Rainbow Cupcakes - Perfect for St. Patty's Day!

While I think that any day is a great day to whip up some adorable cupcakes, I understand that some people are a bit more reserved. Holidays on the other hand- who can argue? Luckily, Saint Patrick’s Day is less than two weeks away! And do I have the most adorable, and easy to assemble, cupcakes for you!

I tried to achieve a “green velvet” cake for these, swapping green food coloring for red. They could have used a bit more food coloring.. red velvet is a funny thing, really. Some recipes will use just 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, while others use a ½ cup- are they supposed to be chocolatey or not?! (I like to go for the more chocolately kind, personally) And while the red color may have originally come from the chemical reactions between the baking soda, vinegar, buttermilk and cocoa powder, it is achieved today from copious amounts of food coloring. Maybe one day I’ll try to make an old-fashioned red velvet cake, without food coloring, but for the time being the recipe that I have, courtesy of Paula Deen, is just wonderful!

I topped my cupcakes with buttercream icing, green to frost the cupcake and white piped for the clouds. My go-to buttercream recipe is Wilton. You can find it at the following link << http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Class-Buttercream-Icing-Stiff-Consistency >> The only thing that you need to alter is adding about 2 (extra) tablespoons of water to make the icing easier to work with.

My Red Velvet Cupcake recipe follows. Just swap the red food coloring for green to go with the St. Patty’s Day theme (maybe add a bit extra). Top your cupcakes with green buttercream, add 2 white dollops for clouds and place a rainbow-striped gummy candy between the clouds- easy peasy, and super cute! I like to add a gold rolo, like a pot o’ gold, to some.

Red Velvet Cupcakes                                                                
Courtesy of Paula Deen INGREDIENTS:2 ½ cups flour1 ½ cups sugarDash of salt½ cup cocoa powder1 ½ cups vegetable oil1 cup buttermilk, room temperature2 eggs, room temperature1 1-ounce bottle red food coloring1 teaspoon vanilla extract2 teaspoons baking soda2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar DIRECTIONS:-Allow buttermilk and eggs to become room temperature.-Preheat oven to 350*^F.-In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, salt and cocoa powder.-In a large bowl, beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring and vanilla.-Add sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.-In a small glass, mix baking soda and vinegar; it will create foam.-Gently stir foam into batter.-Divide batter into 24 cupcake liners.-Bake for 20 minutes, rotating trays halfway through.-Cool and frost.-Enjoy!

Stay Fab!

Chloe