Rainbow Cupcakes

My son is a Brony (a dude who likes My Little Pony), and his favorite pony is Rainbow Dash, so I made rainbow cupcakes for our family birthday party.

I used Duff's tie-dye cake mix.  It is a white cake mix that comes with red, yellow and blue food color.  My only complaint is that the box tells you how many drops of food color to put in each bowl of white cake mix, but the food color came out in globs, not drops, so I had to guess.  The color turns vibrant a minute or so after mixing it into the cake mix.

I used about 1/2 tablespoon of each color of batter for each cupcake -- in order to get a full layer of each color.  One box made 12 cupcakes, and they were a bit full.  I baked them for 18 minutes (there are no baking times for cupcakes on the box).  I was very happy with the result!

I used blue frosting (from a tub), AirHeads candy, and mini marshmallows to decorate the cupcakes (thank you to my friend Amy at sometimes creative for the inspiration!).  We bought Rainbow Dash at Target -- she came in a "blind bag" but there is a little window on the back if you want to know which pony you are buying.

Happy Birthday to my little Brony!

Recipe Review: Perfect Cupcake Frosting from Our Best Bites

I am always on the lookout for good frosting recipes.  I decided to try a cooked frosting recipe from Our Best Bites.  They claim it's the perfect cupcake frosting!

Step 1:  Whisk together flour and milk

Step 2:  Cook flour and milk mixture

Step 3:  Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla

Step 4:  Add cooled flour and milk mixture

Step 5:  Beat for a long time

Result:  Sweet, fluffy frosting -- this is a frosting that is light and does not draw attention to itself -- my little boy said "it's whipped cream!"

I made cupcakes with a chocolate fudge cake mix and added 1 cup mini chocolate chips to the batter.  I piped on the perfect frosting and topped it with Andes creme de menthe baking chips.  YUM!

Recipe Review: White Chocolate Frosting

Quite by accident, I stumbled upon The Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcake bakery in Draper, Utah about four years ago.  I had the most delicious cupcakes!  Now I try to stop at The Sweet Tooth Fairy whenever we're in Utah to visit my in-laws (sadly their Southlake, Texas location closed).

The owner is a Cupcake Wars winner and was kind enough to share her black & white cupcake recipe with the world.

I tried making the dark chocolate cupcakes and they didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.

But the white chocolate cream cheese frosting was AMAZING.  It is my go-to frosting recipe.  I just need to be sure I have lots and lots of white chocolate on hand!

I once heard Alton Brown (my hero -- all that science and all that food!) say that he approves of cake mixes but he believes in making homemade frosting.  I agree.  I like to make a chocolate fudge cake mix and stir in 1 cup of mini chocolate chips.  Then I top it with the amazing white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Here is the amazing frosting at my son's birthday party.  I recommend chilling it slightly before piping it.