What’s more fun than cupcakes? Cupcakes that look like a rainbow!  These cupcakes are a lot of fun to make and look at, and they’re even more fun to eat.  What starts off as a simple white cake mix turns into a circus-worthy swirl of color topped with a simple vanilla butter cream icing. These cupcakes are perfect for birthday parties, office get-togethers, or as gifts for your favorite Dead Head.  The best part of these cupcakes is that they are relatively simple to make, as long as you’re willing to mess up a few dishes (and possibly a good portion of your kitchen) in the name of dessert.  This is a fun afternoon project for the kids, too, just be careful with the food coloring – that stuff can stain!

For the rainbow cakes, you’ll need one boxed white cake mix and six small bowls.  Make the cake mix as directed and divide the batter evenly among the six bowls.  Using food coloring, color each bowl of batter a separate color – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  Place your cupcake liners into a muffin tin and layer spoonfuls of each color on top of each other until the cups are around 2/3 full.  Bake the cupcakes just as you would normally, and you’ll be left with the colorfully layered cakes you see above.  While the cakes are cooking, you can make up for the fact you’re using a store-bought cake mix by making some frosting from scratch.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 sticks of butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Using a stand mixer (easiest) or hand mixer (much harder), mix together the butter and sugar, starting at low speed and increasing slowly.  That should take about 5-6 minutes.  Add the vanilla and cream and mix for a minute longer.  Keep the buttercream in a cool place, and be sure your cupcakes are cool before you frost them – this stuff will melt easily if the cupcakes are hot.  Enjoy!