Rainbow cupcakes

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour, sifted
1½ cups sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
¾ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g butter, softened
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Food colouring

red
yellow
pink
green
orange
purple
blue

Buttercream icing

200g butter, softened
2 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C fan-forced. Line 2 x 12 cup cupcake tins with liners and set aside.

To make the cake batter, place the flour, sugar and baking powder into a bowl. Using a mixer, beat in the milk, vanilla, butter and eggs until combined. Beat for 4 minutes.

Divide the mixture evenly between seven bowls. Using the food colouring, tint each bowl of mixture the colours of the rainbow.

Starting with red, drop 1 teaspoon of mixture into each liner. Repeat with each colour until the trays are full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until centre of cakes bounce back after being touched lightly.

Remove from tins and cool on a wire rack until ready to frost.

Icing

With an electric mixer, beat the butter until it is pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the vanilla and icing mixture, half a cup at a time. Beat in the milk at the end until well incorporated.

Frost each cupcake with the icing. I used a fancy nozzle and an icing bag but a nice thick coating will look just as good.

Notes:

This is a no-fuss cake mix. You can flavour it with any essences that you have on hand. I like to use strawberry flavour.
Food colouring and amounts are up to your own discretion. You can use liquid or gel colouring for this recipe. Just add a little at a time and mix until you have the colour that you want. I used red and blue to make purple batter and red and yellow to make orange batter.
Drop each measure of batter directly into the centre of the cupcake liners to create the layers.
Avoid giving these cupcakes to anyone with sensitivity to food colouring. You can try using natural food colouring but you won’t get the same vibrant end result.
If you want chocolate icing instead of buttercream icing just add 1/3 cup of sifted cocoa powder to the mixture an omit the vanilla.
This recipe was created by Jennifer Cheung for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.