Rainbow Pushpops

Pushpops. These totally remind me of pushup ice-cream from my younger days. These have been the hype of late and since I was baking some Red Velvet ones, I baked these Rainbow Pushpops since they were on my list too. These are really fun to bake and assemble simply cos' colours are just my thing. Colours just make everything, well, almost everything so much better.

In addition, this cake tastes really good. It's a Vanilla bean butter cake which allows colour to 'catch on' pretty well. This took me about 2 hours in all to complete and I'd rate it a 3 out of 5 for difficulty. 

Rainbow Pushpops Recipe

This recipe yields about 8 - 10 pushpops

160g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

110g unsalted butter

150g castor sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs (55 - 60g)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

250g cream cheese

110g unsalted butter

165g icing sugar

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

10 push pop containers

Steps

Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt.

Allow butter to 'warm' up to almost room temperature (I usually cube my chilled butter and let it thaw for 10 minutes in room temperature) and add the castor sugar. Using a sturdy spatula, hand whisk the mixture. It should be relatively easy to whisk it, just that you need a little determination and strength. 

You should get something like this.

Add an egg. Mix well.

Add the other egg and mix well.

Add in the vanilla bean paste. Try using vanilla bean paste rather than vanilla essence/extract as it tastes so much better. The other two are just so artificial. 

Add the milk and flour mixture alternately, 1/3 portion at a time, ensuring that each layer is well mixed before adding another.

Remember to mix it well! When the batter is well mixed, portion batter into 4 bowls as equally as possible.

Colour the 4 batter with some gel food colouring as you wish. 

I scooped my batter into a piping bag for cleaning 'scooping' into the cups. 

Fill the cups 2/3 of the way. You should get about 9 - 11 cupcakes. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or till' toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cupcake.

I like to 'test' one cupcake in each row to ensure that all my cupcakes are cooked right.

Place on wire rack to allow it to cool completely. 

Have the cream cheese come close to room temperature in a mixing bowl for about 10 minutes. You may cube it to allow it to 'thaw' faster. Using a spatula/hand whisk (I prefer a spatula), whisk it vigorously by hand to cream it. 

Add cubed butter of room temperature (cube and thaw in room temperature for 10 mins) into cream cheese and whisk vigorously.

Add in icing sugar and vanilla bean paste. The specks you see in the cream cheese frosting is the vanilla bean paste. It may look 'unclean' but it sure will taste better! Mix well!

You should get something like this. Scoop into piping bag fitted with Wilton Piping Tip 32.

Here are the 4 colours I used! Yellow, purple, blue and green.

Remove cupcakes from cupcake casing. Tip off some of the top to level it. Slice into 3 layers each.

Loving the colours!

You may use a cookie cutter that fits the pushpop container but why waste the money if you don't have one? Use the pushpop container as a cutter and trim off 'excess' cake. 

The trimmed rounds.

Pipe a little cream cheese frosting into the bottom of the pushpop container. This acts as a 'glue' for the first layer of cake. 

Slide in 1 layer of cake as press it down as close as you can to the 'glue'. 

Pipe a dot of cream cheese frosting in the middle of the layer. Then pipe a ring of cream cheese frosting along the remaining space left. You should get a nice and even layer of cream cheese frosting. Here's an illustration to show you how: 

NOTE: try your best to slide down the layers 'flat' rather than 'slanted' as the 'slanted' way will get the sides of the cake layer 'stained' with cream cheese frosting from the bottom layer. 

Repeat.

Add 4th layer of cake. For the final layer, pipe a taller dot in the middle for 'supporting' the 'swirl'. Using the taller dot as a support, pipe around the sides of the cake and then gradually moving upwards to form a 'swirled peak'. 

You should get enough cream cheese frosting and cupcake batter to make 8 - 10 pushpops. 

NOTE

1) You may use Styrofoam boards to hold the pushpops up. I used cups to hold them up just as fine. As the cream cheese frosting is pretty 'solid', it is perfectly fine even if you don't prop the pushpops upright. 

2) You may prepare the cupcakes the night before and leave in covered with a food cover in a cool dry place. I prepared the cream cheese frosting the following morning.

3) As the pushpops consist of cream cheese, I would HIGHLY recommend that you keep them chilled until you are ready to serve them. 

So, what are you waiting for? Make some merry Rainbow Pushpops today! Like really, today! (: 

Here's how they look like with the lids popped on! 

Here are a few other alternative recipes that you may fancy: 

Red Velvet Pushpops

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Rainbow Cupcakes II

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: