Rainbow Cupcakes

I have seen different renditions of this posted all over the many cooking blogs I follow, I've seen the diet version for Weight Watchers, and the cake form, but when I first saw these adorable cupcakes over at The Girl Who Ate Everything, I knew I would need to try them out. And so today for pre-school/playgroup we made a round of them, and the kids absolutely loved them! They thought it was so cool that all of the colors were there, that was the talk around the table.

Rainbow 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. Gel colors have the brightest colors and wont thin your batter. They can be found at Walmart or Michaels in the cake decorating section.

I found a number of ways to spread the batter out some used 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. However I chose to use the Ziplock bag method, by putting the colors into Ziplocks and then piping the colors into the liners. It worked out great. Layer each color on top of the next.

Bake them according to the package directions, until a toothpick comes out dry.

Frost with your favorite frosting. Fancy it up by putting the frosting in a ziplock bag, cut off the corner of the side of the bag and you have an instant frosting decorating bag. You could top with some fun rainbow sprinkles on top of your frosting.

The only thing I didn't love was that 1- they were really crumbly when the kids ate them. I think it has to do with the ingredients I used. I only ended up getting 12 cupcakes out of all of the batter, perhaps because I added to much to each cupcake? I think I would try either adding a little more liquid to thing them out or making the cupcakes as specified on the box, or per your usual white cake recipe. Though the sour cream makes them moist, they were super thick to spread! I love the colors and ideas of these cupcakes, and I think that is what drew me to them initially, they are just happy!