Rainbow cake

Rainbow Cake

Rainbow Cake was the perfect cake to make to celebrate my baby girl’s 5th birthday.  I thought it’d be so much fun to put this tall cake in front of her and cut it to reveal all those super bright colors.

So that’s about where the joy of making this monster ended.  I won’t bore you with all the details, because I come out a little pitiful.  Let’s just say that our air conditioner is still not working, it was really hot in my kitchen yesterday, and white chocolate icing doesn’t hold up terribly well under those conditions.  You can pretty much tell from looking at the photo that the cake layers did a fair amount of sliding around.  And that’s an understatement, let me tell you.  This sucker slid like it was ice skating.  Only not as gracefully.  After 3 wooden skewers and some lengthy time in the fridge, everything managed to hold together, but not before my perfect towering masterpiece was tilted and lopsided.

None of that even mattered when we were singing Happy Birthday.  Or when Sam asked Claudia if she knew what was inside the cake and her response was, “A little piece of love.”  How sweet is she anyway?  I can’t believe she’s 5 already.  Where did the time go?

Recipe:  Rainbow Cake

(adapted from Conversations with a Cupcake)

2 boxes of white cake mix

6 eggs

1 c. water

2/3 c. oil

gel food coloring in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple

white chocolate frosting  (recipe follows)

Mix the cakes mixes with the eggs, water, and oil and blend well.  Pour about 1 c. of batter into 6 small bowls.  Add a little gel food coloring to each bowl to create your rainbow-colored batter.

Grease and flour seven 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.  (I used three 8″ pans and baked in two shifts.) Using a spatula, spoon and spread each color of batter into its own cake pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven, for 15-18 minutes, or until tops spring back when touched lightly. Allow to cool completely. Frost with White Chocolate Frosting.

Recipe:  White Chocolate Frosting

1 c. butter, softened

1 bag white chocolate chips

3 lbs. powdered sugar

1/2 – 1 c. milk

In a large bowl, microwave white chocolate chips until melted, in 30 second intervals.  Immediately beat in butter until smooth.  Add powdered sugar and some milk and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add more milk, if needed to achieve desired consistency.  Makes enough frosting to ice between each layer of cake and around the outside of the cake.   (I actually had frosting leftover.  This makes a lot!)