So, this recipe is more about presentation than anything special, taste-wise. My co-baker might disagree wildly, but these little cakes were all about the coloring, with a nice enough flavor, but nothing mind-blowingly awesome.
As you can see, however, the colors themselves were UNBELIEVABLE, so all-in-all, these are definitely one of my favorite things we've baked so far. I'm particularly proud of the green, which I supposedly over-dyed, but it's so PRETTY! So vibrant and happy and cute and completely nom-able.
And now the truth comes out. I'm not really sure what the recipe was. We made a simple, light-colored vanilla cake batter, divided it into seven bowls (although we ended up making six colors for the "rainbow" and just had fun with the last batch). For each, we added quite a bit of food color, mixed it in, and dolloped a bit in each cupcake cavity. By repeating this process, we got the vibrant separate layers. The "reverse rainbow" arch was simply a result of the blobs not layering out perfectly, and each addition sank in a bit rather than resting on top. I really can't think of a way to prevent this without expending way more energy than necessary. And to be truthful, I like the imperfect layering; it gives the already energetic cupcakes a bit more spunk, personality and fabulous flair.
To finish the cupcakes off (and not leave them 'naked', aka muffins), we made a plain white vanilla buttercream frosting. I unfortunately do not have any decent pictures of the frosted cupcakes, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Sorry!
~The Baker's Apprentice
