Recipe: Rainbow cupcakes
These bright and colourful treats are both fun and attractive.
Each rainbow cupcake is topped with ‘clouds' of soft whipped cream, fluffy marshmallows and ‘gold coin' sprinkles. I recommend using professional-grade food colouring for the best and brightest results.
Makes 12
Ingredients
- 200g baking spread, softened
- 200g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1tbs milk
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 200g self-raising flour
- Red, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple food colouring (I use Sugarflair)
For the topping
- 300ml double cream
- 1tbs icing sugar
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 50g white mini marshmallows (gelatine-free if serving to vegetarians)
- Gold coin sprinkles
Preheat the oven to 140°C fan, and line a 12-hole cupcake tin with cupcake cases.
Mix together the baking spread and sugar, ideally using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or an electric hand mixer, for exactly five minutes until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla extract and whisk well until combined. Gently whisk or fold in the flour. Divide the cupcake mixture equally between six bowls (I got roughly 130g mixture per bowl). Add a different food colouring to each bowl.
Place spoonfuls of each colour of mixture one at a time in the cupcake cases, making sure each cupcake case gets a bit of every colour. Repeat until all of the mixture is used up. Bake the cupcakes for 25-30 minutes or until a thin skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Whip the double cream with the icing sugar and vanilla extract until thick. This can be done with a hand whisk and some elbow grease, or for a quick and less tiring option, use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Transfer the whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with the nozzle of your choice, and pipe swirls onto each cupcake, or you can dollop it on with a spoon.
Decorate with the mini marshmallows and gold sprinkles. Serve immediately. Store any leftovers in the fridge and eat within two days.
Bakes That Break the Internet by Kat Buckley (Ebury, £12.99)
