Rainbow Cupcakes with fluffy cloud-like vanilla frosting that is guaranteed to make anyone who sees them smile. No cake mix, still EASY.
Rainbow Cupcakes have been a looooooong time in the making for this blog. They are one of my absolute favorite desserts to make which most people who know me would immediately guess. When I would make surprise cakes or birthday cakes for my favorite clients I would usually make them towering rainbow cakes. In fact, these rainbow cupcakes have been on the calendar for me since before I even started this blog 10 whole months ago (I can’t believe it has been 10 months already!) and I can’t think of a better way to toss aside all the hearts, pink and cupid and celebrate the month of March—they are perfect for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a little rainbow magic!
Let’s just get this out of the way ahead of time… yes, these cupcakes have food coloring. No, I don’t normally use food coloring in recipes and yes, I know it isn’t healthy/good for you/GMO free/it kills baby seals and kittens around the world I’m sure. 99% of the things I make/bake in our house are made with whole foods, not processed or minimally processed and be it important or not, organic. Which is exactly why I have no qualms about making these gorgeous cupcakes for us to enjoy the one time a year that we do. And yes I gave them to the little ones too. But c’mon, if you were a kid, wouldn’t this make you smile? 
I’m not even a kid and I am grinning as I am typing up this post. Brace yourself for more photos than I normally include, I loved so many of these photos!
When we had our oldest we made the nursery a rainbow theme, the first birthday party was rainbow sprinkles themed and I am proud to say I’m raising rainbow obsessed little kids (one of whom sleeps in a rainbow-ed out four post bed with rainbow curtains and a soon to be added rainbow duvet, pillows and a giant cloud headboard. So like I said, our house, rainbow friendly and definitely rainbow cupcakes friendly.
The other part of this recipe that I adore is how easy it is in spite of the lack of cake mix. The batter is a delicious white vanilla cake base with gel food coloring to brighten things up and the cloud-like frosting is made with clear vanilla and lots and lots of butter.
A few tips/tricks for these awesome Rainbow Cupcakes just to make your lives a bit easier since there’s quite a few little bowls of batter:
- Don’t bother weighing out the batter to ensure it is evenly dispersed. Use a 1 cup measure and any little bit left over can be extra of your favorite color. This isn’t a cake, so if one layer is a bit more prominent in some, no big deal. 🙂
- If you would like to bake these without the cupcake wrappers, I highly recommend a silicone muffin tin.
- Ziploc bags! I pipe them into the muffin tins with ziploc bags to make life SO much easier than spooning and spreading each layer.
- Clear vanilla keeps your frosting a bright white! If you want blindingly white frosting swap out your butter for shortening. Butter tastes better though.
- Don’t overbake, you don’t want the tops turning brown.
- Use a large closed star decorating tip for your frosting.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter , softened
- 2 1/3 cups sugar
- 5 egg whites
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups milk , warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
- Rainbow colors of Gel food coloring
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar , sifted
- 1 tablespoon clear vanilla (if you use normal vanilla it will not be as white, but will be just as delicious)
- tiny pinch salt
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In your stand mixer cream the butter and sugar together until much lighter in color, like a easter-y spring yellow (2-3 minutes).
- Add in the egg whites and vanilla until totally combined.
- Add the salt and baking powder to the flour.
- Add in the dry ingredients and the milk alternating 1 cup of flour and ½ cup of milk at a time.
- Add one cup of the batter to 6 different bowls.
- Color each bowl with your gel food coloring in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
- Mix until the colors are fully combined.
- Your choice here: Spoon or ziploc bags.
- Either add the batter to 6 sandwich size ziploc bags and pipe just enough to make a thin layer of each color (maybe ¼ inch tall batter layers)
- OR
- with a small spoon, spoon just under a tablespoon of batter into each cup.
- Start with purple, then blue, then green, then yellow, then orange and finally red.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes.
- To make the frosting:
- Whip the butter in your stand mixer with your paddle attachment(I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one with a built in scraper) until you see the butter is lighter in color (1 minute).
- Add in the vanilla.
- Add in the powdered sugar in 1 cup increments with the milk 1 tablespoon at a time, ending with powdered sugar.
- Mix on high for 1 minute after each addition.
- Your frosting should be SUPER light and fluffy, just like a delicious vanilla cloud.
- Using a closed star tip and decorating bag, pipe your frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.
Notes
Nutrition
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Can i also make this recipe into a whole rainbow layer cake??
I really don’t think it’ll work. There are too many layers that either the cake will be huge or the colors will all get mixed in to be more of a tie dye look. If you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out.
Hi, I want to try these for New Year’s Eve, but I wanted a word of advice. Is it possible to add like a spoon of nutella, or a small piece of chocolate in the middle? I have this picture of it when you take a bite a melted chocolate comes out, I am just afraid that once they started baking and chocolate starts melting that it will ruin this rainbow beauty. 🙂
Thank you!
Oh, shoot….totally missed this one for NYE 🙁 So sorry. I think this sounds like a wonderful idea but I wouldn’t bake them with the nutella because the weight of it will seep all out. I would suggest to core the middle of the cupcake and put the nutella in that way. Sounds delicious!
These look AMAZING!! My Daughter wants a rainbow party for her birthday so I plan to make these soon! The only issue is, I don’t have a stand mixer, only a hand mixer. Since I won’t have the paddle attachment, can I just use a spoon or spatula?
Just use the hand mixer, you’ll be fine! Hope she enjoys them!!
Gonna make these tomorrow with my granddaughters, the baby (she’s four) is rainbow crazy so I know these will be a big hit. I just got heart shaped silicone cupcake liners so we’re gonna make rainbow heart cupcakes. I’m thinking of omitting pink in the cupcake and using it in the frosting, or piping three colors when frosting. Not sure but your recipe is going to come in handy! Thanks for sharing it.
I love the idea of the heart shaped liners! That’s going to be so cute!!
Made these and they are super cute! Getting the colors in though was a bit of a hassle. But all is well!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
I made these for my brother’s ninth party and they were a big hit!!
I used the exact same recipe with 3 colors: reb + blue + yellow and he loved them!
Thankyou very much for sharing this recipe they made the exact amount that we needed 🙂
Love it!! So glad you all enjoyed them!
I want to be clear on baking these…can we use a metal tin if we plan on using a liner? Or, should we use a liner in a silicone cup (I would prefer to use a liner)? Our 3 kids are turning 8, 6, and 4 this month and I want to make these for the party. I know they will love them, as long as I can pull off what you did. THANK YOU!!!
Totally go for it with the metal tin, I’ve used metal as well when making large batches. Hope your kids love it!
Thank you for this fantastic recipe. My mom and I made these for my daughter’s 2nd and 4th birthday. They were ecstatic! And everyone else was very impressed with the look and taste. Thanks again!
I’m so glad everyone loved them! They definitely are a pretty party treat!
hi deary!!! question.. do you use unsalted butter or any butter will do? thanks!
I used unsalted butter for this recipe. Actually, I use unsalted butter for just about everything. If I want added salt, I just add salt. Hope you enjoy them!
Hi! This is my first time baking so I’m not so good in this so i just wanna know what type of butter did you use and is it salted or unsalted? 🙂
Unsalted butter 🙂
Do you use regular flour or cake flour?
I used all-purpose flour.
do you use unsalted butter or salted butter? thanks deary!
Unsalted butter for these amazing cupcakes! Enjoy!!
Would this recipe work well using whole eggs?
yes, but remember the yellow in the eggs may muddy the colors a bit. I use whites just to make sure the colors pop as much as possible.
Did you use standard white cupcake liners here? It seems like you can see the colors through the wrapper want to make sure I get the same ones!
The colors don’t show very well through white liners so I would suggest just getting cute liners 🙂 I like silver foil but you can use anything that works for you theme or makes you happy! Once they unwrap the cupcakes, they’ll have a great surprise!
Hi Sabrina,
Just curious here. Why no egg yolks for this recipe? Also, have you tried baking this with the yolks too?
I’m planning on baking this for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow.
Thanks
So sorry I’m just now seeing your question. I didn’t want to use egg yolks because it will make the batter yellowish and the colors will lose some of the vibrancy. Hopefully it still all worked well for your daughter’s birthday 🙂
Hello – I plan to make these for my daughters birthday and I had planned to not use liners at all but rather to grease (crisco or butter) the muffin tin, is this a mistake? I’ve had issues in the past with the liners adhering to the cake and thought it would ruin the rainbow effect. Do you have any suggestions for me?
Oh no! Your question was stuck in a spam file 🙁 I wouldn’t suggest making them in a metal tin because even with greasing, the cupcakes will get browned and you’ll lose the vibrancy of the colors. My suggestion would be to use silicon liners if you’re worrying about the paper ones sticking to the cupcakes. They’ll peel right off and the colors will stay bright and colorful!
I live in High Altitude, how would I need to adjust this recipe?
I’m sorry but I don’t have recommendations as it ranges. You might be able to find some good resources online depending on your specific altitude.
I made these today for my 6-year-old niece’s birthday. Oh my gosh. They were soooooooo good. I knew they looked good, but they tasted even better. What an amazing recipe. Thanks so much for sharing.
Yay! So glad you loved them and came back to let me know!
If I frost these the day before they will be eaten, will the frosting hold up?
I have had no issues with frosting holding up but if I make them for the day before I swap out the milk in the frosting with water so the milk doesn’t go rancid overnight. 🙂 Hope you love them!
The temperature though, is it celsius or faren?
Fahrenheit 🙂
Hi! This recipe is so cute and creative. I was wondering whether it would be okay to use liquid food coloring instead of gel? Thanks!
Yes, you definitely can! Just start by adding a little at a time and stir. Keep going until you get the vibrance you’re looking for.
Do you suggest using white cupcake liners? Will the color show through? I’d love that! Or is it best to buy a cute liner?
It won’t show through that well on white liners, I would just suggest the cutest liners. I like silver foil and a friend loves using goil foil liners so it is like a pot of gold and a rainbow.
Just wondering what iiners you used in your picture? It looks like some of them have a liner and the color shows through?
I just used cute liners. They didn’t really show through very well.
These look beautiful! I am planning on using Wilton gel food coloring. Could you tell me roughly how much food coloring to add for each color? For example, a few drops or a teaspoon? I want to make sure I add enough to achieve a vibrant color. thanks!!
Gel food coloring is very concentrated so I just start with a few drops and stir. Keep adding a few drops at a time until you get the perfect vibrance you’re looking for.
Hi Sabrina.. I tried these for our 7th anniversary.. and I made a hydrangea bouquet using these cupcakes.. they were superb in taste and also to look at.. my friends complained that they were soooo pretty to eat..thanks a lot for the recipe… can I use the same recipe to bake a cake….if yes.. which pan and baking temp plz..
2 regular cake pans 8 inch or 9 inch, 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the cake springs back up when touched. That bouquet sounds gorgeous!
Made the rainbow cupcakes for my twin girls for school last week. Everyone (and their moms!) l-o-v-e-d the beautiful colours, not to mention the taste. I have subsequently used the recipe to make a rainbow layered cake this past weekend and just whipped up a chocolate cupcake version using your recipe for my son’s birthday tomorrow! Won’t be using any other cupcake recipe, EVER! xxx
I’m so glad your family enjoyed the recipe!If you’d like to share, I’d love to see how your recipes turned out on my Facebook page
Look yummy
Hello! Can i check with you what is the type of flour that you used?
I used all-purpose flour.
Hi, I would really LOVE to make these cupcakes! But I don’t understand one sentence (I am not a native speaker): “Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar in 1 cup increments with the milk 1 tablespoon at a time, ending with powdered sugar.” Could you please explain it to me?
Thanks
It means to first, add one cup of powdered sugar, then add a tablespoon of milk, then a cup of powdered sugar, then a tablespoon of milk, and continue with that pattern until all of it has been added to the recipe.
Thank you so much! Now I can make them for my birthday party! Yummy 😛
Hope you love them!
How absolutely beautiful! They are just perfect for springtime fun!
Thank you! My kids love rainbow sweets, so it motivates me to make more of them!
Sabrina! These are the best things ever. I love them so much. Pinned to make for my rainbow and unicorn loving daughter.
My kids love rainbows too! They loved these cupcakes!
WOW these are amazing! I’ve made a layered rainbow cake once before for a friend’s birthday and it was so much fun. I also use food colouring when I make my red velvet cupcakes.
Thanks! I love baking rainbow things – the colors are so striking!
These cupcakes are a true work of art. They are way to pretty to eat for me!
Thanks, but what’s the fun of making beautiful cupcakes if you don’t bury it afterwards?!
We’ve made these before, but you reminded me that these would be perfect for St. Pat’s Day! And your photos are gorg!
Thanks, Autumn!
Those are just darling. My rainbow unicorn loving daughter is going to get such a big kick out of these.
Thanks, Crystal! My kids adored them too!
Hey, I saw this come across my Pinterest earlier today and saved it to try later! I can’t wait! My girls are going to love these!
Thanks, Cyndi!
I am a sweet fiend and this looks soo good. I could totally go for a few now and then a few for tomorrow at lunch. lol
Thanks, Dawn! I hope you enjoy them!
These cupcakes are so cute! I love all their rainbow colors 🙂
Thanks!
WOW, you NAILED the color on these! So pretty and vibrant 😀
Thanks, Chrisy!
Those look very good. My daughters would love all the colors. I think those rainbow colors are great for cupcakes. Lots of color can really make them stand out!
I’ve made these for kids many times! They are always a big hit!
These cupcakes look so delicious and easy to make. I will have to try this recipe this weekend.
Thanks! Let me know how you like them!
I love the look of these cupcakes. I will have to try making some for my Daughters Birthday. She will be so surprised when she takes a bite to see all the colors.
Thanks, Ann! These cupcakes are always a big hit with kids!
So much fun! And I agree with you completely–I rarely use food coloring, never buy anything colored, but I definitely own it and have no problem using it occasionally to put a big smile on my kids’ faces. These cupcakes would do the trick–and I appreciate that they are from scratch.
Thanks, Laura!
I am a huge fan of rainbow cakes- I’ve made several but never cupcakes. I definitely pinned this to my ‘life’s a rainbow’ Pinterest board!
I adore rainbow cakes too! I’m glad you liked them!
The colors on these are absolutely stunning! So bright and happy. Birthday season has arrived here, so I’m sure I can find an excuse to make these.
Thanks!
Great recipe! The colors are so pretty! Going to make these for my girls birthdays! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks, Nancy!
These cupcakes look amazing!!! I love using bright colors in food like this, they would be perfect for a birthday party.
Thanks, Tammilee! Birthdays are definitely a great use for them!
My daughter would love these cupcakes!! These turned out so colorful and would be perfect for a birthday party!
Thanks! These are perfect for kids’ birthdays!
Oh my goodness, these totally remind me of rainbow brite… ha! Super-cute. My kids would flip if I make them. Thanks for sharing
Thanks, Shauna!
I just took cupcakes out of the oven but sadly they’re not your gorgeous Rainbow Cupcakes! My grandkids will love your delightful rainbow colors. Happy soon to be St. Patrick’s Day!!
Thanks, Cathi!
I have always wanted to learn how to make a colorful cake like this without mixing all the colors! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! Glad I could help!
Looks amazing! Definitely, want to make this! Can you provide any advice on the colours? use the same amount of drops for each colour, colour mixing suggestions for best turn out for purple?
Thank you so much! Honestly, I just eyeball it. Start with a drop or two and then mix, keep adding a drop or two at a time until the desired shade you’re looking for. For the purple, I mixed equal amounts red and blue coloring. Good luck!
Those are almost too pretty to eat! I love these.
Thanks, Robin!