.) What do you use. Same problem with AP flour. I’m always concerned when I make a cake that the flour is measured correctly. The given weight is all over the map too. 4 oz. in one cup? 5 oz.? Help! p.s. I bought a scale when something I made tasted off and I thought maybe I’d measured wrong. In Europe recipes are in weight rather than volume and it sounds like a more accurate system. How do you measure flour? sugar? Thanks!
March 6, 2013 10:26 AMSo cute! I love that the rainbows are cookies. And how you made the cloud frosting. You are so creative! :)
March 6, 2013 11:27 AMReally cute. Thanks for the rainbow batter trick, I’m definitely going to do this!
Hope you’re having a nice day.
:)
March 6, 2013 12:38 PMmikky
http://www.todaloos.com
It’s been said, but not only are these incredibly cute, but you have MAD coloring skillz. :)
March 6, 2013 10:13 PMLove the “cloudy” frosting and the clever approach of coloring in the rainbow bands on the fondant!
March 7, 2013 12:31 AMBakerella, you are amazing!
March 7, 2013 02:47 AMI don’t have a favorite St. Pat try’s day treat, but these definitely put a smile on my face.
I love your genuine creativity.
<3
March 7, 2013 04:29 PMOoooh, love these! So so pretty. There’s gold at the end of that rainbow for sure.
March 7, 2013 10:52 PMmagically delicious :)
March 8, 2013 06:22 PMThese are too adorable!!! I wonder if there’s a way to make a template for the rainbow colors – I would never be able to have such a steady hand with the colored pens!
March 8, 2013 07:29 PMThese are too adorable!!! I wonder if there’s a way to make a template for the rainbow colors – I would never be able to have such a steady hand with the colored pens!
March 8, 2013 07:30 PMYou really are so creative. The cupcakes are cute but the cloud cookies! Just sooo cute. They’re perfect : )
March 9, 2013 03:42 AMWAOW! that’s what my daughter said when I showed her your blog!
March 9, 2013 06:04 AMWe made some pirates cakepops for my son’s birthday this week. I put a link to your blog on mine… I’m sure you’ll see some more French likers soon.
These are so cute! I love them!
March 9, 2013 10:06 AMOh these are so cute, your rainbows look amazing!
March 9, 2013 03:43 PMI love how you come up with such creative ideas — ADORABLE!
March 10, 2013 12:06 PMThis looks so yummy just like the ones in the new app I downloaded in my celphone, you can visit for some tips if you feel like it :)http://p1.pagewiz.net/iCookApp
March 10, 2013 11:50 PMSuch a cute idea for St Patty’s Day!
Carrie of Bella Cupcake Couture
March 12, 2013 03:02 AMhttp://www.bellacupcakecouture.com
I love the idea of the colored sprinkels inside the cupcake! So simple and cute :)
March 15, 2013 07:09 AMHave just discovered your blog and following it now :D Really amazing ideas around here :) Thanks, take care!
Wonderful presentation and taught in a very great manner to make us understand step by step…
March 17, 2013 02:01 PMJust a question, being vegetarians, we dont eat egg, what can we use instead to get similar results…
http://kitchenpops.wordpress.com
I wish i could get such cute sprinkles in Poland :(
March 19, 2013 09:15 AMThese are sooooo cute!
March 19, 2013 09:41 AMI’ve a real problem with buttercream!!! whenever I make it , it turns up to be granulated and too sweet!!! I don’t know where the problem is !! the type of powdered sugar I use? or the mixer? (I use a hand electric mixer)
March 26, 2013 01:33 PMso cute :)
April 6, 2013 02:59 PM