Cupcakes, Cupcakes and more cupcakes. We could bake them everyday and not get tired of making new creations. Jewels, 7, loves rainbows and this Rainbow Animal Cupcake recipe shows one of her favorite ways to make this tasty treat. Combining these delicious rainbow cupcakes with cute animal toppings, I mean who wouldn’t love these?
We started with white cake instead of a flavor cake because white cake makes the food coloring more vibrant. We’ve made them with a vanilla cake and don’t get me wrong, the cupcakes still turned out beautiful but just more of a muted hue.
If you want to use white cake but add more flavoring, add some vanilla extract or raspberry extract.
Silicone baking cups are a great way to be eco-friendly. When removing the cupcakes out of these baking cups, the cupcakes come out in one piece every time with only a few crumbs left over in the cup. When this happens, I can just put them into the top rack of the dishwasher and push clean. We’ve been using them for quite a while and they are still like new.
For the animal toppings, get creative. Let the kids make their own animals using whatever fun toppings you might have around the house. In case you need some guidance on what animal to make, we have included two of our favorites, an owl and a sheep. Not a fan of chocolate? You can substitute the chocolate on the owl for a lemon or strawberry frosting. You can also use lemon Oreos or other flavored circle filling cookies for the eyes. Who said owls can’t be colorful?
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Rainbow Animal Cupcakes
Equipment
- 2 Muffin Pans
- Silicone Baking Cups
Ingredients
Rainbow Cupcakes
- 1 box Pillsbury Cake Mix - White Cake
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 box food coloring
Frosting & Animal Topping
- 1 bag oreos
- 1 bag mini marshmellos
- 1 handful plain m&m's
- 16 oz pillsbury cream cheese frosting
- 1 bag candy eyes
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
Instructions
Rainbow Cupcakes
- Follow the back of the box instruction for your cake mix.
- Put silicone baking cups or paper cupcake liners into muffin tray.
- Before pouring cupcake mix into muffin tins, separate mix evenly into 4 small bowls.
- Add a few drops of food coloring into each bowl and mix well. 1 color per bowl. More drops = darker and more vibrant color. Less drops = lighter and more dull color
- With one color of the mix, put a teaspoon full in each cup.
- Repeat with each color creating layers of colored cupcake mix until the cupcake cup is a little over 1/2 full.
- Bake in oven for 19-23 minutes at 350°. Use a toothpick to see if done.
Animal Cupcake Topping - Owl
- Divide 1/2 the cream cheese frosting into a small mixing bowl.
- Add the cocoa powder to the bowl of cream cheese frosting and mix well.
- Using a knife or frosting utinsil, frost 6 of your cupcakes.
- Divide a few oreos in 1/2 while keeping the white filling on one side. Use the filling covered pieces and place them on the top 1/2 of the cupcake for the owl's eyes.
- Crack a non filling oreo piece in 1/2 and add to top of the eye for eyebrows.
- Use an m&m for a nose and two candy eyes on top of the white oreo filling for eyes.
- Eat & enjoy!
Animal Cupcake Topping- Sheep
- With the rest of the white cream cheese frosting, frost the remaining cupcakes.
- Use a Oreo side without the filling for the face. Place the Oreo cookie towards the bottom of the top of the cupcake.
- Dip the candy eyes into the cream cheese frosting in the tub and then place the eyes on the oreo for the sheeps eyes.
- Cover the frosting on the cupcake with marshmellos.
- Eat & enjoy!
