Rainbow Cupcakes!!! Summer school...June 23rd, 2011

Summer school is winding down and I always try to have a cooking lesson at least once a week...we've made full meals like lasagna, salad and bread and then we've done minor things like baking cookies.  I had been telling the students I had a surprise for them that included food dye but I never told them what exactly it was going to be.  Finally the day had arrived and we were going to be making rainbow colored cupcakes where each one has multiple colors swirled inside.  We taught the kids to separate the white cake batter into 5-6 bowls and then using gel food coloring (the gels tend to be

more vibrant than the liquid kind) dyed each a different color.  Then using spoons they added batter a spoonful of color at a time until each cup was 3/4 full.  The coolest part was after they were done baking because I let the students choose which two cupcakes they wanted to ice and eat.  I didn't let anyone eat until all the kids had theirs iced and ready...then we had a countdown where everyone took a bite at the same time and then compared colorful middles.  I don't think I've EVER seen kids eat cupcakes so SLOWLY before in my

life because with every bite they were comparing it to other kids. Overall, everyone was quite impressed and ultimately went home with a sugar high! :-)