Rainbow cupcakes

In anticipation of this upcoming weekend, I decided to make St. Patty's Day cupcakes for this post. Hopefully, it will inspire you to make some for this Saturday. I was searching online for cute cupcake ideas and I came across this one from Sweet Simple Stuff. It is relatively simple to make, although a little time consuming. However, the results are so worth it. My friends thought I was a baking genius! I am in no way a creative nut. Afterall, I was an accountant. The closest thing we will ever get to being creative is to include some "judgmentally non-material" balance into XXX account. (Disclaimer: This is not a confession nor am I saying that this is something all accountants do. Of course not, right?)

I chose to make the Devil's Food Cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook and tested the cupcakes on my always faithful and encouraging friends. Honestly, I did not really enjoy this recipe. I felt that the batter was too dense and it dried up quickly. If you are looking for a solid chocolate cupcake recipe, I highly recommend Ina Garten's chocolate ganache cupcakes recipe. It is very easy to make and the cake is moist and delicious. I have made this recipe several times and it is always a hit. You can also make this from a cake mix (I think Duncan Hines's cake mix is pretty good). For the frosting, I made a simple vanilla buttercream that I tinted with some food coloring.

You will need: mini marshmallows, popsicle sticks, edible gold dust, Xtremes rainbow Air Heads and melted chocolate. I got the short popsicle sticks from Michaels and the length is perfect for standard size cupcakes. I dipped the marshmallows into melted chocolate, topped it with edible gold dust and adhere it to opposite ends of the rainbow candy. I left it to dry overnight. I frosted the cupcake with green buttercream and inserted both ends of the prepared rainbow to the cupcake. I used a small "star"piping tip and piped "bushes" around the cupcake. Unfortunately, I didn't take step by step pictures. If you need clearer instructions, click here.

 Happy St. Patty's Day!

This coming Saturday also happens to be the day we are celebrating a dear friend's baby shower. Unfortunately, I am not able to attend since it is taking place in Malaysia. However, I promise to be there in spirit. Using the same ingredients I got for the St. Patty's cupcakes, I decided to do something that is more baby shower-worthy. 

Baby Oh's Rainbow cupcakes.

I tinted the buttercream with blue food coloring for the sky and pipped little clouds all around it. I adhere the sticks to the rainbow candy with melted chocolate and let it cool overnight. As you can tell, I omitted the marshmallows and covered the stick from showing with white buttercream (mimicking clouds). I also added some pearl white dragees to the clouds for texture.

Happy March 17th everyone!