Red velvet and rainbow cake experts I need your advice.

[Phteven]

Next week it is DS's birthday. We're going to the IL's so I doubt I will be baking a cake but I will be doing cupcakes on the Friday before his birthday for his class.
Since I'm not doing a cake I may as well go all out with the cupcakes.

Sooo...... I'm thinking zebra cupcakes. With a red velvet and another colour. Is it possible? Is there another batter that will take the same time to cook as the red velvet? A white mud maybe if I went a little lighter on the chocolate? I could add yellow dye to that and a red and yellow would make his day because they are the Gryffindor colours.

Or maybe a marble effect - would a quick stir with a skewer do the trick?

Any trick, tips and suggestions would be welcomed.

I'm not wed to the idea of the red velvet cupcakes - if I need to use a different batter I will.

[briggsy's girl]

i would do a simple cake that you can split and color, rather than trying to mix two different textures - no guarantee it will cook at the same rate, and you don't want to end up with a weird texture (IMO)!

we make a simple vanilla cupcake the other day - just split it in two and add color. just keep in mind the red and yellow, if you swirl, will give lots of orange. maybe look at layers in the patty pan instead...

[Floweryfields]

I would also just go for a vanilla cake mix and colour it. Yes a skewer swirled through would give you the effect you wanted.

[Ambersky]

I would just be aware if its for the class some kids may miss out because of the colours.. I hate seeing my big girl sad after she misses out on cakes.

[Rouge]

I just realised how derp I am. Vertical vs. Horizontal. Derp.

[Trillian]

Onyx, I've made loads of zebra and rainbow cakes and you can use any type of cake you want, but they have to be the same consistency otherwise when you pour them into the pan, they wont spread properly and the layers/stripes wont look right. The way I do the rainbow zebra cakes is to make a couble quantity of batter, then split it evenly into however many colours I want to have - usually 6. Then I add the colouring to it and then alternatively pour it into the pan. Have you seen the FB pics I have of when I've done them? If you do cupcakes, you will literally only need a teaspoon of mix for each layer if you want a few layers/stripes, otherwise you can have less layers/stripes by using bigger spoonfuls of batter.

[Netix]

You could just halve the red cake mix (as in same quantity, into two bowls), and add a half quantity of cocoa and red colour to one for the red velvet portion, and a touch extra flour and vanilla into the other bowl. Then spoon small amounts into patty pans.

[Rouge]

Yes it's possible but they will have to be horizontal stripes rather than vertical.

I've done it before it's easy as pie. I don't have time atm... but red velvet essentially is chocolate cake with red food colouring. It was originally made with really red cocoa, then alternatively beetroot juice. Now most people use food colouring. My favourite chocolate cupcake recipe is AWESOME just without the cocoa (I add more flour to compensate).

You could definitely colour white chocolate mudcake. Colouring batter is easy as pie. And layering is just as easy!

[Mrs P]

Subbing as DDs 2nd bday party is a rainbow theme!