Secret Picture Cupcake Recipe

Secret Picture Cupcakes Recipe

These bright and Spring-like cupcakes are perfect for Easter. I had lots of fun making these and learned a lot from this experiment. I wanted to hide a shape in the cake and try rainbow cakes as I’d mentioned earlier on my Baking Outside the Box Pinterest board.

I started by choosing several wilton color gels and poured over my cookie cutters to find cutters that were 1” or a bit over that would fit well in the muffin tins.

 I made the recipe below and divided the batter into six bowls. Using toothpicks I swirled color into the batter. I was very pleased with how brightly the gels colored the batter. I added a small spoonful of the pink batter to the purple to brighten it up a bit and had to use more yellow to get a vibrant color than with the others. I prepared three pans for baking and put the other three bowls in the refrigerator for later.  I baked these thin layers about 16-18 minutes at 350 degrees.  I allowed them to cool before cutting.

I cut out egg shapes and inserted smaller shapes into some of them and left some plain. This was a laborious process and I probably wouldn’t do it again this way. I did learn that the simpler the shape the easier it was to cut out of the cake and have it hold its shape. I had a darling tiny bunny cutter that just got stuck every time, even with flouring. Overall, though the effect seemed charming.

I sat the cutouts in the muffin pan which I had prepared with paper liners. I had placed a heart on the outside of each liner and faced each one the same direction, being certain that each cake cutout was also facing lengthwise toward the heart. This is so one knows where to cut the cake to reveal the shape inside.

I dolloped my reserve batter over the shapes being certain to cover the shapes and of course I made certain the batter colors were a different color than the cutout. I made certain that that they weren’t more than 1/2- 2/3 full and made certain to cover the shape with a little batter.  Into the oven they went, looking curiouser and curiouser. Bake for 16-18 mins. @ 350 degrees.
I will be honest, this project takes time and makes quite a mess, but doing it with kids would be a blast. It would probably be best to bring kids into the kitchen when it is time to make the cutouts and assemble the cakes in the pans.
After they came out and cooled, I frosted them with a cream cheese frosting (though butter-cream would be yummy too) and sprinkled them with colored sugar. They looked so innocent and unassuming.
I picked up a cakelette and finding the heart on the wrapper, cut lengthwise. Ah! The mystery revealed! 

Pink Butterfly in a blue cake.

Ducky on a Purple pond

Tulip hiding in a a cuppy.

Begin making  Mystery Rainbow Cupcakes using the easy basic recipe below   and embellish it as explained and pictured here or simply divide the batter into several bowls and color brightly, then add a small spoonful of each color until muffin cup is 1/2 -2/3rds full and bake  rainbow cakes, no mystery, but very easy and fun. Or bake them in little 4 oz canning jars, too cute.   Makes 12-18 cupcakes.

Thrifty baker tip:  Leftover cake and frosting?  Make Rainbow Cake Balls!  Combine each separate color with just a little frosting till like play clay and then layer colors and squeeze into ball or egg shapes and dip and coat with melted chips, candy melts or melted frosting.  Allow to set on wax-paper or parchment.  Dazzling. Voila!

Get the Secret Picture Cupcakes recipe here.

Here’s how to get the Goody Mix Recipe.

More fun recipes and tips can be found in The Goody Mix, (Baking Outside the Box, Vol. #1), available at Amazon.com.