Baking Journey: Somewhere Over the Rainbow Cake

Rainbows! Don't you just love 'em? Once my husband and I were crossing the Mississippi River way down in the middle of nowhere. The sky was so dark. And then the most awesome sight appeared above the bridge. A DOUBLE RAINBOW!!! And they were both so vibrant and did I say "awesome"? That's been at least 30 or so years ago. And the sight has never left me. I love rainbows. When someone wanted a rainbow cake....I thought, Oh, wow, I'd really like to do one. And I'm so glad I did. Batter, color gel, piping bags, LOTS OF ICING, an oven and patience are all that's required. Here's my rainbow baking journey. Hope you enjoy!

(I did it again....
I skipped the first part and didn't take pictures, but I think you can get here without much trouble...right?)

Lets get started...Use your favorite white cake recipe. Divide your
batter evenly. Either weigh or use a measuring cup...But DO divide evenly.
I started with my first layer, added Ameri-Gel Violet. It doesn't take much
to make the color you desire. Mix well. Bake. and use regular buttercream
to pipe a "dam" around the edge of your first layer.

I added fresh strawberry puree and a little strawberry jam
to some swiss meringue buttercream to make a filling.
This family loves strawberries and I knew that adding
strawberries to the batter would alter the vibrant colors,
so we put the strawberry flavor in between the layers instead.

Then start stacking the different color layers the same way.
Pipe buttercream. Add filling. And keep going.
A rainbow is made by layering the Ameri-gel tinted cakes with
violet, blue, leaf green, lemon
yellow,
orange and red-red. Whether you start with violet at the top
or the bottom doesn't matter. But follow the colors in order...
or just create your own combinations. There is no cake police!
I saw some that used
various shades of the same color. Look at "Ombre cakes"

Please visit Glory HERE to see her pink ombre. She is SO talented!

But...please come back and visit with me. We'll have coffee and cake and exchange stories of our cakes ideas and successes....... and the ones that ~~were disasters~~ disappeared. Okay, I might give you coffee while I drink some tea, or milk or juice. Sorry, I'm not a coffee person.

Oh MY...now my secret's out.

Hope you're still my friend.

Anyway, go ahead and visit Glory and come back as soon as you can.

I'll be here....waiting........................................................................................................................and waiting........................and........................OH, HI! Glad you're back.

Each of my layers is a "half" layer. I only put half the amount of batter in each pan.

This cake was made with 12" round cake pans.

Yes, yes, I know...a BIG cake :)

I could have made regular layers and cut them in half, but that would have produced TWO rainbow cakes when i only needed one.

Do you see my "bubbles"? That's what happens when you beat too long (sigh)

It did not affect the cake taste or texture itself.

But

just thought you might want to know that leaving a stand mixer going and getting side tracked is not cool!

Crumb coat with a thin layer of buttercream. And I say THIN, because this cake will have LOTS of icing on it. Start with a No. 18 open star tip and make swirl roses. If your layers are level use the color line to help you. If you can't see the layers, use a few toothpicks and a ruler to be a guide. And don't forget to take the picks out :) If you work it right you will use each color for each layer. If not. It's no big thing. Just try to be consistent. and keep your swirls going the same direction. When you go to the next color, make your swirls offset and have their centers lined up with the area where the previous colors in the line below were joined.

Continue with your color swirls...
violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. I suppose my top layer was a little bit taller than the others. But I continued with red swirls until the top edge and the top was completely covered. The top becomes a challenge, but keep working in offset circles and fill in any white areas with partial swirls or stars after you have set the rose swirls on top.

The rainbow is complete and ready for its party! This party had rainbow jello, rainbow Unicorn "poop" (you know Unicorns poop rainbows)....No, I didn't know that.....Did you? Anyway, a rainbow fruit tray, rainbow accessories, large rainbow paper flowers. It was SO cute. The parents were SO creative.

Are you ready for the big reveal?