St. Patty's Rainbow Vanilla Cupcakes

Moist vanilla cupcakes topped with a festive and easy-to-make rainbow. The perfect addition to your St. Patrick's Day celebration!

Who’s ready to taste the rainbow?!?😍🌈
These soft and moist vanilla cupcakes are topped with green and white buttercream frosting and sugary rainbow candies for a super cute and colorful St Patty's Day decorating idea.

Can you tell St. Patrick's Day celebration is in full swing at my house this year?!?
... or maybe I just find any possible excuse to bake more cupcakes and lots of cookies.

Please don't blame me - Look how pretty these look! A frosting-lover dream, for sure.

This is my first time trying to decorate cupcakes this way, and let me tell you: it's laughably easy and soooo fun!

All you have to do is bake the cupcake: I used my basic vanilla cupcake recipe but you can do any of your favorites. 

Make some buttercream frosting (or your favorite!), and add some green food coloring to some. 

I pipe a green base on top of the cupcake. Flatten it out with a spatula or by pressing it upside-down on a piece of parchment paper. Freeze for 10 or 15 minutes until mostly set, so it's easy to remove the paper and have a perfectly flat top.   

Decorate with two little clouds in white frosting, and place half of a rainbow strip candy (I used Air Heads Rainbow berry). ... It doesn't have to be perfect! It will look amazing no matter what. 

For the cupcake recipe:
You can substitute the vegetable oil with melted butter in the same amount. And use sour cream or buttermilk. If you don't have either, you can make the buttermilk by adding 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to whole milk, mixing and waiting for it to curdle.

For the frosting, you can use your favorite recipe. I like this buttercream frosting. It's not too sweet and very sturdy so works perfectly for this recipe.
Make sure to remove the butter and cream cheese from the fridge so that it will be easier to mix these and make the frosting.

When adding the food coloring to the frosting, make sure to add a tiny bit at a time until you get the color you desire. A small amount goes a long way. I like my green to be very light, but you're welcome to add more and make it darker. 

Ready to try it too?!? Here is my recipe

St. Patty's Rainbow Vanilla Cupcakes

Yield: 12

Author: Manuela Mazzocco

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 50 Min

Moist vanilla cupcakes topped with a festive and easy-to-make rainbow. The perfect addition to your St. Patrick's Day celebration!

Ingredients

For the vanilla cupcakes:

• 1 1/4 cups (150 gr) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup (150 gr) sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil (light olive oil or your favorite)
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) sour cream (or buttermilk)
• 6 rainbow strips of candies, cut in half

For the top

• 2 oz (58 gr) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 oz (115 gr) regular cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups (200 gr) powdered sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 or 2 drops green food coloring
• green sprinkles for decorating

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Line a cupcake/muffin pan with 12 liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk well the eggs with the sugar until light and foamy. Add the oil and vanilla extract and mix well. Add about half of the dry ingredients and mix to combine, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in the sour cream (or buttermilk) until smooth. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Don't over-mix.
4. Divide the batter evenly into 10 or 12 prepared lined muffin pan, filling to about 2/3 full. Bake in the oven at 350F for about 18 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. For the frosting: In a bowl, add the butter and cream cheese cut in pieces, and whisk well until lump-free. Add the vanilla extract and salt, and mix some more. Mix in the powdered sugar until combined.
6. Place about one spoonful of white frosting in a piping bag. Add 2 or 3 drops of green food coloring to the remaining frosting. Pipe the green frosting on top of each cupcake. Flatten it out with a knife or press it upside down on a piece of parchment paper. Carefully move to the freezer until set. Remove the paper and decorate with the white frosting, and half of a rainbow candy strip to make the rainbow. Decorate with sprinkles if you like. Store in the refrigerator.

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