Rainbow Bright Cupcakes. Happy 2nd Birthday Picky Palate!

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I need to wish Picky Palate a belated Happy 2 Year Birthday! I’m a tad late, but I thought it would be fun to celebrate it on my actual birthday too! Yes, it’s my birthday today. I was hoping once 30 hit, birthdays would slow down a little, unfortunately that is NOT the case. My birthdays are flying by faster than ever!

This is such a fun recipe I am thrilled to share with you on this special day. I started playing around in the kitchen and came up with these ultra bright and cheery cupcakes. They are incredibly easy and are such “lookers!” They are beautiful, really.

Take a look at the process these babies go through….. Enjoy!

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This is my favorite part! Take 2 little spoons and start filling the cups with all of your different colored batter. Don’t make it perfect, they are prettier when they are a bit messy!

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Ready for the oven!

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Look at that! Right out of the oven so pretty and puffy!

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Love it!

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I definitely got carried away with the photos, sorry!

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Rainbow Bright Cupcakes

1 box yellow cake mix

4 eggs

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

1/2 Cup water

8 oz sour cream

small box instant vanilla pudding mix

Food Coloring Paste:  Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and Purple (I used the William Sonoma brand’s paste)

Vanilla or Cream Cheese Frosting of Choice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer, beat the cake mix, eggs, oil, water, sour cream and pudding on medium until well combined. Batter will be nice and thick. Divide batter evenly between 5 white or glass bowls. Drop 5 different colors of food coloring into each cake batter bowl until you reach your desired colors. Stir well. Spoon each color into paper lined cupcake tins until all are filled. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until cooked through. Remove and let cool completely. Frost with frosting of choice.

24 cupcakes

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Have a great rest of your week and weekend! See you all soon!!

Two red, blue, yellow, and green cupcakes on a plate.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Rainbow Cupcakes are sure to be a hit with their ultra-bright colors! These moist, cake-mix cupcakes are perfect for parties, birthday celebrations, and more!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings: 24
Calories: 109kcal
Print Pin

Ingredients

  • 1 box yellow cake mix
  • 4 eggs
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ cup water
  • 8 ounces sour cream
  • 1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix
  • food coloring paste I used red, blue, yellow, green, and purple (All from William Sonoma brand's paste)
  • vanilla or cream cheese frosting of your choice

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • In a stand or electric mixer, beat the cake mix, eggs, oil, water, sour cream and pudding on medium until well combined. Batter will be nice and thick.
  • Divide batter evenly between 5 white or glass bowls. Drop 5 different colors of food coloring into each cake batter bowl until you reach your desired colors. Stir well.
  • Spoon each color into paper lined cupcake tins until all are filled. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until cooked through.
  • Remove and let cool completely. Frost with frosting of choice.

Nutrition

Calories: 109kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 171mg | Potassium: 32mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 98IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 59mg | Iron: 1mg
Keywords: cake box cupcakes, multicolor cupcakes, rainbow cupcakes, rainbow design cupcakes

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84 Responses
  1. judy love

    These were fun to make, appealing to the eye, and elicited much excitement from grand daughter and her friends! Thank you for all your wonderful, creative ideas.

  2. Tasha

    Hi Jenny,

    I’m planning on making these for my son’s birthday party next week– way too cool to pass up!! Just curious though, what kind of food coloring did you use to make them so bright?

    Thanks!

  3. marisa

    Made these with my 4yo for his bday party at preK. They were great. All the kids loved them. I did have a hard time finding a cake mix without the pudding already in it so I ended up using a butter cake mix without adding the butter. They turned out really good but now I am searching for cake mixes without the pudding already in the mix. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

  4. Crystal

    I’m currently whipping up a trial batch of these “mad” cupcakes for my daughter’s Mad Tea Party birthday celebration next weekend! Thanks SO much for such an awesome recipe!

  5. ~ calista ~

    I just made these for my son’s birthday and they are so awesome! What kind of food coloring did you use? Mine didn’t come out nearly so vibrant.

    Happy belated birthday to you and your blog! I love your site 🙂

  6. Little Foodie

    These look awesome. I saw a rainbow cake but not cupcakes. I want to make pop-up rainbow pancakes, do you think it would work?

  7. christie

    How much(and what kind) of food coloring did you use? Yours are so bright. I think I was timid on the food coloring because my red and blue spiderman cupcakes turned out pink and green.. No worries, they were nice and moist and the boys ate them gladly anyway 🙂

  8. Brenda at bdubscafe

    I made these for my daughter to take as her preschool treat for her b-day…they were amazingly delicious! They were moist and soft. Love ’em!

  9. Kerri Bryan

    I had a great time making them with my 5 yr old son. He loved them and told everyone about them. I used a store bought frosting (vanilla) that I had on hand and I used a white cake mix instead of yellow.

    Came out great. My son wants me to do his bday cake in Feb to look like this but to be decorated like Sponge Bob! 🙂

  10. Tammy

    Just made these with my four-year-old daughter. It was so much fun! And they turned out great. I’m thinking we may do this again for my son’s birthday party. Thanks for the great idea!!

  11. Amanda

    Thanks for this recipe!! They are adorable and I’ll be making them for my daughters 2nd birthday next week! Happy Birthday to your site as well – LOVE IT!

  12. Christina

    I made these cupcakes with my kids the night they were posted….what fun we all had! It was quite a mess dealing with a 4 and 2 year old but we all really enjoyed ourselves and the cupcakes. I frosted mine with the fat-free whipped frosting from Betty Crocker that you get in the cake isle…fantastic.

    I did have one problem…mine caved in when I took them out of the oven….any suggestions? They were cooked thru but I don’t know enough about baking to know what may have gone wrong….

  13. Katrina

    Happy 2nd and 30-whatever bithday, Jenny! Love the cupcakes. I tried rainbow cupcakes for my son’s b-day in Sept. But they weren’t quite rainbow-ish, more tie-dyed. I love how you’ve done these with chunks of color. I’ll have to try that next time!

  14. Mary

    Happy Birthday!! These are so cute, I can’t wait to try them with my kids. Thanks for the great recipes, I love you blog!

  15. camille

    these are fun to make! I tried them yesterday and really had fun! I used pink neon instead of red for my sister’s party and they are so cute! the only problem I had was with the yellow, it went too orangy when I added more yellow, but just wasn’t that vibrant.

  16. katie larson

    hey I didnt know you had a food blog??I found off your fb.. So cute! I am totally going to make those cupcakes!! can I ask why the sour cream? or do I have to make them to figure it out…? dnt be sorry about the pics, It’s the best part!!

  17. Beth @ Stirring up a Dream

    Happy Brithday!

    I LOVE these cupcakes! There is a little bakery in NYC that makes these and I have been dying to figure out how to make them. Thanks for making this so easy for me. Can’t wait to try it out. It will definitely be up on my blog!!

    Thanks for sharing!

  18. Lynne

    These look like so much fun! I think I’m going to make these for my son’s first B’day. Happy Birthday to you and your fun blog. 🙂

  19. CookTeen

    how do you keep your cupcake tins so clean?!
    these cupcakes are so bright, when I made them they were duller. Love your blog! Happy Blogiversary!

    check out my blog: cookteen.blogspot.com

    with love and cupcakes,
    cookteen

  20. Barbara

    Double Happy Birthday! Really fun rainbow cupcakes! Can’t wait to make them for some kids in the neighborhood!

  21. Kristy Chuhaloff

    Happy Birthday! Happy Anniversary! Adorable cupcakes. Can’t wait for an occasion to make them! Thanks for this great blog. I love it!

  22. Mindika

    I love making these. I made them last year for my little one’s 1st birthday party and they were a hit with the whole neighborhood. I also posted them on my blog a while back and they were a hit. Who doesn’t love to eat bright rainbow color fun food!

  23. Kimm Geria

    Mine didn’t come out as pretty as yours. I think I overfilled them they kind of got stuck togeher LOL. I am going to do a 2nd batch and fill them less.

  24. Barbara Bakes

    Happy Birthday and Blogoversary! I hope the coming year is even better than the last one!

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