A Rainbow Cake: And Now You Know The Rest Of The Story!

I've wanted to make a rainbow cake for quite awhile now. I'd seen a few of them while surfing on the food blogs and thought "One of these days..." Rainbow cakes have 3 different colors poured into one pan and then stacked to make a 2 layer cake. When sliced, you see all 6 colors.

Then I visited Trish of The Kobialka Family and saw she made 6 layers , one for each color. I knew this cake would be baked sooner then later!

And I had the perfect opportunity!

"Graduation Day 2009"

Here's The Hubby, The Kid (AKA The Graduate) and the MIL.
Beautiful family I have, wouldn't you agree?

I started this cake by using Trish's favorite wedding cake recipe and I have to agree with her. This was one nice, moist, and sturdy cake with a wonderful almond flavor. I cut the recipe in half and had a little more then 6 cups. One cup per layer! I colored each cup with a different rainbow color. Good think I have plenty of spatulas.

Here are my layers all stacked up. In order to make this a little bit easier for me, knowing there were plenty of graduating errands and chores to do, I bought disposable cake pans. I didn't want to make 2 and wait, make 2 more and wait, make two more and... well, you get it. So disposal pans made it easy and quicker. (Got that tip from Bakerella!)

Since I was already stole Trish's 6 layer idea and her cake recipe, I might as well steal,...err,... I mean borrow her filling too. Besides, who can resist a filling called "Candy Bar Filling"?
Certainly not me!

Another brief chilling time before decorating.

These are one of the Edible images I got for this cake. I got these at Country Sweet Art and love using them. The one I use on the sides come 3 strips to a paper and they just peel off and you lay them right on the buttercream. After a short period of time, they marry into the frosting and become one. They are really fun to use and take an ordinary cake up a notch!

Applying the first strip.

Piping along the bottom covers a multitude of sins.

Did you notice the colors on the side are in a rainbow order? Just like the inside of the cake!

The top image was a large circle edible image. Just have to be careful to put it where you want it because once to place it down on the buttercream, you wont be able to adjust it . It's pretty much staying where you put it the first time.

Smooth out any air bubbles and pipe another row of frosting along the top edge.

And you have a very pretty rainbow cake perfect for an eighth grade graduation party!

But there was a huge hick up while making this cake.

I couldn't get the images off the paper. They were ripping and tearing and not behaving at all. I wanted to take this cake to a party. It was just an extra thing we made for fun, it wasn't like anyone was expecting it. But once I started having problems with the side images, I decided against the party appearance. I got one strip off the paper pretty good and put it around about 1/3 of the cake. Then I just decorated that section of cake for a picture. It took a pretty picture and you would never know that the back is not decorated at all.

But not to worry.
Country Sweet Art Representative said that heat and/or humidity could have affected the strips or it could be a bad batch. Who knows? But they apologized for the inconvenience and are making it right with me. That's the kind of company I like to work with. Lesson I learned? If It's a cake that has to make an important appearance, you might want to have a back up sheet of edible images. Just in case!


And now you know the rest of the story!

Wedding Cake

2 (18 ounce) boxes white cake mix
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons real vanilla
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups sour cream
8 large egg whites

1. Place all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir together with a wire whisk.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and beat for 2 minutes.
3. Pour into greased and floured cake pans, filling each pan a little over half full.
4. Lightly tap cake pans on counter to bring air bubbles to top.
5. Bake in preheated 325° F oven until cake tests done. I don't put a baking time here because it depends on the size of your pans. I make this recipe in any size from cupcakes to 14" round pans.
6. Baking time varies according to the size and depth of pans being used.
Note:
This is an easy cake to change the flavor of. You can make it with lemon for lemon cake, use a different flavor cake mix (whole eggs instead of whites), etc.

Candy Bar Filling
1/2 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk or half-and-half
3 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla
8 ounces chocolate bars, any flavor (I used Hershey Bars but next time, Skor!!!

1. Combine all ingredients except vanilla and chocolate bars in a heavy saucepan.
2. Stir constantly until mixture boils. Boil and stir one additional minute. Do not leave unattended.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Add the vanilla and chocolate bar pieces.
5. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
6. Pour into a bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface (to prevent pudding-skin). Chill. Don't fill your cakes until this mixture is completely cool throughout.