Somewhere over the rainbow

I don’t know one single girl who hasn’t been fascinated by rainbows since she was a child…you remember ‘My Little Pony’? It used to be my most favourite set of dolls to play with, Barbie and Ken most often bagging the award for ‘Most Overrated Doll.’ So yeah where was I? My Little Ponies usually came in all colours of the rainbow and had adorable names like Cotton Candy and the like.

While cleaning out the attic recently, I rediscovered my old bag of forgotten treasures, everything I used to cherish and love as a kid (I even found an empty pack of Phantom Sweet Cigarettes BTW!) and much to my surprise, my adorable ponies and glowworms were intact. They now occupy pride of place in my cupboard.

A very, very dear friend’s baby girl is turning one this Thursday and Zuzu baby (her real name is Zoya) loves these dolls as much as I do. Now apart from getting her a couple of these as a birthday gift (yes, there is an elaborate party planned, replete with a Jungle theme), I plan on making some rainbow coloured cupcakes for her birthday. While it may not be a patch on the delicious “Ten kg Chocolate Fantasy Photoprint Cake” that The French Loaf is making for her (It’s got an adorable print of ‘The Lion King’ on it and my god, the cake is to die for!) , I have decided to give it a shot anyway…  

RAINBOW CUPCAKES|

You will need:

·         175g butter

·         175g granulated sugar

·         175g plain flour, sifted

·         3 eggs

·         1 tsp baking powder

·         1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

·         1 lemon, juiced and zested

·         Food colouring in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple

For the frosting:

·         100g cream cheese

·         30g butter

·         400g icing sugar, sifted

·         Hundreds and thousands to decorate

METHOD: Make the cake mixture following whatever method you normally use. I recommend, as always, the all-in-one; place the eggs, sugar, butter and flour (all at room temperature) in a large bowl, along with the baking powder and bicarb, and mix using an electric hand whisk until combined. Add the lemon juice and zest, and mix again. Divide this mixture equally into 6 bowls and tint each a different colour of the rainbow.

Line a 12-bun muffin tin with paper wrappers, and add a teaspoon of each colour to each liner in reverse rainbow order. That's purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. (Clarity is important in recipes, after all.) Bake for about 20 minutes at 180°C, until a toothpick inserted into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean. Cool on a rack. DO NOT COOL IN THE TIN unless you want soggy cupcakes.

Make the icing: mix the softened butter with the cream cheese, and then add the sugar. You might not need it all - stop at the consistency you like. I like it thick and shiny, so add it all. Use the icing to frost the cakes - a palate knife makes pretty swirls. Finish with hundreds and thousands, and remember: less is more. You want the cupcakes to look sweet and innocent, so that the rainbow is a surprise.