I first wanted to make a rainbow cake when a coworker showed me a picture of one on this blog post: Whisk Kid. Ever since I saw it, I became infatuated with the idea of making one. It looked challenging, interesting, and cool and I wanted one for myself. Plus, it ended up being a great finale to Easter Sunday's dinner. Baker beware, if you are not accustomed to making multiple layer cakes, then be prepared for some sweat equity on this one. Baking a 6 layer cake ain't no tomfoolery. This cake wore me out! I need to exercise more... lol.
So I couldn't find an official recipe for making a rainbow cake other that this blog where the girl made it from scratch. But if you're looking for a shorter route, you can do like I did and call on Mrs. Duncan Hines or Mr. Pillsbury. I'm really good friends with these two and they are always reliable in my book ;) Oh, and Mrs. Betty too, as long as the cake mix is WHITE. Making the cake is actually really simple, it just takes time. It took me 3.5 hours from start to finish. The thing I like most about this cake is that the white frosting makes it look so unsuspecting, but when you cut into it for the first time, it's like... Wow!
Here's what you'll need:
1 box white cake mix (and the cake mix ingredients)
Gel food coloring (they also come in neon for more colors)
Flavoring (lemon extract, vanilla extract, or whatever you like)
3 containers of cream cheese icing
1 large mixing bowl, 6 cereal bowls, 6 spoons, and 9" round cake pans
Directions:
Heat your oven to 350. Mix up the cake mix as you would normally do in a mixing bowl. (I recommend using egg whites) If you want flavor, this is when you will add 2 teaspoons of vanilla or lemon extract. I used lemon. Separate the cake batter evenly into 6 smaller cereal bowls. You can use a cup measure to start. When that's done, add gel food coloring to each bowl. To achieve a rainbow effect use the colors shown in the picture below. Purple (bottom layer), blue, green, yellow, orange, and red (top layer). The more food coloring you add, the deeper the color. This is where you can get really creative. You can mix shades of one color, use alternating colors, or just 2 or 3 colors... the possibilities are endless. You will need to use gel food coloring because the colors are more saturated and won't make the cake mix runny. Make sure to mix the color in really well and use separate spoons for each bowl.
Ok the hard part is over. Put the 6 separate mixes into 6 separate round baking pans (I did 3 at a time, which took longer). Now, bake the layers in the oven for no more than 13 minutes, sticking a toothpick in the middle to check for doneness. Let the layers cool while you doctor up the icing. Dump all 3 containers of cream cheese icing into a large bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of lemon (or vanilla) extract and mix well. When the layers have cooled, put the bottom (purple) layer onto a cake plate and add a layer of frosting. Do the same for the next 5 layers. Lastly, adding a crumb coat will help you keep the crumbs out of your final layer if icing. Check out this video on how to crumb coat your cake. When your crumb coat has hardened, put on a final layer of icing.
You will want your camera ready for when you cut it. My family was blown away with this one, and it was nice to get their reactions on camera. This is a fun cake that everyone is sure to ENJOY!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment