St. Patrick's Day Dessert: Rainbow Mug Cake

Rainbow-Mug-Cake_650x650
Today I am sharing a St. Patrick’s Day dessert with you, a spin off the normal rainbow cupcakes… rainbow mug cake!! This is a fun little dessert that you can turn into a family activity, because you can pour the rainbow colored batter into individual mugs (or clear glass cups), microwave it and watch it turn into a yummy little mug sized cake! Then, add the icing and sprinkles… and wa-la! You have the cutest little dessert under the rainbow!

I decided to whip this up for the LUCKY Link Up Party that several bloggers are hosting right now (see their contact info below) to find out more… but, basically I will be paired up with another blogger and we’ll be making each others St. Patrick’s Day treats! How fun is that?!

Ingredients
The ingredient list is a simple one: box of white cake mix (you’ll need eggs & vegetable oil, too), food coloring, icing (the tub that comes with the sprinkles!), 4 small bowls and GLASS cups (clear if you want to watch the action take place in the microwave) or regular coffee mugs will work, too if you don’t care to watch the batter turn into cake in the microwave. I have plastic cups pictured here, I am sure some plastic cups would work… but, these ones did not (uh, don’t ask). Oh, and spoons… so you can dip on in!

The first step is to prepare the white cake mix according to directions. On the box directions, you’ll see a step where it’ll tell you to use JUST the egg whites, cause it’s a white cake. 🙂

Prep_Batter-in-4-Bowls
Pour the batter into 4 bowls and put 8-10 drops of food coloring in each bowl. I gave the kids toothpicks to swirl the colors around in each bowl, this lets them see the color develop and it doesn’t make a huge mess. After they are done, use a spatula so you can mix up the color in each bowl along the sides/bottom, etc.

Prep_Batter-colors
Once you’ve finished mixing the colors, they should look like the above photo.

Prep_Glass-cup-half-full
Now, the tip to pouring the batter into the glass cup/mug is that you DON’T want to overfill. The batter will expand to twice the size once it turns into cake. I used a short 8 oz glass cup and poured each color of batter into it one by one… you’ll just need a little of each color and when you are done, the glass/mug should only be half full. Trust me, it’ll expand. If you overfill, you’ll have a oozy overflowing mess.

Prep_Cup-after-microwaved
Microwave for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, let the glass/mug cool in the microwave for 5-8 minutes. It will look like this inside the glass…

Prep_Out-of-microwave-plopped-upside-down
Then, turn the glass upside down over a bowl and you have the CUTEST little mug cake EVER! It was hard to eat it, because it was just too dang cute.

Close-up-of-Mug-Cake
Add a little icing and sprinkles to the top and it is even cuter. How is that possible? My daughter is 5 and she loves all things rainbow… her rainbow colored tennis shoes, rainbow earrings (she doesn’t have her ears pierced yet, but when we looked, she saw they had rainbow earrings), etc.

Mug-Cake-done
This would be a great treat to whip up with a small group of friends at a rainbow themed party, at a sleep over during the month of St. Patrick’s Day, etc. It really is neat to see it turn into cake in the microwave.

Rainbow-cupcakes
I had some leftover batter, so I decided to make 12 cupcakes, too! I love how you can see the rainbow pattern through the cupcake liner.

Freeze-cupcakes
I froze the cupcakes to save for St. Patrick’s Day, our Leprechaun is coming by for a visit and will be bringing the kids a sugary breakfast and a scavenger hunt. I will ice them after they thaw on the night before St. Patrick’s Day.

Rainbow-Mug-Cake
Hope you and your little ones enjoy this sweet treat! Have a happy St. Patrick’s Day!