Pastel Patchwork Cupcakes

Inspired by the rainbow Harrod's cake I ate in London (see previous post), I've returned home to experiment with making a similar design.  I'm loving pastels at the moment which leads to the creation of these pretty cupcakes..pastel patchwork cupcakes.  I simply put a teaspoon of plain vanilla batter, then a spoonful of dyed light pink, dyed light purple, and dyed light blue batter. The result is fun and of course very yummy when topped with buttercream and colourful smarties!

Ingredients for Vanilla Cupcake
125g butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbornate of soda
1/2 cup milk

Ingredients for Buttercream, to ice 12
250g unsalted butter
3 cups icing sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 150 degrees (fan-forced) and grease and line a round baking tin. Place butter, sugar and vanilla together and combine on low speed until they are just combined. Add all eggs and, on low speed, beat until well combined. Sift powder, soda and flour and add milk over the mixture and on medium speed bring the batter together until completely smooth.  Separate the batter into 4 separate bowls but ensure there is a slightly higher quantity in one bowl as this will remain a non-dyed batter.  In the other 3 bowls, you will need to place some dye (pink, purple or blue) separately to colour the  batter.  Place a teaspoon of plain batter into a patty case, followed by a teaspoon of each pink batter, purple batter and blue batter and top it off with another teaspoon of plain batter.  At this point you can either use a skewer to swirl the mixture (for a swirly effect) or leave it as is for a more patchwork look which is also my preferred. Once all the patty cases are filled and the batter is used, place cases on a tray and bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until golden but by no means golden-brown.  Once cooled, to make icing, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Pipe onto cake generously.  Top with smarties!