{Guest Post} Rainbow Cupcakes!

Hi Friends! Today I have a super special post for you! I'm so excited about it that I couldn't even wait til tonight to post it! I have a very special guest post for you today - let me introduce my lovely cousin Tracey. Tracey is an amazing mother of two kids who is a spectacular cook and baker! She has a heart of gold and is always there to help out her friends and family when they need it. I'm going to turn it over to Tracey to tell you all about how to make her super cool rainbow cupcakes!

Finding the perfect chocolate and vanilla cupcake recipe was starting to feel like a chore, until I looked in my Canadian living baking cookbook.  This is my go to recipe for a good tasting cupcake and it’s a big bonus that it is really moist as well.  These cupcakes freeze really well if you are in a big rush just put them in a good freezable container.  Take them out about 3-4 hours before you need them, that is plenty of time for them to thaw.



 Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 ½ cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk

Prepare two 12 cup muffin pans by lining with paper liners or spraying with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. In a separate bowl sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into butter mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Make three additions of dry ingredients and two of buttermilk. Pour into prepared cupcake trays and bake in the centre of 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Vanilla cupcakes:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk

Prepare two 12 cup muffin pans by lining with paper liners or spraying with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each; beat in vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into butter mixture alternately with buttermilk. Make three additions of dry and two of buttermilk. Pour into prepared cupcake trays and bake in the centre of 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Vanilla buttercream icing:


I love this icing because it is easy to make but it is also tastes really good. Not too much butter and not too much sugar either. It is a very thick icing so it is a great one if you are going to do a lot of piping. If you are not wanting it as thick you can add a little more whipped cream, although I haven’t tried this.

• 1 cup butter softened
• 5 cups icing sugar
• ½ cup whipping cream
• ½ tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar and cream, making 2 additions of sugar. Beat in vanilla. You can also make the icing the day before but take it out at least one hour before you want to use it and make sure you whip it up before using. To make the rainbow colors I used gel food coloring available at Walmart and most baking supply stores. I slowly added the color and kept mixing until I got the vibrant colors that I wanted. You can assemble them as pictured below to create a rainbow shape on a cake board, or just leave them as is.

Thanks so much for preparing this great post and sharing your recipes Tracey! I hope you all enjoyed this post as much as I did! Happy Baking my Friends!