Tye-Dye Cupcakes

Last Sunday I had the privilege to watch my husband's beautiful cousin Kirsten graduate from high school. I loved high school, and judging by the crowd that accumulated at her party, I'd say she did too!

I also had the priviledge to make cupcakes for her party. I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and tye dye vanilla cupcakes with tye dye frosting.

These babies were beeeeutiful if I do say so myself. I LOVE anything rainbow and these had such a beautiful mix of colors. And no two were alike!

Want to make these for your next party? Kiddo's rainy day summer fun? They are really easy!

Vanilla Cupcakes (courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications "Cupcakes")
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean (please! who can afford these??) seeds or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (additional)
1/2 cup whipping cream

Set out butter, egg, and egg yolk on counter at room temperature for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In small bowl, mix flour, powder, and salt. In large bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar and beat on med high for 1 minute. Add egg, egg yolks, vanilla bean or extract and the additional extract. Beat until combined. Alternately add flour and whipping cream, beating on low speed until combined. Batter should be thick and over mixing makes for tough cupcakes.

Now here is the incredibly messy (read: fun) part. Get out small bowls, one for each color you want in your cupcake (I used five: orange, pink, teal, green, and purple). Divide the batter into your bowls, no need to measure, just eyeball it. Add food coloring. I use Wilton's gel food coloring, as this does not change the consistency of what you put it in, as liquid does. This is less important when you're adding it to cupcake batter, and a lot more important when adding it to frosting that you want to pipe and have set up.

Prepare 12 muffin tins with cupcakes liners and spray with non-stick spray. Add a spoonful of each color into the liners in whatever order you like. I like to start a few with one color, then change the order so that most are different. Fill to about 3/4 full. Bake about 17 mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for about 5 mins, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

To make tye dye frosting. Take whatever white frosting you like, and sepearate into five bowls. Color the frosting with whatever colors you like. Now take a pastry bag, or a gallon zip lock bag and set in drinking glass with the tip pointed down and the top of the bag rolled over the top of glass to create a stable place to put in frosting. Add each color of frosting to the bag on a different side, depending on how many colors you have. It's ok if the colors touch while putting them in the bag. Now if you're using a ziplock bag, cut off a corner to create a tip. Squeeze the frosting to the tip and pipe in whatever design you like. The colors will start to mix and create a tye dye effect. I had no issues with the colors blending and making a blackish or unsightly color. At some point I'll try to do a picture tutorial of this.

All cupcake pictures are courtesy of Jacque Bundy of Jacque Bundy Photography. Check out her blog here. You can find pictures from our wedding there, as she took them and did a wonderful job! Thanks for the pics Jacque!

Enjoy!

Jamie