Somewhere Over the Rainbow

You never know where you are going to find your next good idea. I am always thinking and when I get some alone time, mostly while driving home from work, I like it quiet. Yes, I know most of you that know me are laughing wildly that I just said I like it quiet, but really, most days on my way home from work, I am in complete silence. No phone, no radio, just me and my thoughts. It is kind of a decompression time for me. Our house is usually a beehive of activity and mostly noisy activity, so those minutes on my ride home are peace, even though it is peace going about 75mph down I-80. I come up with some good ideas on these rides home, but not today.

This idea was found and thought of while in the dentist office. Actually it was in the waiting room while the kids were in with the dentist, but still. So I am sitting there, in my peace (quiet), and I was reading a children's themed magazine when I came across these cupcakes. They were part of a St. Patrick's Day article, but I thought these could be used any time at all to make someone smile.

If you work the batter to the edges of the liner, it WILL work!

Rainbow cupcakes. Hmmm....that's gonna take some work. I often shy away from recipes that are multiple steps or take a lot of effort, but I thought these were so cute that they would be worth it. Sometimes you find things that are just worth the effort and I really do think these are. Everyone that had one smiled. That alone made it worth the effort.

Even though you will fill these up pretty high, they will
turn out perfect!

Here is what I did:
1 box white cake mix, follow the directions on preparing the batter.
1 can of white frosting. I used cream cheese frosting from Aldi, my favorite place
Food coloring
Jelly beans

All of our batter bowls.
She can't wait to lick
those spoons!

Let's keep this as simple as possible.
Prepare the cake mix as it says on the box.
Get out six bowls and scoop equal amounts of batter into each bowl. I used my 1 cup measuring cup and just scooped.
Get out the food colors and add each of the following to a bowl.
Red, easy, it comes that way.
A tiny bit of red plus more of the yellow=orange.
Yellow, again, easy, comes that way.
Green, easy.
Blue, easy.
equal parts of blue and red=purple, easy.

Adding the layers one color at a time.
Be careful not to mix the colors
when you are working the batter
to the edges.

Now line the cupcake pan with paper liners and start with the end of the rainbow, purple. Put a little scoop into each tray and kind of smooth to the edge of the liner. This is the time intensive part.

This is what the batter should be like
when it is to the edge, but NOT mixed
with the color underneath.

Do this step again with the blue, green, yellow, orange and finally the red. Really it wasn't that bad.
Your cupcakes will be pretty full to the top. I was really worried about what was going to happen and if the overflow would be bad, but they turned out perfect!
Bake as the box directs for cupcakes.
Remove from pan to cool.

Perfect for Easter or
anytime you could
use a smile.

Once cooled, I frosted them with the white frosting and topped with the little jelly beans. They were cute, so what the hell, right? You gotta look around the house and use what you have. You'll be amazed at what you can make.

That's it. The kids loved them. Payten had a great time helping by licking off the spoons for all of the colors and my friends at work got a smile out of them too, which made them totally worth the effort.