Vanilla Rainbow Cupcakes

Every kid loves rainbows. Most kids like rainbow cupcakes too. For her birthday, my inaanak (god child) asked for rainbow cupcakes, so of course, I had to make sure I had time to bake them for her this year.

For these cupcakes I used the Birthday Cake Recipe from Magnolia. Magnolia cupcakes from back home were a super big treat. They had already gotten pretty big by the time we left NY, so if we spoke about Magnolia, people were sure to have a frame of reference. I love my Magnolia Cookbook (written by the owners of the bakery) that my SIL gifted me one year for Christmas. It’s a cookbook that is clearly a favorite in this house because and you can see it in the vanilla stained curled up corners of the pages.

I mix the batter according to the directions, making only the minor adjustment with the self rising flour. I found self rising flour in the British pub in Festival Mall, but have since learned how to make it without having to buy it separately.

Ingredients for cake batter:

1 c. unsalted butter, softened

2 c. sugar

4 large eggs room temperature (I used XL)

1 1/2 c. self rising flour

1 1/4 c. APF

1 c. whole milk

1 tsp. vanilla

gel food coloring

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

2. Line your cupcake tins with your liners

3. Cream butter until smooth.

4. Add sugar gradually and beat on medium speed for about 3 mins.

5. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.

6. In a separate bowl, mix self rising flour and APF together. (To make self rising flour simply combine 1 1/2 c. APF,  2 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt)

7. Add 1 tsp vanilla to 1 c. milk.

8. Combine flour mixture to butter mixture in four parts. Alternate flour and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Be sure not to over mix the batter.

9. Divide the batter evenly between 6 mixing bowls. (I divided it up easily by using a measuring cup. It was a little bit more than one cup for each bowl.)

10. Using a toothpick for your gel food coloring take a little bit of coloring (about the size of a pin head) and mix it into each bowl.

11. After all the different colors are evenly mixed to your liking you can begin layering by using a teaspoon. (I started with red and ended with purple.)

When I layer the colors, I try not to mess with them too much. It’s not exact, and some cupcakes might have a little more of one color than the other, but I think that in this case we don’t have to measure too much. Eyeballing this part is perfectly ok.

Bake for about 10 minutes. I always go back and check on cupcakes and rotate the pans if you need to. My oven runs a bit hot in some spots so I have to rotate my cookies and cupcakes half way (or a little more than half way) through the cooking process. Cupcakes are done when you stick a toothpick (or a cake tester) in and it comes out clean. You don’t want to over cook your little cakes so stay close. After I rotate the pans I’m sure to stay near by.

Seven Minute Icing

3 egg whites
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup cold water
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a stainless steel bowl placed over boiling water combine all the ingredients except the vanilla. Using a hand mixer, on high speed, whip ingredients until they form medium soft peaks. Add the vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined.

Another helpful hint I picked up along the way is that while the eggs for the cake batter need to be at room temperature, the eggs for the icing separate easily when cold instead of warm. If the eggs are room temp already you run the chance of contaminating your whites with a broken yolk.