Somewhere over the rainbow… lie the cutest (and most colorful!) rainbow cupcakes.
“Where troubles melt like lemon drops…”
Okay everyone – who else is ready for St. Patrick’s Day?! I know that I could be celebrating with four leaf clovers and golden coins but…
I couldn’t help but create something ultra colorful!
Watch out: my oh-so-easy rainbow cupcakes are ready to take over the world! These tie-dye treats are the touch of luck we need for our St. Patty’s celebrations.
How to Make Tie-Dye Cupcakes
The technique for making tie-dye cupcakes isn’t at all difficult. I opted for a colorful “mish mash” of cupcake batter to make my dessert extra special.
For the recipe in particular, I went with a boxed cake mix to save on baking time. While I pride myself in being a self-taught home baker, I’m still a busy parent (and a WAHM, at that!). I find no shame in using a cake mix because it gives me a chance to focus on decorating.
Whipping up tie dye cupcakes is plain and simple: you start by dividing your batter into 3 separate bowls. Tint each bowl with a food color of your choice (I always use gel food coloring for this) and stir to completely tint the batter.
Once each bowl of batter is colored, use a spoon to scoop the batter (about 1 tablespoon at a time) into a lined muffin tin, alternating colors. You’ll want to fill up each section about two thirds of the way.
Themed Desserts for St. Patrick’s Day
When I think of of St. Patty’s, my mind immediately envisions all-things-rainbow. Sure, there are always deep green desserts to celebrate the holiday, but I love working with color. I live for it! You can bet I was ecstatic the moment I thought of the design for these Rainbow Cupcakes.
Something else I’ve also been wanting to do are desserts with Bailey’s Irish Cream. I can imagine a chocolate bread with an Irish cream drizzle. (Okay, guys – time for me to hit the kitchen. I’ve got some recipe development to complete!)
How to Make Rainbow Cupcakes
Colorful Rainbow Cupcakes
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Cupcakes
- 1 box vanilla cake mix + all ingredients to make it
- 1 drop red gel food coloring
- 1 drop yellow gel food coloring
- 1 drop purple gel food coloring
Tools & Ingredients to Decorate
- 1 stick unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1-2 tbsp milk
- 5-6 oz. sky blue rolling fondant
- 1 circular cookie cutter 2 inches in diameter
- 1 Wilton icing tip #8
- 1 Wilton icing tip #32
- 1 drop red gel food coloring
- 1 drop yellow gel food coloring
- 1 drop purple gel food coloring
Instructions
- Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix and ingredients.
- Once batter has been mixed up, divided evenly into 3 bowls.
- Color one bowl of batter red, the other yellow and your last one, purple.
- Using a spoon, scoop about 1 tbsp colored batter into each lined section of the muffin tin, alternating between colors.
- Bake according to mix’s instructions. Allow to cool on a wire rack before decorating.
- As the cupcakes cool, prepare your decorations: place softened butter, confectioners’ sugar and 1 tbsp milk into a large bowl.
- Use an electric mixer to beat all ingredients, starting on low speed and gradually increasing to high.
- Once all the ingredients are well-combined and form semi-stiff peaks, the buttercream is ready. Feel free to add a bit more milk if the mixture is a little stiff.
- Use an offset spatula to spread a thin layer of buttercream on each cooled cupcake.
- On a clean working surface, roll out blue fondant until it’s about ¼ of an inch thick.
- Cut out 12 fondant circles using your cookie cutter. Press one on top of each frosted cupcake.
- Scoop ¼ of the remaining buttercream into a piping bag with Wilton tip #8 attached. Set aside.
- Evenly divide remaining buttercream in 3 separate bowls.
- Color each bowl with its own gel coloring: red, yellow and purple. Mix each bowl until buttercream is completely tinted.
- Scoop the buttercream into a piping bag (about 2 tbsp at a time) with Wilton tip #32 attached, alternating between colors.
- Pipe out an arch at the top of each cupcake with the colorful buttercream. Dot white buttercream at the end of each arch to create buttercream clouds.
- What’s great about these cupcakes is that you can use any color your heart desires! I’m totally a pastel-lovin’ gal, which is why I opted for shades of light purple, yellow and pink.
How do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Is there a parade that passes through your town? Do you spend the day with family?
More Digital Printable Downloads
If you enjoyed this rainbow cupcakes recipe then you will love these other spring ideas:
These cupcakes are super cute! I love the colors. They remind me of spring (which I am EAGERLY looking forward to).
These cupcakes are so cute. I think they will be perfect for my son’s birthday.
How cute!! I am horrible at just frosting a single layer. The end result of me trying these, would be interesting! ha/ha
We’ve been jotting down ideas for us to bake with the kids at home (great math lesson too!) We’ll add these rainbow cupcakes to the list.
Not only are these rainbow cupcakes adorable on the outside, but I love the colors on the inside of the cupcakes as well. Super cute!
These are so pretty! We are celebrating my son’s birthday tomorrow, quarantined of course.
These are soooo fun! And thanks to you I’ll probably be singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow all day long.
Oh my goodness! How cute are these cupcakes! We have a plenty of time and we will make them tomorrow!
This would be great to try while the kids are at home! They’ll surely love these!
These brought joy to my day I need to pin this post. I would love to make my own
Those are pretty dang cute! I would find the frosting to be quite a challenge but I am up for it.
These cupcakes look so delicious and so cute. They are perfect for Easter. My kids gonna love it.
These are so cute. What a great idea for all of us stuck at home right now.
These are so cute! And I bet they taste amazing. plenty of time to make them now!