Rainbow Cup Cakes

I got this idea from Pinterest but just did it my own way ... I hope you enjoy :) I'm pretty proud of these things so there are a LOT of pictures ... they are just so darn cute!! I made these for my daughter's birthday party. It seems like a long list of to-do's below, but it's extremely simple, just it does take some time. 

What you need:
2 boxes of french vanilla cake mix (any brand) 
Eggs (according to what the box says) 
Water (according to what the box says) 
Oil (according to what the box says) 
Neon gel food colors & Regular food coloring
Cute foil cupcake liners 
Sprinkles & Cup cake toppers of your choice 
Frosting {recipe below}
6 small bowls & 6 spoons

What you do:
1) Preheat oven to 325

2) Mix cake mix according to directions on box. Take your 6 small bowls and divide the cake mix evenly into the small bowls. Your going to color the mix in each bowl a different color. I used regular food coloring for the blue and yellow and the neon food coloring for all the other colors. So add the one colors to each bowl, and mix with a spoon. Leave a spoon in each bowl. 

3) Fill your cupcake pan with the cup cake liners. Then you drop one small spoonful of each color in the liners. I would drop 2 colors in and then shake the pan to level out the cake mix. **IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT LAYERS** they will still turn out cute!! The color order of a rainbow is (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple) Once you get all the colors in there you should have the liners exactly 3/4 full. Bake in the oven around 18 mins. That what the perfect time in my oven, you may need to cook less or longer depending on your oven. Once they are fully cooked, remove from the oven and let cool. It took me about 2 hours to bake almost 50 :) so once they were cooled I put plastic wrap over them and then frosted and decorated them the next morning. 

4) This is kinda my go-to recipe for frosting - you can just eye-ball it and add more or less of what you need. I ended up using 1 1/2 bags of powder sugar, so it was a large batch of frosting. 
Ingredients:
2/3 Cup unsalted butter, softened
2 2/3 Cups confectioner's sugar
2 to 3 Tablespoons milk
3/4 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:
Beat butter, powder sugar, milk & almond with a mixer until smooth. (If frosting is too thick add a little more milk.)

5) Once you have enough frosting, just decorate away and have fun!!! It took me another 2 hours to decorate them all. I got all my liners, sprinkles and toppers at JoAnn Fabrics, just a little FYI ... they always have good sales & 40% off coupons :)

**They take some time, but they are so worth the end result, they are so cute and kids love them!! I served them with Schwans Confetti Ice Cream Cups **