Hello Jello Tie-Dye Cupcakeroos

The finished product! You want it. I can see it in your eyes.

Let's be honest- tie-dye made everything taste better when we were 5, and it still makes everything taste better today. There's just something about a food having color that brings it to a whole new level. So, although you could totally make plain old regular tan cupcakes, wouldn't you rather expose your pallet and vision to an explosion of color and flavor? You know you want to.


Ingredients:


- 1 box of white or yellow cake mix
- 1 cup of water
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup of canola oil

OR

• - 1 cup white sugar
• - 1/2 cup butter
• - 2 eggs
• - 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• - 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• - 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• - 1/2 cup milk
• 
  
• AND
• 
  

- 1/4 packet of three different colors of jello, whatever you want! You could even go patriotic on everyone's ass, buy blue and red, and try to send some to Obama. I'll try and put in a good word for you.
- food coloring

Healthy replacement for jello
- three different types of berries or bananas, 1 cup each
- 2/3 cup of water for each set of berries
-1/4 cup of sugar for each set of berries

Appliances
-hand mixer (nice but not completely necessary)


Here are the steps


After mixing together the cake mix with everything that is on the back of the box, or, if you're bored creating your own cake batter, separate the mix into three small bowls. We have placed the ingredients for creating your own cake batter above, but I literally copied and pasted it from allrecipies.com. So, look there for the instructions. I don't care what kind of cake you make! I'm in college, call you mom if you're freaking out about having too much responsibility with this recipe.

Pour 1/4 of a packet of a different color jello into each of the three small bowls. If you do not think the batter has enough color, add some food coloring, NOT more jello mix. Too much of that will make your cake taste like the sarcophagus of a woodland fairy.

If jello is a little too scary for you to eat, because yes, it did used to be made out of horses hooves, you can make something very similar with a homemade fruit syrup. The ingredients are above, and here are the simple instructions. If you're feeling really bored, do both. Cut the amount of jello you would have put in the recipe in half and use half of the fruit syrup in it's place. 


Place one of the berries, let's say strawberries for this example, into a pot with 2/3 cup of boiling water. Once the berries have soaked for a few minutes, begin mashing them. Once the berries are extremely mushy, allow to thicken and boil for about 15 minutes. Bask in the smells of success.


Strain the mixture, discarding all of the skins. 


Place mixture into a pot again, this time adding the sugar and possibly a little bit of lemon. Put on high, for the mixture to quickly thicken. 


Allow to cool and repeat with two other sets of berries. 


Mix one into each of the three bowls of batter. You probably will not have to use the entire mixture, save some to put on top of ice cream and waffles!

Batter with lime jello and a little bit of green food coloring.

In cupcake tins, or in PAM sprayed or butter rubbed metal cupcake pans, place a few dollops of each color batter. After filling the tins or tray a little over halfway (it will expand, so not too much!), take a toothpick, or knife, or end of a bobby pin, and slightly swirl the batter.

Pop them in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes.


Celebrate by singing thing song as an ode to the tasty fruity delights you just whipped up.

After taking them out of the oven, allow to cool. If you're in a rush or just extremely impatient like me, you can stick them in the freezer for about 10 minutes and the cupcakes will cool in a fraction of the time.

Top with whipped cream, frosting, fruit, caramel, chocolate, or anything else sweet and legal (definition of "legal' is up to the creator).


Goes great with our mango whipped cream frosting, shown below.