Rainbow Cupcakes

I first heard about Rainbow Cupcakes at SAHM - the secret to living on one wage. I loved the idea, they were so bright and colourful. So, I've made my own version of them. The same idea, but they're gluten free and I've iced them in vanilla buttercream.

Don't they look beautiful? A whole plateful of rainbow coloured sweetness :) Okay, so the recipe? I have to say, I cheated. 
I used a packet cake mix - I know! I rarely do. But, it's the easiest way to get gluten free perfection every time. I use the Basco butter cake mix. It's light, fluffy, buttery and you'd never, ever know that it's gluten free. It has NO rubbery texture which is common for GF baking, and is easy for the kids to help with, which they did :) 


So I made up the basic cake mix, split it into 4 equal portions in seperate bowls and coloured one pink, one blue, one green and one yellow. Then spooned a teaspoon of each into the cupcake wrappers in no particular order. Then got a bamboo skewer and swirled it through the mixture of each one to even out the tops of them and to mix the colours together a little bit. 
I baked them at 180C for about 10-15 minutes until they were just done. Then put them on a rack to cool. 


*You can easily use a normal cake mix or even make your own butter cake mix for the cupcakes, like the one on the SAHM website (which is what I would have done if I wasn't making GF cupcakes)*


Now, the butter cream :)

• 125g softened butter
• 1.5 cups icing mixture
• tsp vanilla essence

• Beat the butter until pale and creamy. Make it as white as it will go because this will allow you to colour the icing more easily.
• Beat in the icing mixture a bit at a time (you can do about half a cup at a time, any more and you'll have icing mixture clouds through your kitchen)
• Beat in the vanilla at the end.

I doubled the mixture for the butter cream because I was piping it on the cupcakes and I hate running out, but I did end up with a little bit left over.

Then I sprinkled them with little candy flowers just to make them look pretty. 


Wishing you all a sweet afternoon,

Nadia 
xxx