Rainbow Cake for birthday party!!!

Rainbow Cake

Hello foodies!!!

I know it’s been a while! Time flew by those past few months, but I really want to write again! I plan to write a post about what has been going on in the kitchen and why I’ve been silent for all this time… But that’s for another day.

Today I wanted to share the making of the Rainbow Cake, that I’ve done for my daughter’s 4th birthday, because it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!! I am usually the type to run away from unnaturally colored food, but for a kid’s birthday, totally worth it! And the colors didn’t take anything away from the taste, it was really good!

But I am not going to take any credit on the recipe, I have follow to the T one of Martha Stewart recipe’s (yes, her again, I know, she just nails the party cakes though!!!), whom shouldn’t take so much credit either, because this recipe was in the 1st placed from “Whisk Kid” blogger Kaitlin Flannery. So if you want to give some credit to the blogger, visit this page for the recipe!!! How cool for her, she got to go the Martha Show to demonstrate how to make her rainbow cake! We watched the video with my kids before getting to it, they loved it right away!

Anyhow, no retyping of a recipe that’s not mine, but just to note, the recipe calls for 2 batches of Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and I have done only one batch, and did it with 2 tsp of vanilla extract instead of lemon. I though just one big batch of it was enough, I didn’t have those thick layers of frosting between each layer of cake, but that was just right to my taste, and apparently to everyone else’s taste!

This is the ingredients list for one big batch of vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

9 egg whites
1 ¾ c (350 g) sugar
4 sticks (452 g) butter, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract

Now, here is the work in pictures for you:

First, prepare your parchment paper, to place at the bottom of your pans. As you can see, even a soon to be 4 year old can do it 😉

Then, you’ll do the cake batter. Once it’s done, separate it in 6 bowls. It helps that the bowls are all same size, so you can eyeball the same quantity in each of them. Then add the color! I use an Icing Colors Set from Wilton. You don’t want to do that with regular liquid food colorant, it won’t be vibrant enough. Gel colorant are best for great color! I added maybe 1/8 of a tsp of color in each.  Kids had so much fun mixing the batter and seeing it turning into vibrant colors! It’s like art and baking at the same time!

Then you bake. I had only 2 cake mold of the same size, so I had to bake them in 3 separate batch 😦 . If I do that again, i will buy 6 disposable mold, to cut on the baking time! See how the colors are so vibrant?! And the buttered parchment paper at the bottom, totally worth it! Cake just fell from the mold without a fight!

Then the buttercream part! I had done Swiss Meringue Buttercream before, so I was not too worried about it, but there is nothing to be afraid of.. Actually, Kaitlin has a great post on her Whisk Kid blog about how to make it, and she even has tips and what to do if things turn weird. Check it out before you start, if it’s your first time at it! As you can see, birthday girl couldn’t wait to try it! This stuff is good!!! And then you spread a bit between each layers of cake. I refrigerated the buttercream for about 30 min after I finished making it, so it is a bit more stable, and doesn’t run from between layers.

Then did a crumb coat, and refrigerated for 1 hour before finishing the outside frosting. This allow the crumb coat to set and your outside layer of buttercream will remain white and crumb-free! Optional: added rainbow sprinkles all over…

Anyhow, this cake was a hit! You should hear the Ho and Ha when I pull that first slice!!! The recipe is really good, the cake is really tasty and not overly sweet. it is well worth the effort, trust me! Beside birthday party, this could be a great cake for a Pride party, St. Patrick day or any rainbow lover’s occasion!

To top it up, I also made a tray of my famous Rainbow Jello!!! This time I poured it in a rectangular mold and cut it out with cookie cutters. Big time saver to not pour the layers in tiny cups like last time… Just make sure your cookie cutters are high enough to cut through all the layers!

It was a delicious and colorful party! And even though I have been staying away from sugar lately, I’ll definitely do an exception for kid’s birthday. I always have so many ideas of stuff to bake for them!

What are you baking for your kids’ birthdays?

XOXO

Tartine

You may also like:

Rainbow Jello

Hello Kitty Cake

Kitty Cake Pops