An Experimental Birthday Gift :)

So, fun fact, I have a roommate.
She has put up with my obsession with baking cupcakes, and she even eats them too.
Her birthday was last Monday, but since she was in California, I decided to bake up a surprise for her to come home to.

I know that she likes 2 things for sure: Rainbows & Cupcakes.
So why not make a rainbow pull-apart cake?


Anywho, Here's what you need.

The Finished Product. :)

Rainbow Pull-Apart Cake

Oven Temp: 350°
Prep Time: ~45 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes per pan
Total Time: ~ 1.5 hours


Cake Ingredients

*Note* I didn't want to use Funfetti cake mix, because I wanted to control the amount of sprinkles I had.  Feel free to use Funfetti, because honestly, it is easier.

• 1 Box Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake Mix
• 1 Bottle of Sprinkles
• McCormick's Neon Food Coloring
• Toothpicks
• Cupcake Liners
• Cupcake Pan
• 1 C. Water
• 1/3 C. Oil
• 3 Eggs

Frosting Ingredients

*Note* I used a combination of Kool-Aid and food coloring to color my frosting. If you don't want flavors, food coloring does just fine. :)

• 3 cans Vanilla Frosting
• 5 packets of Kool-Aid
• Strawberry
• Peach-Mango
• Lemonade
• Lemon-Lime
• Tropical Punch
• (I left purple as plain frosting.)
• Plastic Baggies
• Plastic Spoons (if you don't want to wash a ton of spoons)
• Shredded Coconut

The unbaked cupcakes

Ok. So, the cake is pretty simple. Mix the water, oil and eggs, then add the cake mix. Combine until moistened. Then add the sprinkles, and combine well. Scoop into cupcake pan, filling only 2/3 full. Put a few drops of food coloring in each cupcake, and swirl around with a toothpick. 

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean, and cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, separate 2 of the cans of frosting into 6 separate containers. (I used styrofoam cups)

Each cup represents a different cup/flavor. So, if you're doing flavors, add 1/2 tsp. of Kool- Aid to each respective cup. Combine well. Then, use food coloring to adjust the coloring to your liking. There's not really a science to it, except for normal color mixing rules (red+yellow = orange... etc.) Then put each colored frosting in a separate sandwich bag, (unless you have 7 pastry bags, and want to wash them all.)

Fast forward until the cupcakes are cooled...

Arrange the cupcakes in a rainbow- like shape. If you need to transport it, I recommend a piece of cardboard wrapped in tin foil. If you don't need to move it, a layer of tin foil on your counter does just fine.  This is what I did for the shape:

Once you have the cupcakes arranged, take the other can of frosting, and do a 'base coat' to glue all of the cupcakes together. Make sure that the cupcakes are covered evenly, and that there are no holes between any of the cupcakes.

Then, starting with the red frosting, cut a small piece off of the corner of the bag. Frost the red onto the cake, and then continue with the other colors.

Once this is done, add coconut to the cloud area to give it some texture, and there you go!