Here's a slightly improved version of colbeerhey's solution. I added a return statement so that, in true jQuery form, we chain events after calling the animation. I've also added the arguments to clear the queue and jump to the end of an animation.

// Adds a highlight effect
$.fn.animateHighlight = function(highlightColor, duration) {
    var highlightBg = highlightColor || "#FFFF9C";
    var animateMs = duration || 1500;
    var originalBg = this.css("backgroundColor");
    return this.stop(true,true).css("background-color", highlightBg).animate({backgroundColor: originalBg}, animateMs);
};

Here's a slightly improved version of colbeerhey's solution. I added a return statement so that, in true jQuery form, we chain events after calling the animation. I've also added the arguments to clear the queue and jump to the end of an animation.

// Adds a highlight effect
$.fn.animateHighlight = function(highlightColor, duration) {
    var highlightBg = highlightColor || "#FFFF9C";
    var animateMs = duration || 1500;
    this.stop(true,true);
    var originalBg = this.css("backgroundColor");
    return this.css("background-color", highlightBg).animate({backgroundColor: originalBg}, animateMs);
};