Ube Cupcakes:

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cupcake liners. We use 2.5" paper liners.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl with a sieve, add 1 cup AP flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Sift these into the bowl and whisk to combine.

In a large mixing bowl, add in 3/4 cup of ube halaya, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, 2 large eggs, and 1 tbsp ube extract. Whisk these together till everything is well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and whisk together till everything is well combined.

Distribute the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake liners, a little less than 1/4 cup of batter for each cupcake.

Bake the cupcakes at 350 F for 16 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a metal rack and let it cool completely to room temperature.

Coconut Rainbow Frosting:

In the bowl of your stand mixer add in 1 cup of cold unsalted butter. With the paddle attachment, beat till it's smooth. Start slow first, as it'll be cold and solid. Then gradually increase the speed as it softens. When it looks smooth, stop the mixer.

Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1/2 cup of cold coconut cream (refrigerated overnight). Mix at a slow speed first, so the powdered sugar doesn't fly everywhere. Once the powdered sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 8 minutes till the mixture is light and fluffy.

Divide the frosting equally into 7 small bowls, which should come up to about 1/2 cup of frosting each. Set aside one of the bowls for white (undyed) frosting.

With the remaining 6 bowls of frosting, add 2 drops of each of the following colors to each bowl of frosting and mix it in till the frosting is uniformly colored:

AmeriColor Gel Super Red
Americolor Gel Orange
AmeriColor Gel Electric Yellow
Americolor Leaf Green
Americolor Gel Royal Blue
Americolor Gel Regal Purple

We only add 2 drops to create a more pastel-colored rainbow frosting to contrast with the deep purple of the ube cupcakes.

Take a piece of plastic wrap and lay it on a flat surface. Using 2 spoons, spread the red frosting in a long line on the plastic wrap, followed by the orange frosting next to it, then the yellow, followed by the green, then blue, the purple frosting, spreading each color out in lines on the plastic wrap.

Roll the plastic wrap along the same direction that the frosting lines are spread, bunching the colors together into a cohesive log. Twist the plastic wrap at the two ends and roll the log on your counter to tighten the log, then cut off the tip from one of the ends.

Fit a piping bag with a French star tip, we use a 4B tip. Place the log of frosting into the piping bag with the cut end first. Pipe a large swirl onto each cupcake starting from the outside edge working your way towards the middle.

Fit a piping bag with a large open round tip, we use a #12 tip, fill the piping bag with the undyed white frosting that was set aside earlier, and dot the rainbow frosting with 5 white dots to form clouds.

Add a final garnish to the cupcakes by sprinkling a little
rainbow sprinkles on top of each of the white clouds. Enjoy!