King Cake is traditional for Mardi Gras with its cinnamon roll like quality but you can achieve the same festive results faster with cupcakes! The vibrant colors of Mardi Gras are beautiful on their own but when you add them to a cupcake with cinnamon frosting, you have a party going on for sure!

 

 

 

 

1 box yellow cake mix 1 cup buttermilk (instead of water indicated on box) 1/2 cup vegetable oil 4 eggs Food coloring paste/gel – Purple, Green and Yellow

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line 24 muffin tins with silver cupcake liners

Use an electric mixer to beat together all of the ingredients for about 2 minutes on medium to high speed

Divide the batter equally into three bowls and use food coloring for purple, green and yellow batter. Get a spoon for each color and one spoon to use as your “divider” as your pour the different colors into the cupcakes liners.

 

Start with one color and pour about 1 spoonful of batter up against one side, using the divider spoon to prevent the batter from spreading too much. Fill in with the other colors, using the same technique. Don’t worry about making these perfect, it actually looks cool when the colors invade each others’ thirds and look a little messy.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean.

 

Recipe Courtesy of Fake Ginger

 

1 cup butter 4 cups powdered sugar 3 tbsp milk 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp cinnamon

 

 

 

3/4 cup sugar Green, Purple and Yellow food coloring paste

 

Place 1/4 cup sugar in 3 plastic sandwich bags. Squeeze a dot of each color paste in each bag and rub together until all sugar is colored. Place each color mixture on a separate piece of wax paper to dry. Repeat process for other two colors; set aside.