Over the rainbow...

Quite possibly the sweetest cupcakes I have ever made.


I spotted a photo of someone else's cupcakes on pinterest [little bit addicted] and knew I had to make them on my next afternoon off work. So I got all my ingredients together and whipped some up!

I originally wanted to make the sponge rainbow coloured too, but I didn't have any red food colouring and couldn't find any in the shops [boooo] so I think I'll make those another time.



Ingredients
♥ For the cakes... ♥
150g unsalted butter, softened
150g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
3 medium eggs, whisked
2.5ml [1/2 tsp] vanilla extract

♥ For the icing... ♥
225g icing sugar, sifted
2-3tbsp hot water
Blue food colouring

♥ For the rainbows... ♥
Butter
Icing sugar
Fizzy rainbow belt sweets, halved

MethodLine your bun tins with 20 paper cases and preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius/gas mark 4.

Place the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Divide the mixture between the cases and bake for 15 minutes/until golden and just firm. Cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring the cakes to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Put the icing in a large bowl, gradually beat in the water until you have a smooth thick icing. Add a few drops of the blue colouring. I wanted a lovely duck egg blue colour, so added a few drops of green as well. Spoon onto the cakes.

For the clouds, I just made a small amount of buttercream icing - no measurements really, just use butter and icing sugar until you get the right consistency and add some vanilla extract. Add a blob of the buttercream either side of the cakes, then press the rainbow belt sweets down into the icing.