Of all my birthdays the one’s that stand out the most are those from my youth. Back then a birthday was synonymous with presents, party games and cake, and it was the cake that always left me with a lasting memory. It will come as no surprise therefore that when I was asked to make my Nephews first birthday cake, the one thing it had to have, was the WOW factor.
Birthdays are a time for celebrating, and with its Rainbow theme this particular party was also about celebrating colour. Ordinarily I would take the requests from the birthday boy or girl but my nephew’s vocabulary is currently limited to quack quack, dog, clock and mummum so this year the theme request came directly from my sister.
I’ve been itching to make a rainbow cake for a while now so this theme was warmly welcomed. It was then up to me to decide the design which after several weeks of deliberating and Pinterest research was finally decided upon. Being a perfectionist at heart meant that I put a lot of pressure on myself to make this cake perfect. The layers of sponge had to be equal, the colours the perfect shade, and the chosen ruffle icing HAD to be just right.
Oh god the Ruffle Icing! Typically I added to the pressure by choosing an icing technique completely new to me, so when the time came I spent the first 10 minutes trying to figure which angle the piping bag needed to be. Once I’d gotten the hang of the angle it was simply a matter of perfecting ‘The Running Dog’ technique which takes a lot of speed and patience. If you’d like to read more about this technique, a dedicated post will be published shortly. The recipe below is for the two-tiered, 6-layered rainbow cake.
For a first attempt I couldn’t have been happier with how this cake turned out, and it was an honour to have played a small part of my Nephew’s special day. It may have rained from start to finish, but the colours of the rainbow and the gorgeous birthday boy certainly managed to brighten things up!
Happy Birthday Harley-Bear – Lots of Love Auntie A!
Split the sponge mixture equally between 5 bowls and colour to your preferred strength
Aftermath
Easy 6-layered, two-tiered rainbow cake
Makes a 5-layered Rainbow Cake using 6 inch tins and one 5”x3” cake (top tier)
Preparation: 3 hours
Baking time: 30 minutes
400g self raising flour
400g soft soft butter
400g caster or light brown caster sugar
6 large free range eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder
Colour Pastes
(I used Sugarflair Paste: Navy, Melon, Claret and Paprika to create all 6 colours)
To start, preheat your oven to 170 degrees/360F/Gas Mark 4 and create your cake batter in your preferred way.
Next, divide your mixture equally between 6 bowls to create your rainbow colours. I divided mine by eye using a tablespoon at a time as a measure and gave my top tier bowl 2 tablespoons more.
As mentioned I used Sugarflair pastes and used Navy for my blue layer, Melon for yellow, Claret for pink, Navy and Melon to create green, Paprika and Melon to create orange, and Navy and Claret to create purple. Tip: use a little paste at a time and build the colour up to avoid going to dark.
Grease your cake tins before pouring the mixture in then bake in the oven for around 15 minutes. The top tier pan will need 20-25 as it is a thicker pan, however do ensure to keep your eyes on it. When a skewer comes out clean you know the cakes are cooked.
Leave your cakes to cool fully before icing, preferably wrap them in cling film and pop them into the fridge for a few hours as this makes them easier to decorate. To prepare for decoration, ice your 5 layers together with buttercream, then crumb coat this and your small top tier with a thin layer of buttercream all the way round. Put both cakes back in the fridge for another hour or two to set.
Personalised cake bunting – Etsy
Top Tier 5″x3″ cake pan – Lakeland
Sugarflair Rainbow Colour Set – Amazon
My Kitchen Drawer 