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–+ servings
Square image of frosting on cupcakes on wire rack.
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Rainbow Buttercream

Fun and festive this Rainbow Frosting is a tasty and colorful addition to topping your cupcakes or swirling on the tops of other desserts! Perfect for any colorful event!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time0 minutes
Total Time15 minutes
Course: Dessert, Frosting
Cuisine: American
Servings: 12
Calories: 296kcal
Author: Tornadough Alli

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter softened
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • pinch fine sea salt
  • 2 Tablespoons whole milk
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
  • Red gel food coloring
  • Blue gel food coloring
  • Yellow gel food coloring
  • Green gel food coloring
  • Purple gel food coloring

Instructions

  • Place the butter in the body of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Whip the butter until smooth.
  • Add the powdered sugar a little at a time until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides.
  • Add the salt, milk, and vanilla extract. Stir it in until combined, then whip on medium-high speed for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
  • Divide the buttercream between 5 small bowls. Add a different food color into each bowl and mix until the desired color is achieved, take note that the color will darken slightly as it sits.
  • Take 5 pastry bags or gallon-sized bags and add the different color frosting to each of the bags.
  • Place a piece of plastic wrap on your work surface. Snip off the ends of the bags and pipe about 1-inch sized stripes of frosting around 8 inches long. One color after the other touching until you have 5 stripes.
  • Carefully roll the plastic wrap over itself so the frosting forms a log, overlapping the plastic wrap. Twist both ends to seal the frosting in place.
  • Get a large pastry bag secured with a 1M open star tip. Snip off one edge of the log of frosting and gently place it into the pastry bag.
  • Frost cupcakes in the pattern you desire. Serve immediately.

Notes

  1. You can use any colors that you'd like, we listed the exact colors we used above.
  2. This is great on cupcakes or as a garnish to top other desserts.
  3. This can be frozen, see my tips above.
  4. The frosting will make enough to generously frost 12 cupcakes.
  5. You can absolutely double this recipe to have more on hand.
  6. You will need to make 2-3 of the frosting logs because it is too much frosting to make one large log, the end result will not be the same.

Nutrition

Calories: 296kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 4mg | Potassium: 10mg | Sugar: 39g | Vitamin A: 477IU | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg