Candy Corn Cupcakes

Halloween being my favorite holiday, I make a lot of themed desserts during the month of October. I love the idea of rainbow cake, so I thought, why not make a cake the colors of candy corn? I actually don’t really like candy corn (which is why I spent days looking for candy corn Hershey’s kisses), but it’s one of the most traditional Halloween candies.

To make these, I just used a plain white cake recipe (here's one) and divided the batter in half, coloring one half with red and yellow food coloring to make orange, and yellow food coloring for the other half. Before cooking, I placed the yellow batter on the bottom, and the orange on top, making sure they didn't mix.

The frosting is just vanilla buttercream, but you can use whatever frosting you like, especially since white cake doesn't taste like much to begin with.

Easy Vanilla Buttercream Frostingyields enough to frost a dozen cupcakes

• 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2½ cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Using the wire whisk attachment of your stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl once or twice. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar. Once all of the powdered sugar is incorporated, increase the speed and add the vanilla, mixing until incorporated. Whip at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed.