Rainbow Cupcakes

These rainbow cupcakes have layers of festive rainbow colors and are topped with fluffy vanilla buttercream frosting. Easy to make with cake mix for St. Patrick’s Day or any party!

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Rainbow Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

These rainbow cupcakes are an easy cake mix recipe topped with a fluffy cloud of vanilla frosting on top! They are a colorful variation of cake mix vanilla cupcakes and I use cake mix for cake mix cookies, easy dump cake recipe and funfetti cookies, too.

People ask me all the time if I always bake from scratch and while I do make chocolate cupcakes from scratch and vanilla cupcakes from scratch, I’m all about doctoring up cake mixes, too!

This easy rainbow cupcake recipe is cute, bright and festive for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration along with rainbow jello! It’s a fun treat for birthday parties.

Recipe Ingredients

• White cake mix: Store bought white cake mix makes this easy although you can use homemade vanilla cake mix, too.
• Vanilla pudding mix: Not instant pudding use the cook and serve kind for best results.
• Eggs: You will need four large eggs that are at room temperature.
• Oil: I used canola oil but vegetable oil works too.
• Hot water: Adds moisture, milk can be used for a richer taste.
• Sour cream: Keeps these rainbow cupcakes super moist!
• Buttercream frosting: I prefer my buttercream frosting for best taste.

How to Make Rainbow Cupcakes

• Prepare. Preheat oven to 325°F and line cupcake pan with liners. Set aside.
• Mix batter. Add cake mix and dry pudding mix to a large bowl and stir until combined. Then mix in eggs, canola oil and water and stir. Finally, mix in sour cream.
• Color the batter. Separate batter into 5 bowls, then add different colors of food coloring to each. Stir each bowl until smooth.
• Fill cupcake liners. Add one spoonful (about 1 Tablespoon) of each color to cupcake liners and fill about 3/4 of the way.
• Bake in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cooling rack. Frost once cooled. Enjoy!

Assembling Cupcakes

Although these rainbow cupcakes are quite festive without any decorations, the fun comes in assembling them how you like!

• Frosting: I love vanilla buttercream but you could even make rainbow buttercream for even more pizzazz or try cream cheese frosting like I use on pink velvet cupcakes.
• Sprinkles: We love to use rainbow sprinkles! The colorful sprinkles are a fun contrast on top of the white buttercream frosting.
• Edible glitter: Using edible glitter adds such a fun touch and looks a little more fancy.
• Rainbow candy. Cut rainbow strip candy, such as Airheads extreme into smaller strips to make a rainbow on top of the cupcake.
• Cupcake toppers: Cupcake toppers are perfect to add for a celebration such as a birthday or holiday party. A unicorn or rainbow cupcake topper would be fun.

Expert Tips

• Gel food coloring. For vibrant colors in these rainbow cupcakes, use gel food coloring to color batter instead of traditional food coloring.
• Color variation. Play around with the cupcake batter colors and only use 2 or 3 of your favorites instead of 5!
• Frost like a pro. Check out this easy tutorial that gives step-by-step instructions on how to frost the perfect cupcake. You’ll become a pro cupcake decorator in no time!
• Flavoring rainbow cupcakes. I didn’t add additional flavoring but you could add lemon, coconut, clear vanilla or almond to the base layers for variety in each bite. Use fruity flavoring for a Fruit Loop taste!

Rainbow Cupcakes

5 from 31 votes

Recipe by: Jamielyn Nye

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 20 minutes mins

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

Servings: 20

These rainbow cupcakes have layers of vibrant rainbow colors and are topped with fluffy vanilla buttercream frosting. Easy to make and festive for St. Patrick's Day or any party!

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Ingredients 

• 15 ounce box white cake mix
• 5.9 ounce box vanilla pudding mix (not instant, use cook & serve kind)
• 4 eggs
• ¾ cup canola oil
• ¾ cup hot water
• 1 cup  sour cream
• 2 cups vanilla buttercream frosting
• sprinkles

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the cake mix and dry pudding mix. Stir until combined. Next mix in the eggs, canola oil and water. Finally mix in the sour cream. Separate batter into 5 bowls. Add different colors of food coloring to each bowl and stir until smooth.
• Add one spoonful (about 1 Tablespoon) of each color to your cupcake liner (about 3/4 the way full). Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they spring back when touched. Do not over cook. You can also test with a tooth pick to make sure the centers are cooked all the way through.
• Remove from oven and allow cupcakes to cool on a cooling rack. Frost with buttercream frosting.

Last step: Please leave a comment and rating after you make the recipe.

Notes

You can also use this fluffy vanilla frosting.

See Nutrition Info

Nutrition

Calories: 314kcal, Carbohydrates: 40g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 16g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 38mg, Sodium: 264mg, Potassium: 49mg, Sugar: 30g, Vitamin A: 120IU, Vitamin C: 0.1mg, Calcium: 65mg, Iron: 0.6mg

Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.