Rainbow cupcakes

I ran across a blog the other day with directions for making a rainbow colored cake and knew I had to give it a go. Since my little brother's birthday party was today (He turns 8 tomorrow. WOW!) I used that as an excuse to make rainbow colored cupcakes instead.

I started off with a simple white cake mix. Always mix these with a mixer so that you can lick the beaters. It's just the way it's done.
Then I separated the batter into four bowls since I was going to use four colors for the cupcakes. I would have used more but I only own four of these little baking bowls. I should buy more. I purchased Wilson gel food colors to mix the colors. You have to use gel coloring for this because it won't make the batter runny like regular liquid food coloring does.
I used a toothpick to dip into the gel and mix it into the cake batter. You have to use a new toothpick each time you add coloring because you don't want batter in your gel. That's not cool. The toothpick was a little difficult to mix the whole bowl with so once I got enough color in there I used a spoon to do the actual mixing.
Once you get the right amount of coloring, depending on how dark or light you want the batter, stop and admire how cute the little bowls of colored cake batter are.
There is no rhyme or reason to the next part...just start with a color and fill your cupcake liners. I globbed a little here, a little there, alternating between the colors until I filled the containers enough. Don't mix it! Kind of lightly jiggle the pan if you want to smooth out the top, but it's not necessary.
Once the cupcakes come out of the oven they'll look like this. So cute!
Even the dirty dishes are cute once you are finished with them.
I used the red gel to color my icing since I didn't get to use it inside the cupcakes. The last cupcake made was a little small so I used it as the one to show you how they turned out. I bit into it just for you.
I can't wait to do this with a full sized layer cake. Buy yourself some gel food coloring and have fun! I may never make a normal colored dessert again.