Rainbow Cupcakes

There's not really much selection for catagories, is there?

Anyways, this is just a quick mish-mash of nine of the photos I took of my recent rainbow cupcake attempt. If you want extra information about this, please check my journal. I'll post the recipes here for both the cake and the icing.

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Rainbow Cake

Ingredients:
• 1 cup white sugar
• ½ cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1½ cup cake flour
• 1¾ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup milk
• food colouring

Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. In a small, seperate bowl, beat the two eggs. Once there's a little bit of air in the eggs, add them to the butter and sugar mixture. At the same time add the vanilla. Mix all the ingredients until light and fluffy. Alternate adding the milk and flour. When adding the flour, run it through a sifter and add the baking powder to the flour. Mix again until light and fluffy.
- Seperate the batter into 3 bowls (3 is ideal for a single batch, if you're looking for more colours, double the batch). Add food colouring of your choice to each of the bowls and mix thoroughly.
- Line your cupcake tin with papers. For best result, put a teaspoon at a time of each colour into each paper. Once all the tons are filled, use a toothpick and do a light swirl. The more you swirl, the more the colours will mix.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes. Check cakes with a tooth pick. If the tooth pick comes out clean, they are done.
- Let set for about 5 minutes (or until the tin is cool enough to touch), then put it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Decorate them with frosting.

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Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:
• ¼ soft cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons powder skim milk
• 3 cups powder sugar

Directions:
-Cream together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add icing sugar through a sifter along with the skim milk powder. Mix until smooth. Icing should have a very thick and creamy texture. If it is too stiff, add a few drops of milk, if it is too runny, add more icing sugar.
-To best ice cupcakes, use a piping bag or a hefty freezer bag with the corner cut off. Start in the center of the cupcake and move in an outward spiral until the top is completely covered.

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Notes: Specifically for my cupcakes I used real vanilla extract as well as put double the amount in the cake batter. It was also clear, so the icing and cake batter both didn't have a yellowish tint to it that you normally get from the brown liquid. Also, I have found that this recipe does not brown on top. If it turns brown, your oven either isn't evenly heated, or you've over cooked them. You can substitute oil for the butter if you find the cake is too dry (it does differ depending on the current climate - I find it a bit dry to use butter in winter when the humidity is low).

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So there you have it! Comeplete details and pictures. I hope everyone has enjoyed this (well, as much as you can without actually getting to eat them.