Rainbow Cupcakes

I never got to celebrate my birthday at school because my birthday is in the summer.  So I'm glad my kids will have the opportunity to celebrate with their school friends.  No, I'm not ashamed to admit that I like to live vicariously through my kids.  Anyways, last week "L" had a little birthday party at his school.

I've had this Rainbow Cupcake idea on a sky hook for quite some time after seeing it somewhere online.  I've seen them made in mason jars and eaten with a spoon, which is cool because you can see the colors through the glass.  I thought "L's" birthday would be the perfect occasion to try this. 

Rainbow cupcakes are made very "simply" by coloring the batter with food coloring and layering the batter.  I say "simply" because it sounds simple enough but with an anal personality like mine, it took a long time considering it's a BOX MIX!

I decided to do 5 colors and divided the batter evenly into disposable cups.  I thought I would save my self the time of clean up by using disposable cups and spoons.

I started with the blue on the bottom of the cupcake.  You only need one tablespoon of each batter so that the cupcake is 2/3 full when finished (like a normal cupcake).  What was so labor intensive was trying to spread each layer out so that I could get perfectly straight lines in the cupcake.  The batter is thick and difficult to spread out without mixing the other colored layers, especially with such little batter.  Some cupcakes definitely came out better than others.

I even tried a squeeze bottle (which would have been a great idea, were it not nearly impossible to get the batter into the small bottle opening).  I think I just wasted batter trying that.  The next time I do this (which will be a long time later), I will definitely go with the squeeze bottle route but will have to find ones with wider openings.

The results were still cool.  Nobody cared that the layers weren't perfect, certainly not the kids at school licking their fingers, and certainly not my son who was just happy to enjoy his special day with his school friends. 

I think a bright white frosting looks best on the cupcake to bring out all the colors.

the one hubby took a bite out of

Little "P" and I got to join "L" at school for his little party.  He picked out the matching table cloths, plates and even juice boxes with Disney Cars pictures.

As if cupcakes weren't enough sugar, "L" and I had also made some chocolate covered pretzels to share with the class.  The pretzels are easily made by melting Wilton Candy Melts, which come in all sorts of colors, and drizzling them over the pretzels.  I chose orange and white and drizzled each color in opposite directions.  I figured it would be a little less sugar for the kids than dipping the whole pretzel and having a thick coating of sugar, which I'm sure they would not have complained about though.  The candy coating hardens pretty quickly at room temperature (or you can speed up the process in the fridge).