Delight your guests, young and old alike, with these Surprise Rainbow Cupcakes! Perfect for children’s birthday parties, these chocolate cupcakes are not just beautiful on the outside, but contain a hidden mouthful of M&Ms in the inside. Watch the kids go crazy for them!
TIME
40 minutes + 30 minutes cooling time
SUITABLE FOR
Ages 12 +
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
Cupcakes: 3/4 cup plain flour | 1/2 cup cocoa powder | 1/2 tsp baking soda | 1/2 tsp baking powder | 1/4 cup brown sugar | 1/2 cup caster sugar | 2 large eggs | 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened | 1/2 cup buttermilk | 1 cup mini M&M’s Frosting: 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened | 4 cup icing sugar | 2 – 3 tbls milk | A few drops of food colouring
WHAT TO DO
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (360 F). Line a 12 hole muffin tin with patty cases. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and then add the sugars. Pop the butter into the microwave for a short burst, 10 seconds or so at a time, until it becomes very soft but just before it is completely melted. Give it a stir with a fork to eliminate any lumps.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add the eggs, vanilla and butter and whisk together until smooth. Then add the wet mixture into the dry mixture, along with the buttermilk and gently fold until just combined.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared patty cases and pop into the oven. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until just cooked through. Set cakes out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Carefully cut out a hole in the middle of each cake with a sharp knife and fill with mini M&M’s.
- To make the icing, add the soft butter to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixture until soft and creamy. Gently sift in one cup of the icing sugar and continue to beat. Add a tablespoon or two of milk to help loosen up the mixture. Then add the rest of the icing sugar, one cup at a time. It should be nice and creamy but thick enough to hold its shape when piped.
- Divide the icing into three bowls. In each bowl, add a few drops of food colouring and stir thoroughly until the icing is dyed to the colours you want. Grab your disposable piping bag and insert a large star tip into the end. Very gently add spoonfuls of one colour of icing and try keep it to one side of the piping bag. You don’t have to be exact, so do the best you can. Then gently spoon the second coloured icing on top and then the third colour on top of that. Gently press down to remove any air bubbles and force the icing down to the tip. Twist the top of the bag and then pipe the icing onto the cupcakes.
AND THEN
Share the cupcakes with your friends and family and watch their faces as they discover the surprise candy inside!
TIP
The first swirl of frosting probably won’t have all three colours in it so use that one as a test run.
Recipe + Images Sweet Menu
Surprise Rainbow Cupcakes
