PSYCHEDELIC CAKES.

There, do you get the clever title now?  I have Brittany to thank for that one, it’s genius!

I think my entire life has led up to me making these cupcakes.  Ever since I started baking I’ve wanted to make a rainbow cake.  I was initially inspired by my favourite blog, Color Me Katie (check it out, she’s AWESOME!).  Here is a post about cute cupcake sandwiches she made.  Throughout my cooking adventures I’ve also stumbled on some other amazing rainbow-themed baked goods.  Ogle over them here, here, here, and here.

So I guess you get that I like colour, huh?

After a successful first venture into the world of colourful food with Christine’s American-themed birthday cake, I figured I could take a bit of a risk with this one.  Britt had a load of gel colours leftover from making cookies for one of her class projects, so I had all the materials on hand to make some legendary cupcakes.  I used Martha Stewart’s cake batter recipe and divided it into six bowls.  I excitedly dropped a small amount of dye into each bowl, and watched the batter transform before my eyes into multi-coloured hues.  The colours were so bright that the cake almost looked inedible.  Almost.  Kindergarten in a bowl.

Since I had no class to feed, my roommates were gifted with these.  Twenty cupcakes, six roommates, 24 hours eating time.  We’re averaging about four cupcakes per person… Healthy habits FTW.

Finally, I’m so happy that I got a new header out of these cupcake photos.  I had intended to revamp my blog, and these cupcakes were the perfect subject for my new site.  I figured it was about time I got a food related header photo…

I wasn’t sure how I wanted my header to look, so I took some 100 pictures of these cupcakes out on our patio.  At one point I made Amanda and Ariel hold up white paper to create a neutral background.  They were extremely (un)enthusiastic about this…

In the end, I settled on a picture I took on top of our television.  Simple, clean, effective (I hope).

I topped my cupcakes with cream cheese icing.  My roommate Alex said that they were the best ones yet, and that they were even better than some of the cupcakes we’ve sampled as part of my Ottawa Cupcake Challenge.  I’m beyond flattered.

Recipe: Psychedelicakes
Cake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
– 3 cups all-purpose flour
– 4 teaspoons baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
– 2 1/3 cups sugar
– 5 large egg whites, room temperature
– 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
– 1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature
– Pink, orange, blue, green, yellow and purple gel food colouring

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Slowly add egg whites and mix until well combined. Add vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Add flour mixture and milk in two alternating additions, beginning with the flour and ending with the milk. Mix until well combined.

Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls (see gif image above). Add enough of each colour of gel food colouring to each bowl, whisking, until desired shade is reached.

In cupcake tins filled with muffin liners, carefully scoop a small spoonful of each colour into the liner, filling them up about 3/4 of the way.  You can alternate the order in which you scoop the colours in if you want to make each cupcake unique.

Bake at 325° until a tester toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.  Cool completely before adding the cream cheese icing.

Cream cheese frosting
– 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
– 1/4 cup (50 mL) butter, softened
– 1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla
– 5 cups icing sugar

In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter; beat in vanilla. Beat in sugar in 2 additions until smooth.  Using a piping bag or a Ziplock bag with a small hole cut in one of the corners, dollop the icing on top of the cupcakes once they are completely cool. Use rainbow sprinkles to decorate the top of the icing.

Note: You will probably have extra frosting. Take advantage of this and eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That is an order.