break is broken

It's March Break for us, too, but because of the dayhome that means a more hectic week, not less. A week with two school-aged children and one who should be cooped up with 3 year olds and toddlers.

The weather has been blustery and dampish, although mercifully not too cold, so the kids have been unceremoniously tossed outside at least once every day for a good long while. Also we've been doing activities with a rainbow theme, to try and chase away the dark grey skies.

It's been a mixed success. The honey & cornmeal muffins we baked on Monday were a dry, mealy failure. Even the toddlers - not a fussy audience by any means - wouldn't eat them. I despaired. So yesterday I threw nutrition and good sense out the window, and baked a batch of rainbow cupcakes. Instantly, I was the most popular dayhome lady ever.

I first experimented with the Pinterest stand-by of rainbow cake last year when my middle son turned four. It was not notably successful - all the layers fell in the middle and didn't bake properly for some reason, so when I tried to put them together the middle of the cake ended up soggy. The edges, meanwhile, burnt. CAKEFAIL.

With the cupcakes, I just divided the batter for a simple a one-bowl white cake into three dishes, used some gel food colouring, and scooped them into the cupcake liners in layers. It worked great; the colours stayed separate and the cupcakes were gorgeous inside and out. They were so pretty I didn't frost them - the rainbow effect was much cooler not covered up with icing, anyway.

Next time I make a rainbow cake, I would just layer all the batter in one or two pans, rather than trying to bake a bunch of different layers.

I'm not much of one for sending sugary stuff to school - they crash midday and it never turns out well, at least not for my kids - but if you were on tap to provide a treat for a class party or something, rainbow cupcakes are fun and look more complicated than they actually are.

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This week, because we are all home, 7yo has had leftovers heated in the microwave quite a few times. Middle son is on a ham-and-cheese sandwich kick, and 14mo is suddenly passionately invested in peanut butter sandwiches. Both green and purple grapes were on sale this week, as were blackberries.