Rainbow Swirl Cupcake Recipe

I love to bake. Cooking I’m not so great at, but baking I love. I love the process of taking basic ingredients and creating something that (hopefully) tastes good and looks pretty. House of Fraser very generously sent through a huge baking bundle and seeing as I had yet to bake anything from the Lola’s Forever book I picked up last year, I thought it was a good opportunity to don my apron and bake something pretty!

I decided to test myself a little with these rainbow swirl cupcakes. Although the recipe was pretty much a normal cupcake recipe, the decoration was a little out of my comfort zone. But I have to say I was pretty impressed with how well these turned out.

To make these cupcakes you’ll need:

Cake mixture:

• 200g of self-raising flour mixed with 3 tsp of baking powder
• 175g of unsalted butter
• 250g of caster sugar
• 2 tsp of vanilla essence
• 3 eggs
• 175ml sour cream
• Food colouring

Buttercream:

• 150g of unsalted butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla essence
• 350g of icing sugar
• 3-4 tbsp. of milk
• Food colouring

Now onto making the cupcakes:

• preheat the oven to 180 degrees
• Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside
• Beat the butter and sugar together until it’s soft and fluffy
• Add the vanilla essence and mix
• Then mixing at a low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, until all mixed together
• Slowly add the dry sifted ingredients until combined
• Add the sour cream and mix until combined
• Divide the mixture into three bowls and add a different food colouring to each bowl and mix until well blended
• Then take a tsp of each batter and place into each muffin case and then repeat with all the colours until you’ve used all the batter
• Just before they go into the oven, take a toothpick and swirl the batter into a figure of eight
• Then bake for 20-25 minutes

Now onto the buttercream:

• Whisk the butter and beaut until soft and fluffy
• Add the vanilla essence and whisk again
• Sift in the icing sugar and mix at a low speed until combined
• Add in the milk a tbsp at a time until the buttercream is light and fluffy
• Divide the mixture again into three bowls and add the food colouring to each bowl and mix until blended
• Spoon one of the buttercreams down one side of the piping bag leaving space near the nozzle to add another colour. Then repeat with the other colours, layering them up one on top of another.
• Then pipe a swirl to each cupcake and decorate

These were probably one of the more time consuming cupcake recipes I’ve done but I’m so pleased with how they turned out and I couldn’t not use all the lovely baking bits House of Fraser sent through. These were incredibly moist and tasty and I will definitely be making them again soon.

What’s your favourite cupcake to bake or eat?