Disclaimer: I know food coloring is bad. I don’t use it very often. So, enjoy the colors and know there’s only two cupcakes. You won’t be tempted to eat 5 gallons of food coloring. The end.
Now that we’ve got that all covered. I decided on a whim a couple of weeks ago (Yes, it takes me that long to go from food to post…give me a break. 😉 This whole homemaking, stay at home mom, writing a blog, selling a house thing takes a lot of time. Anyway.), that I’d attempt a rainbow cupcake for two. I love ‘for two’ recipes because you don’t use up a ton of ingredients to experiment with the recipe over and over. Luckily, I nailed it the first time! Whaaa?
Just look at those colors. As you bite into the cupcakes, it gets increasingly more colorful. So gorgeous!
Since this is the time to follow the leprechaun to the other side of the rainbow, I figured it’s prime time to share these with you. 😀
OHHH…
And the thing I’m most proud of is the frosting recipe. There’s just enough for two HUGE globs of frosting on top. 😀 I love that I don’t have to make 24 cupcakes to use up just one frosting recipe now!
I win.
And you win.
So we all win!
Now, go taste the rainbow.
Rainbow Cupcakes for Two
adapted from Chocolate & Carrots
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 tablespoon skim milk
- 1 large egg white
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- food coloring (1 drop of each: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
Frosting
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
How-To
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place two cupcake liners in a muffin pan and spray with canola oil. Set aside.
- Beat the canola oil, egg, milk, vanilla extract, and sugar together.
- Add in the flour and baking powder.
- Place 2 teaspoons of batter into 6 small cups.
- Place a drop of food coloring into separate bowls, allowing one bowl to be one color. Stir until combined and even.
- Starting with the red batter, divide the batter in half (1 teaspoon per cupcake) and pour directly into the center of the cupcake liner in a even stream. Repeat with the remaining colors in the following order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple).
- Gently place the muffin pan in the oven.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- To make the frosting, beat the butter and cream cheese together until combined. Beat in the vanilla and powdered sugar until combined.
- Decorate your cooled cupcakes!
Servings: 2 cupcakes
These are so cute and perfect for just two people. Or one person can eat two :).
I am SO in love with these! I’ve been wanting to make rainbow cupcakes forever and two is the perfect amount. Can’t wait to try ’em just in time for St Patty’s Day 🙂
These are adorable, Caroline!
These are so adorable! And frosting for two is great, even if I would probably turn it into frosting for one:-)
I have no issues with food coloring. Bring it on these look great.
These are SOOOO cute! I want to make them tomorrow! haha
I love the for-two scaling! Making full batches can result in a lot of waste (food, calories and/or $) but I don’t like the single microwave cupcake “recipes” floating around the web (basically 3 Tbsp cake mix, 2 Tbsp water, microwave 1 min). These homemade goodies look so much better. I’ll have to try next time a craving hits.
These are too cute!!! I adore your colorful little sprinkles too!
I love that these are just for two! Yay. 🙂 So very colorful and happy. Just perfect! And good job on nailing it the first time. Love it when that happens!
LOVE!!!!!!!!
Oh gosh, these are so cute!!! My daughter would be so excited to dive into one (or 5) of these! Food color is a very rare occurrence around here as well… Easter and maybe one or more two times during the year…red velvet anyone? 😉
How precious!!! Beautiful!!! xoxo
Oh my gosh!! I don’t even know how is it possible to describe this adorable cupcakes.
There, I just did it. It’s so adorable 🙂
Seriously these are so fun! But yeah, I totally love the frosting!
These are too fun!! That frosting looks UH-mazing:)
These are so pretty! I love that you made the recipe small too!
These are STUNNING. I love “for two” recipes. Then I can eat the whole batch. 🙂
LOVE these! Pinned!
LOVELOVELOVE these!! Pinned and hopefully to make soon!
Wow, those turned out just perfect! Man! I really want to make them! I made a 4 layer rainbow cake and since then I have been wanting to make a whole 7 layer one, but cupcakes look so much easier 😉 So pretty!
Love these! Who cares about a little food coloring, when you can eat something so pretty (and basically guilt free, right, because there is only one each?)!
I made these last night and they came out beautifully!!! I made 4 and forgot to put in extra food coloring when I was doubling the recipe. My cupcakes were pastel rather than your bright colors. Even so, they were exquisite! I was surprised by just how easy it was too. Thanks for the great recipe.
Yay! I’m so glad you made them and liked them! I just love how fancy they are and such a surprise inside. I bet they were still beautiful with pastel colors, too!
Yay, I LOVE that this is a cupcake recipe for two. It’s so hard for me to justify making an entire batch of cupcakes (or paying $4/cupcake at the bakery). Thank you so much for this scaled down recipe. I have been wanting to make rainbow cupcakes too, so double bonus!
Yay! Happy to help. 🙂 Cupcakes for two are the best. It took a lot of experiment to get the recipe just right, but it’s a good one now! Happy Baking!
I would love to have permission to use one photo and the link to this page in my rainbow cupcake round up! Thank yoU!
That would be lovely. Thank you for asking!