Today I’m finishing off a run of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with one of the schools I used to teach at. Also, today @daveymelb is getting married (even though he’s in Melbourne and won’t actually get to eat them). These are two excellent excuses to whip up some obsecenely over-the-top rainbow cupcakes.

I used my velvet cupcakes recipe and divided the batter into six, applying gel food colours liberally, and went with an ad-hoc tie-dye approach to filling the pans (like you would with marble cake but x6). Icing-wise I used the technique here, but loading four colours into the bag at once. Not something I would necessarily attempt again (two gives a better result) but kind of a cool effect nonetheless.

A note on tips – I’ve used the Wilton tips a few times now, and have decided that while the 1M and 2D are excellent for the rose-style swirls, I prefer my Thermotubes for the upright traditional cupcake swirl – I used the 1M for the swirls on these and they seemed to collapse a bit (hence trying the more blobby coral-type technique some of them have). Thermotubes seem to give a more structurally sound swirl.

If you’re looking for the Wilton piping tubes (or gel colours or piping bags etc), I’ve found cakedecoshop on eBay a good source (decent online retailers for cake decorating supplies are few and far between). I use these Thermotubes (both star and plain), which you should be able to find at any kitchenware shop – they’re much easier to get ahold of than Wilton gear.

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