Rainbow Tie Dye Skittles Cupcakes

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These tie dye Skittles cupcakes are made with a light, fluffy yellow cake with Skittles powder swirled in to give just a hint of that fruity flavor along with an orange buttercream frosting.

Rainbow Tie Dye Skittles Cupcakes

First things first. Assemble the ingredients: cake flour, granulated sugar, 4 eggs, a stick of butter, shortening, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract, and, of course, Skittles. {the recipe is below}

In a food processor grind about two tablespoons of each color of Skittles separately and set them aside.

Cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy then add the eggs one at a time until combined. In one bowl add the buttermilk, milk, and vanilla and in another bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the milk and flour mixtures alternately until combined.

Line a cupcake tin with paper liners and fill them about 3/4 of the way with the cake batter. I use a 1/4 cup measuring scoop which is just about perfect.

Now it’s time for the fun part. Sprinkle a little of each color of the Skittles powder on top of the batter then swirl them together in the batter with a toothpick. You don’t have to be neat with it because the colors will stay separate instead of turning into one weird color.

Once all of your cupcakes are swirled bake them in a 350 degree (F) oven for about 17-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Now it’s time to frost these babies.

Orange Buttercream Frosting

This frosting is a classic buttercream frosting with a hint of orange. Cream together butter, salt, and powdered sugar then add the milk and orange extract. If you prefer a more classic buttercream then replace the orange extract with vanilla. Color with yellow food coloring if desired.

To keep up with the basketball theme, I frosted the cupcakes and put some of the orange Skittles to the top and made them into little basketballs with some black gel frosting. These cupcakes were a huge hit!