Somewhere Over the Rainbow Cupcakes

Somewhere Over the Rainbow Cupcakes.
Enjoy the cupcakes for your own special event, alight in rainbows or jumpy houses. (Make sure you have a few minutes without the kids to jump, too.)

Rainbow Brown Sugar Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from martha stewart’s brown sugar layer cake recipe; rainbow toppers from pinterest.
Prep time: 3 hours
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 3 hours 30 mins
Serves: 24-27

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 heaping cup of freeze-dried strawberries, crushed
• Rainbow belt candy, cut into 24 pieces (each piece is about 3 inches long)

Confectioners Frosting:

• 4 cups (460 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted
• 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons milk or light cream
• Assorted food colors ( blue)

Instructions

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.*
2. Line 24-well muffin tin with cupcake liners.
3. Beat sugars and butter together, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well between eggs. Beat in vanilla.
5. Whisk and sift together flour and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, combine sour cream and baking soda.
6. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream mixture and starting and ending with the flour mixture.
7. Stir in the crushed freeze-dried strawberries.
8. Fill each cupcake well about 2/3 full of batter. (I actually came out with 27 cupcakes.)
9. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. (The timing will partly depend on your desire for puffy versus flat-topped cupcakes.)
10. Cool in pans for a few minutes, until able to be handled without burning your fingers, and transfer to rack to cool completely.

Confectioners Frosting:

1. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and well blended. Beat in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the milk and beat to combine. Then, on high speed, beat frosting until it is light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). If not using right away, cover with plastic wrap to prevent the frosting from drying out.
2. This frosting can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Bring to room temperature and re-whip before using. Add a little milk or sugar if needed to get the right consistency.
3. Tint portions of frosting with desired food color (I use the gel paste food coloring that is available at cake decorating stores and party stores).
4. This recipe makes enough to fill and frost 24 to 27 cupcakes.

Tip: To make a Chocolate Frosting prepare the above recipe but beat into finished frosting, four ounces (120 grams) of melted and cooled unsweetened chocolate. Add a little extra milk if needed.

How to decorate: Snip rainbow belts into about 3-inch pieces to create the rainbow that will sit atop the cupcake. Set aside.
With frosting blue: Use Decorating Icing Nozzles round… cover the cupcake, make a circle and spiral
Using frosting white in a piping bag, pipe two small rosettes on top of the iced cupcake to make “clouds” on top of the cupcake.
Add the rainbow by placing each end of the rainbow belt candy into a cloud. You might need to shove the candy into the cupcake a little to keep it upright. Pipe a little more frosting to make the clouds look more puffy, if desired.