I hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with parties, family, and friends. I know we sure did! We celebrate Easter and the 4th anniversary of our little Reese. On Saturday we went to "The County," where Grant grew, to visit his father (grandfather), stepmother Kathy (Grammy), and family farms. It's a neat situation, because it is home grown in Grant, who on the same property as (Poppy) his grandfather's house, so when we go with the kids, there are so many for them to see and do. With Easter and Reese's birthday falls on the same weekend this year (rare), we decided it would be nice to celebrate in the County, Saturday. When Reese and I were talking about ideas birthday cake, we thought it would be a good time to make a brilliant rainbow cake.
When I first saw Reese Rainbow Cake Kid on the Beat blog, he fell in love with it, and rightfully so-this cake is a dream come true boy with 6 vibrant rainbow colored layers and tons of buttercream! Kaitlin blog filled with delicious cakes and treats, photos, and helpful clues cake, and if you have not, you really should check it out! As a girl cake itself, I must tell you that I think it's a rainbow cake discovery of the possibility of a layer of the cake design genius in the history of cake. She is amazing she-a 20-year-old student at Michigan State University who happens to be a baker's super-bright, enthusiastic and talented / blogger, and more. If you do not believe me, ask Martha Stewart who has Kaitlin him on the show to demonstrate the manufacture of the Rainbow Cake!
I told Kaitlin that I think the fact that she left her Rainbow Cake white buttercream on the outside is complete brilliance and perfect execution. I'm tempted to do it too, but I think it would be fun to let Reese exterior design your own cake, so I covered the cake with buttercream Rainbow some white fondant, cold overnight, and then submit a packet of Food Color AmeriColor Markers (below)-again, a dream come true for children artsy and creative as he is infinite. I ordered this pen some time ago, and vowed that someday he could be the color of the cake itself. He was so excited that he even sketched some ideas on paper with regular markers, so that he was ready and prepared (this is so that my child). The first thing he did was to write his first name, then the full name, then the number 4. Then he thought about it, and did whatever he wanted until the cake is full of doodles. My personal favorite is the rainbow and a big yellow sun. Would not it be nice to make a matching sugar cookies covered in white fondant, and let the kids decorate their own cookie at a birthday party? Or even write the names of guests in luxurious cookie as a place card. So much fun!
What I really love about this cake is the element of surprise and wow-factor, when the first cut and served. There are literally a few gasping sounds at the table when they see the inside of the rainbow, and the child in me could not be more in love with a layer of the rainbow (the tween in the 80's, what can I say). This cake is made with a split vanilla cake batter and coloring using color gel (I use the recipe below, but any vanilla butter cake will work fine) and baking in a separate pan for 15 minutes each. This process is really a nice change for me and Reese helped the color all the batter bowl. This part of the "Alyea" on it makes me smile, I guess that's one way to claim your part! I think I might start doing that here. The cake itself was delicious, and I just adore Lemon Meringue Buttercream Swiss, so it is a perfect addition to vanilla cake and vanilla fondant. So with all that buttercream decadent beautiful!
Here's a recipe for Rainbow Cake followed by my version of how-to for Doodle Cakes:
Rainbow Doodle Birthday Cake
{click here for printable recipe}
White Cake (but not really)
2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp
2 1/3 c (466 g) sugar
5 egg whites, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 c (375 g) all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 1/2 c (355 g) milk, warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple food coloring GEL. Fluid will not live enough!
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Oil and outline how ever many 9 "cake pan you have (I have three and I just re-use them).
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Cream sugar and butter, then add egg whites (I cracked them all into one bowl) and add a little at a time. Add vanilla and stir until mixed. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add milk and flour mixture in two parts.
Divide batter among 6 bowls (I do weight Weigh your bowl before you start adding the ingredients and then reduce the weight of the bowl of the final measurement after the batter is finished. For that number by six and add that weight. Dough to the bowl of each), and then whisk enough appropriate food color into each bowl. Keep in mind that the color of unbaked dough will be the color of baked dough. Pour into pan and bake for 15 minutes each.
When you remove from oven, let them rest on a cooling rack, in pan for ten minutes. Then flip, cover and store in refrigerator to cool quickly.
Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream
To fill and crumb coat:
9 egg whites
1 ¾ c (350 g) sugar
4 sticks (454 g) of butter, room temp
2 tsp lemon extract
To frost:
5 egg whites
1 c (200 g) sugar
2 sticks (227 g) butter, room temp
1 tsp lemon extract
Cook the egg whites and sugar in small saucepan over medium heat, whisking steadily, until sugar is completely dissolved (test by rubbing some between your fingers if it's really smooth, it is done.). Pour into another bowl (stand mixer is better) and whip on high speed until room temperature. Then, the medium-slow speed, add butter, waiting until each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Once all the butter has been added, turn the mixer back to high speed and whip until it has come together, about five minutes. Add extract, lightly beaten, and then used.
If the buttercream seems thick after all the butter is added and did not come together after the whipping, chill for 5 to 7 minutes and continue whipping until it becomes smooth and workable.
Assembly
Stack layers for your choice and fill and frost cake as you do more.
Sweetapolita Notes for Doodle Cakes & How-To:
A. For tips and tricks to make Meringue Buttercream Swiss, both Kaitlin and I have to post about this, so much info!
Swiss Meringue Buttercream Demystified and Swiss Meringue Buttercream How to Make
2. You might find my previous post 50 Tips for Better Baking Cakes help with this cake (and hopefully others).
3. I was worried at first that I somehow made the layer is too thin, but they are perfect, so do not panic when they seem almost like a pancake! Once you accumulate 6 of the layers and all that buttercream, cake is the perfect height. Mine was about 4.5 "high. Use a 9-inch, 1/4" thick cake boards when building the cake.
4. To create a doodle cake, buttercream cake covered in white fondant and chill overnight. You will need about 2 lbs, 3 oz of fondant for cake 9 "round 5" high. Remove cake from refrigerator and let the kids (or anyone) color all over the cake using Color AmeriColor Food Markers (below). Place cake back in the freezer every 15 minutes or more, if it begins to soften before the child is complete (if not, you will get a dent in the cake). It's also fun to have everyone sign a birthday party cakes, write messages, draw, etc!
5. You can save the finished cake in the refrigerator, but serve at room temperature or the buttercream will not be quite soft and the flavors that will not come through as intended. I usually take the kind of fondant-covered cake from refrigerator about 6 hours before serving. Just a note will dent very easy cake when ready to serve, so avoid touching the cake itself.
6. As an alternative to cake craft kids, you might want to Chocolate Peanut Butter Jelly paintable & Cakes.
You can buy a marker Food Color AmeriColor here:
*A note about the rainbow cake colours: I used AmeriColor electric gel colours to get such vibrant hues in the cake while adding minimal colouring. Here are the colours I used and links to find them:
Electric Purple AmeriColor Gel Colour – Electric Purple – 4 oz
Electric Blue AmeriColor Gel Colour – Electric Blue – 4 oz
Electric Green AmeriColor Gel Colour – Electric Green – oz
Electric Yellow AmeriColor Gel Colour – Electric Yellow – 4 oz
Electric Orange AmeriColor Gel Colour – Electric Orange – 4 oz
Super Red AmeriColor Gel Colour – Super Red – 4 oz
Good luck & enjoy!
