a big to do...

i make a big deal out of holidays for my kids. i am one of those parents that keeps all their goofy but priceless art projects from school. if they are specific to a holiday, those art project come out and grace my walls, windows, ledges basically any place i can put them. here's the problem with starting something, especially when it comes to kids, you have to continue to do it. my cherubs expect something on the holidays. this doesn't necessarily mean a gift, but something different from our regular day to celebrate.

in preparation for a holiday, i spend too many of the hours i don't have finding that special thing. as my kids get older the ante is increasing. they are no longer impressed with the things that made them ooh and aah at 4 and 6. at the ripe old ages of 8 and 10 they are expecting grandeur. see this is the problem with starting something. oy!

i didn't have my kiddos for st. patrick's day this year, but that didn't mean we got to skip the holiday,  that would never fly with my kids. i had found a recipe years ago in a family fun magazine for rainbow cupcakes. surprisingly i still had the magazine, push the words hoarder and packrat right out of your head.  they were just as i had remembered them, happy. i thought sure, this is our special thing.  something new, we've never done anything like this. the kids can help, they are really enjoying all the creations we are making in the kitchen. and even if they taste yucky they sure look pretty.  what i didn't factor in was the time it was going to take and when we were going to squeeze it into our already busy schedule. i don't always think things through, but we found a couple of hours to make these cupcakes...i promised.

follow the directions for a basic white cake mix.  i bought our cake mix at grocery outlet for $1.99.  plain old duncan hines white cake mix.  ash helped with the making of the batter; cracking the eggs, measuring the water and oil and mixing.  i divided the batter into 6 bowls and followed the directions for how to make the colors.  ash stirred the colors into the white batter.  he loved how they seemed to magically change color.  i love that he is so easily amazed. 

spray your muffin tin really good or use liners. the thought of having to peel the liner off just to see the pretty colors bothered me.  it seemed like an unnecessary step when there is the invention of nonstick cooking spray.  now you are ready to start layering.  the recipe i found said this makes 16 cupcakes.  i am really not sure how.  i used about one and a half teaspoons for each color and i was scraping my bowls with a spatula getting every last bit just to make 12.  this part is very labor intensive and time consuming.  P helped spread each color out trying to reach the edge of the pan, cover the color underneath and not mix the colors.  easier said than done for sure.  be patient and remember it doesn't have to look perfect.

Purple: 9 red and 6 blue drops



12 drops of blue

12 drops of green



12 drops of yellow



orange: 12 drops of yellow and 4 drops of red



18 drops of red

bake according to the cake mix directions.  since your muffin tins are filled to the top, your cupcakes will puff up and have a big mushroom top, totally not an issue for me.  for some reason the top of my cupcakes are sticky, maybe they weren't done all the way, but they taste fabulous!  now the directions say to add a white frosting cloud, but i didn't think they needed it, sweet enough for me.  the best part of this cupcake is biting into it.  the colors are extremely vibrant and you look like a genius.  it can be our secret.  *wink*

i will for sure be making these again.  the kids loved eating and making them.  really, who doesn't love a rainbow cupcake?