Late-night rainbow cupcakes
January 29th, 2009
Shortly after 10pm, I was unaccountably seized with the desire to bake. You may have noticed that happens to me a lot, being struck with the baking muse late at night. I don’t know why. I do bake with Annalie during the day, so it’s not like the only time I can do it is after she’s in bed. And often I don’t even eat what I’ve baked till the next day, so it’s not from hunger. It’s like a burst of creativity that has to work its way out somehow, and sometimes it just happens to work its way out as cupcakes.
It’s not like I didn’t have anything better to be doing. This is what my kitchen looked like around 10:30 tonight. As you can see, I could have been doing dishes or clearing Annalie’s crafting clutter off the table. It’s only polite to do those sorts of things when you have company coming, and tomorrow Angella is coming to town for a quick visit! Angella is a blogging friend, one of those who encouraged me to start my own blog. We’ve been exchanging comments and emails and talking about painting pottery together for nearly two years now. I am excited to meet her and turn yet another internet person into a real-life friend.
Angella lives in British Columbia where winter is long and snowy. When her husband told her she should go visit friends in sunny Southern California for a weekend to revive her flagging midwinter spirits, she didn’t have to be convinced. She’s flying down tomorrow, and she’s coming here (along with Brenda and Bug) for a whirlwind visit. We’ll talk, we’ll laugh, we’ll paint pottery and take a zillion photos.
And hey, now if one of us gets a craving for a rainbow cupcake with lemon cream-cheese frosting, I’ll be ready.
Rainbow Cupcakes
Makes 12
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup buttermilk or sour milk
- food coloring
Preheat oven to 350, and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Place softened butter in the bowl of a mixer and beat for 30 seconds or so. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat for a couple of minutes, till combined and fluffy. Add the egg and beat thoroughly.
Alternate adding the flour and buttermilk, mixing on low till just combined after each addition, scraping bowl as needed.
Spoon and scrape the batter into six small bowls. Add the desired amount of food coloring to each to achieve the desired colors (red, orange yellow, green, blue and purple for a rainbow), stirring till the color is even.
Starting with the red batter, add a small spoonful (1/2 to 1 tsp) to each cupcake liner in the pan. Repeat with orange, yellow, and so on. You don’t have to spread the batter out, just spoon the next color in the middle of what’s already there. As it bakes it will spread out.
Stick the pan in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, till a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cake comes out clean. Immediately remove cupcakes from pan to cool completely on a rack, Frost as desired.
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Those cupcakes look delicious. I love the size of your kitchen.
Those look beeyootiful!
Have a lovely time with Angella…I’m sure we’ll get a recap of the visit!
PS – I’m digging the bokeh in the cuppy cake pics…tips please? Is it all the magic of the 50mm f/1.8?
I’ve loved seeing all the rainbow cakes popping up on the web lately, they’re so cool! Your cupcake version turned out great!
Tell Angella hello for me! :-)
could you come make midnight cupcakes at my house? or should i ask the cupcake fairy?
Did I already tell you that my wedding cake was rainbow cupcakes. Rainbow Cream Cheese Pound Cake Cupcakes, to be exact.
I haven’t been lurking and not saying hi, I haven’t been by in a while. Have a great day!!
Yum! I folded laundry after everyone went to bed. It’s no fair, I like your project better. :-)
Well if you have a late night urge to mail cupcakes to someone I’m sure I can scrounge up an address for you.
Those look delicious.
Have fun with Angella and Brenda tomorrow!
What better reason to make rainbow cupcakes, I ask you? Those would be so much fun for a birthday party. The only reason I wouldn’t love those late night baking sessions is all the clean up afterwards.
See you in a few hours! Woo!
A friend of mine sent me the link to these cupcakes and I just had to jump in and say that these are genius!! I am going to try them in shades of red and pink for Valentine’s Day. Thanks so much for the idea!! :)
How does this post fit in the i am a doofus category?? They are beautiful! Definitely going to try them.
Yum! You can come bake for me late at night any time you want to!
I’ve been wanting to try making rainbow cupcakes for a while! They look amazing!
Oh Man. Now if Angella lives in the interior I will agree that she has a snowy winter, but if she lives in Vancouver, I would invite her here to see snow ;). Although Vancouver has had more than they usually get this year my FIL keeps reminding me that we have his winter boots here.
All that to say is that I am soooo jealous that she is getting a SoCal visit with you guys. Have fun, lots of fun and share photos as much as you can, please.
Why on earth did i have to read this post at 10:15 pm, now ive got a major sweet tooth.
I am making these this weekend! Thanks for the recipe!
yep! i love baking at night. i usually get that same sort of urge. but i usually do some sampling the same night. i’m not that disciplined as to wait till the next day…
I just stumbled onto your blog, and now I want cupcakes! These look great, and the concept reminds me of zebra cake, which I love.
Thanks for sharing this nice recipe! I made those cupcakes already twice and my daughter loves them. I put a link to your post on my blog:
http://muffinsnmore.blogspot.com/2009/08/rainbow-muffins-for-kindergarten.html