Rainbow Cake

It's dreary outside (raining at the end of May, absurd!), and I wanted to share something fun and bright with you today.

I was determined to make a rainbow cake after seeing Kaitlin of Whisk Kid doing it on the Martha Stewart Show. I'm completely a hobby baker and most of my stuff turns out ugly but delicious. I came up with my own way of making a 6-layer rainbow cake. It's not from scratch, but it took a little over 3 hours to complete this. To see larger pictures of this process, you can go to my flickr. I'll share with you my process:


I started out with two 9" round pans (it's even better if you have more!). The bottoms were lined with parchment paper, and the whole thing greased with Crisco and floured. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F.


I mixed up two boxes of white cake mix (I used Duncan Hines White) as per box directions (except I used milk instead of all water, I always do that with box cake), one batch at a time.


I divided one box's batch into three bowls as equally as I could, therefore two boxes of cake mix yields 6 separate little bowls. I would have used a scale if I had one, but alas, I don't.


I stirred in gel food coloring (I used Wilton brand) into each of the six bowls with toothpicks. I love how saturated the color turns out without watering down the batter like liquid food color does, besides, liquid makes it look more pastel.


Here I'm making orange.


This one is red. Swirly swirly!



Red, orange, yellow


Green, blue, purple


I only had two pans, so I baked two pans at the same time times 3. I baked for 20 mins each, or until toothpick comes out clean. Once cool enough, carefully take out of the pans and peel away the parchment paper. Cool the layers on a non-stick surface (or in my case, large cutting boards lined with parchment paper). Be careful! I cracked my layers in a few places since my cakes were soft and moist. Handle with care!


I made a buttercream frosting using a recipe I found on the package of the powdered sugar, but any thick frosting should work. If using frosting out of a can, whip it up and warm it up a little before spreading. I started with the purple layer on bottom, placed on a cardboard round (I propped it up off the counter with a strategically placed bowl underneath). It was handy to have a metal spatula specifically for icing since it was angled, but any knife or spatula will work. I spread a thin layer of frosting on each layer before placing the next layer on top.


My icing was too thin at first so my cake slid and toppled a few times. I should have used a dowel through the middle, but I managed to get it to stay straight up after I took this picture. Yes, thicker icing in thinner layers is better. I learned my lesson. Side note, I put too much red color in my orange layer, so it didn't look completely distinct from my red layer, but in real life it looked better.


I carefully frosted the sides with the remaining frosting, and attempted to cover up some of the blemishes with rainbow sprinkles (but failed). I had a few crumbles and breakage during frosting and during transport. On the drive to the potluck, I hit a few road bumps and it toppled a little bit, but what was the worst thing was that the frosting slid down to the bottom and started revealing the colored layers through the white frosting, giving away the secret coloring of the inside. I had wanted the rainbow to be a surprise until it was cut into.

Completely aside, that's Tora sitting on the chair behind the cake. My cat was very curious about what I was doing while baking and frosting. He must have thought I was doing something crazy, and he was right.


It didn't fail to please! It looked more amazing than I had hoped, the colors were so bright, and I got lots of compliments on it! Most of all, not only did people think it looked pretty, but they thought it tasted good too. Everyone asked how I got the colors so bright and how I got the cake so moist. Really, there's no secret to it. In a way, I wished the cake would have baked a little more stiff and dry to help keep its shape. In the end, I'm glad that people liked the texture and flavor of the cake.

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of cake. Don't get me wrong, cake is yummy when you have it on special occassions once in a while, but I'm not a super fan of it. I am, however, a fan of baking. It's therapeutic and fun. The biggest joy out of this whole process of making and sharing is watching people enjoy eating it. The colors brought a smile on people's faces. In the end, that's all I wanted!

I hope you all can try this one day and share with me your successes, and even failures! I hope these pictures and directions brought a little bit of rainbow joy into your day!