If you’ve got my Unicorn Cookbook you’ll have read that I am a self-confessed dreamer. In fact, the theme of the book itself confirms it and I loved the creative process of baking that book so much as it allowed me to take myself into whole new magical world. Growing up I was always suckered into the mythical stories of Mermaids, Unicorns and the lockness monster, and if we ever saw a rainbow I’d beg my mum or dad to drive that little bit further just in case the pot of gold really existed at the end.
This memory burst back into my head only recently when I saw a rainbow and found myself wondering how amazing it would be if someone discovered the end of it with a huge pot of gold. Cynics will chant that it’s not possible but us creative and optimistic folk will find a way. You see we never said the rainbow and gold couldn’t be edible and when Tala set me the task of creating a St Patricks Day inspired bake of course this was the first thing I thought of.
It’s actually an adaptation of my “Over the Rainbow Cupcakes’ from the Unicorn Cookbook but with a St Patrick hidden twist.
A good quality deep cupcake pan is essential for these cupcakes and the Tala Performance Bakeware Cupcake Bun Tin is the perfect depth so you can get all the rainbow layers in. Plus the deeper the cupcake the more hidden gold that will fit inside.
When it comes to decoration it’s also key to have a decent piping bag kit with quality nozzles. I’ve been using my large blue piping bags for some time now but it does frustrate me that they’re not clear. They’re also almost too big most of the time so I really enjoyed the Tala Disposable non-stick piping bags as they were the perfect size for the bake. I put my sustainability head into action too with these and thanks to their excellent quality was able to wash and reuse them at least 3 times. So that’s basically 90 bags for a pack of 30. Result!
Find your local stockist for Tala HERE or if you’re in a hurry head to Amazon for prime delivery.
End of the Rainbow Cupcakes with Tala Cooking
Ingredients
For the rainbow sponge
- 250 g butter softened
- 250 g caster sugar
- 250 g self-raising flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Food colouring blue, yellow, red, orange
- 100 g gold sprinkles
For the icing
- 250 g butter softened
- 500 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Blue food colouring
For the decorating
- Sherbet rainbow sweets
- Marshmallows
Instructions
For the cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 4 and line a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake cases. (I use gold foil cases)
- Add the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla into a bowl and beat together for 2–3 minutes until smooth, pale and fluffy.
- Split the mixture equally between five bowls and add a drop of different food colouring to each bowl – make sure each is a different colour so you have five vibrant bowls of cake batter. You can make any colours you like, but I went for purple, blue, yellow orange and pink.
- Fill the cupcake cases with a teaspoon of each of the coloured batters then place the cupcake tray into the middle of a pre-heated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.
- They’ll be ready when the sponge is springy to touch. Remove from the oven and after a few minutes lift the cupcakes out of the tray onto a wire-rack to cool completely.
- Once the cupcakes are fully cooled, using a cupcake corer or the end of a piping nozzle cut out a small insert in the centre of your cupcakes.
- Fill each hole with a tsp of your gold sprinkles and replace the cut-out piece of sponge cake. I used the Tala measuring spoons to add my sprinkles and the tsp measure was the perfect amount. I much prefer using measuring spoons in baking as many day to day teaspoons differ in our drawers so you can never be sure if they’re giving you an accurate amount. With measuring spoons that’s what they’re all about so I 100% recommend them as an essential kitchen drawer item
For the buttercream
- Blend the butter and icing sugar together until smooth and pale. Add the vanilla extract and a drop of blue food colouring and blend until fully combined. Transfer the mixture into a piping bag fitted with an open-star nozzle and pipe swirls onto each cupcake
For the decoration
- Cut the sherbet rainbow belts into 5cm strips and position as rainbows on top of the buttercream.
- For the clouds you can place three mini marshmallows either side of the rainbow, or if you only have larger marshmallows you can cut them into quarters and use 3 pieces at both ends of each rainbow to represent clouds.Serve and enjoy watching the surprise when your guests find the surprise gold centre.
