Colorburst Cupcakes

My Mom is a really creative woman. I didn't realize it until I grew up and became a mother myself. Now that I look back on the birthday parties she threw and the incredible cakes she created, I'm really amazed at the things she came up with back in the day when you couldn't run to Target or Walmart and basically buy a party in a bag. Halloween costumes were no exception. We never, ever had store-bought costumes growing up. My Mom was a great seamstress and her creativity had no boundaries. I look at old family pictures and I love how she took simple ideas and turned them into something fun. Take me for example, around age 5:




That my friends, is a rainbow. And I thought it was the coolest costume ever. [Insert comment here from my husband about how I'm being prepped for my first parade. Now ignore comment.] I was obsessed with this chick, and if you look at every picture I ever created out of any sort of art media between the ages of 3 and 9, it undoubtedly included 3 things: hearts, flowers, and rainbows. To this day, I [clearly as a heterosexual woman] still get a little bit giddy inside when I see all of those colors together. Something about rainbows just makes me happy.

If you read the CafeMom feature from last week, I noted that my youngest son just turned one. For my first son's birthday I made an adorable cake with matching mini-cake and matching cupcakes with matching favors and decorations for the hordes of people I invited to his first party. In keeping with second-child-syndrome fashion, my second son's first birthday rolled around and all that I had collected was this:


Not much. But see the colors? I told you I love that stuff. The bright combo just made me happy and they looked as bright and happy as my bubbling little boy, so I decided to just use that as a theme. Like, uh..balloons. Ya, it's a colorful rainbow balloon theme. Or at least that's what the scrapbook pages will indicate when he's old enough to wonder why no one was at his party and it had no theme. I really wasn't in the mood to make a big fancy cake (since no one was even coming to this party... ya, I'll erase this comment when he's old enough to read), so I decided to do cupcakes and make it easy. A few months ago, I spotted a great rainbow layer cake on a food blog I love, Omnomicon, and decided that I'd make a fun cupcake version of my own. Using a doctored cake mix made it even easier.

(I would like to make a special note to my friend Britanie that I am in fact using a cake mix. See? I'm not a total snob :)


You'll want gel food colors for this, not the little bottles of liquid. Gel color adds a ton of color with a small amount of dye. You can find gel colors at craft stores like Michaels and Roberts, and in the cake decorating isle of Walmart. If using red, make sure to get the one that says "No Taste"


Colorburst Cupcakes

1 white cake mix
2 eggs
1 C sour cream
1/2 C milk
1/3 C vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients until incorporated (about 30 seconds). Scrape sides of bowl and then beat on med-high speed for 3 minutes.

Divide batter according to how many colors you are using. I used 5 colors and it worked out to a little over 1 cup for each color.

Use food coloring to color batter to desired intensity. I used a 1/4 t and they were very bright! You could easily make pastel rainbows using a little less.


To get a layered stripe like I used, you'll want to put a spoonful of each color in the cupcake one at a time. The batter is thick, so it won't spread on it's own. A great tip is to set out a little bowl of water where you're working. Dip your finger in the water and then gently spread the batter out. The water will make it so the batter doesn't stick to your fingers.

Another tip is to use a measuring spoon and some water to measure out how many teaspoons/tablespoons are going to fit in your cupcake. Then divide that by how many colors you have so you know how much of each color to use for each cupcake. For my 5 colors, it worked out perfectly with 2 t of each color in each cupcake. So I put in 2 t of blue in the bottom of each cupcake and spread it out with my finger. Then I put in 2 t of green on top of that, then yellow, etc.

Bake them according to the package directions, until a toothpick comes out dry. Check these babies out! I swear I didn't photoshop these. True crazy colors. I love how you can see the rainbow through the papers. If you want blue on top, just reverse the order (duh, right?)



I topped mine with this frosting. A double batch made enough to put crazy high tops like this on all 24 cupcakes.



Pop on another cupcake liner for presentation if you want...




And when you open that little cutie up...WOW! Check this coolness out:


What's fun is that the insides are all different just depending on how they bake. Biting into these is the best part!




Check this one out- for the last couple when I was tired of the whole layering thing, I just spooned batter in randomly all over to make it spotty. It baked up with love on top. Ahhh... that's for all you guys. I heart our readers :)


Now your turn to show some love and bake up some of these. If you're a sports fan, these would be really cool with team colors. How about black, green and brown for a boys camo party? Or holiday color combos are endless.... Have fun!