On Sunday, it was Brent's birthday - the big 30. To celebrate this fine occasion, I brought Mexico to my home. We celebrated in style with Margaritas, tortillas, salsa, and ended the night breaking open a colorful pinata. I wish you could have been there. Organizing the party was easy. Brent went away for the weekend, so I had plenty of time to plan a surprise party and make two six-layer rainbow cakes {one for photos, one for eating}. Brent returned home Sunday night just in time for the surprise. I picked him up from the airport and brought him home to our festive abode. He seemed suspicious as he walked through the front door and crept down the hall - and as he suspected, there were a couple of friends ready to ambush him. I'm sure he was relieved that there were only two of them. But then out of nowhere came 20 more friends, wearing fake mustaches and sombreros, and screaming Happy Birthday. The look on his face was priceless - he was majorly surprised!
I've never thrown a surprise party before. It was super fun picking out the decorations and then watching the living room transform into what I can only describe as Cinco de Mayo meets gay pride meets my little pony - magical. Imagine, brightly colored lanterns, a large brightly colored rainbow ball hanging from the ceiling, photos scattered across the house of my dog wearing a sombrero and poncho, a pinata in the shape of a llama, skittles, sour kids, jellyfish, tequila, fake mustaches, and one skittle covered rainbow cake. The party was a huge success. The Margaritas got drank, the salsa got eaten, and the pinata got smashed. My living room is still in one piece and my dog still has all his fur. Total success.
Now let's get down to business - the cake. I know you want me to tell you that it was super easy, that I hardly made a mess, that not one swear word came out of my mouth during the process, and that my dog didn't get covered head to paw in icing sugar and flour. Well, I'm not going to lie. I value our friendship too much. You see, I made two cakes. One of the cakes was meant for taking pictures in the nice natural daylight, and one was meant for eating with a Margarita or two. I didn't think I could capture the beauty of a six-layer rainbow cake at night and am definitely mostly glad I mad two. I figured I needed some good pictures to convince you that it was well worth the 8 hours spent in the kitchen on a super gorgeous sunny day. I'm pretty sure that while I was making the cake, sugar was seeping into my skin through osmosis. By the time I had finished the cakes, I felt as though I had already eaten several slices. Did I mention that I made the cake batter and icing from scratch? Twelve layers of cake weren't ambitious enough, I decided I needed to take on another challenge. I'm gonna tell you a little secret. If you're making a six-layer cake, it's ok to buy boxed cake mix and icing. No one will judge. They will be so damn impressed with your cake that it won't even matter.
This cake was some serious eye candy. A major flavor explosion for your eyes. In order to pull this magic together, I used a classic vanilla butter cake recipe with a vanilla buttercream frosting. The cake was sweet, perfect for a child's birthday party or a husband's surprise Mexican themed party. It was a fluffy, moist, melt-in-the-mouth kind of cake. If I had to sum it up, I would say it tasted like a rainbow is supposed to taste.
RAINBOW CAKE RECIPE
(
)
makes 6
cake recipe adapted from
CAKE INGREDIENTS
10 large egg whites, room temperature
1 1/2 cups whole milk, room temperature
4 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
5 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
3 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
3 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
red, yellow, green, and blue food coloring
ICING INGREDIENTS (
makes 5 cups)
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
10 tbsp butter, room temperature
4 tbsp milk
1 tsp pure vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a bowl, combine the egg whites, 1/2 cup milk, and vanilla with a wire whisk. Set to the side.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, with a hand mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined.
Add the butter and the remaining 1 cup of milk to the flour mixture. Mix on low speed until all ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed to medium and mix for 1 1/2 minutes. The batter should start to stick to the beaters.
Add the milk/egg mixture in 5 - 6 separate batches, mixing until combined, approximately 20 seconds each batch.
Separate the cake batter into 6 bowls. Add enough food coloring to make one red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple cake. To make orange, use red and yellow food coloring. To make purple, use red and blue.
Next, spray the cake pans with cooking oil and then line with parchment paper. If you only have a couple of cake pans, you made need to bake in batches. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the pans from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pans, and let cool on a wire rack. Continue the process until all 6 cakes are done. Once the cakes have cooled, wrap them in Saran wrap and place in the freezer for one hour. They will be much easier to handle when icing.
To make the icing, beat
the icing sugar and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla to the milk. Slowly drizzle in the milk and beat on high speed for at 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
With a piece of cardboard, trace a 6"circle. Place the purple cake on top of the cardboard and top with a layer of icing. Continue layering with the blue, green, yellow, orange, and then red cake with icing in between. Cover the top and the sides with icing and then decorate as desired.
