Rainbow layer cake success!

I’ve been wanting to make a rainbow cake for at least 6 months.

So when my name was drawn for a Valentine’s day cooking challenge at work – I knew this was the perfect excuse to try it out. A little risky given I’ve never made one before, but it all turned out ok.

I searched the internet for recipes – and there are lots out there. 
Unfortunately, there were measurements and ingredients from the USA and all sorts of things that make this cake a lot more complicated than it need be. 
So, in my quest to try and keep things simple, I sort of did it my own way. 
This took me around 5 hours to complete…

Recipe wise – I decided to use a trusty favourite cake recipe and doubled the quantity. I chose a simple Butter Cake, but you could use any vanilla cake or even your favourite packet mix. Just make sure you times your quantity by two.

Once my mix was ready – I split the quantity evenly into  six bowls. I added a half teaspoon of food colouring to each bowl to make the rainbow mixes. I couldn’t buy purple or orange colouring – so I mixed even parts of red and blue for the purple and red and yellow for the orange.

Then I greased and lined the bottom of my tin. I used a heart shaped tin as it was for Valentine’s day, but I think on a normal day I would use a round tin. 
Bake each colour mix separately for 20 mins at about 170 degrees. You could have more than one at a time in the oven if you have multiple cake tins, that would speed things up a bit. 


Allow each cake layer to completely cool.

As for icing, again – there were loads of different kinds of icing suggested when I searched for recipes online.

I decided again to stick with what I know – which is the Hummingbird Bakery’s cream cheese icing.

I made a double batch for the layers and then another double batch, with pink colouring for the outside of the cake.

I tried to do a good thick layer of icing between each cake layer.

For the outside of the cake, I started icing on the sides and finished on the top of the cake. I hid any cake show-through with more icing and a good icing spatula will helped to keep the icing smooth and even.

And then Ta-da – finished.

The best part is the reveal – cutting into the cake and seeing all the rainbow layers come together.

Yum!!!

Tuesday Special: sweet memories

I dedicate this Tuesday's post to The Hummingbird Bakery in London, on Portobello Rd. 
My friend Ang, Jo and I would go to the markets on a Saturday and join the queue for a little taste of happiness in cupcake size.


This here is the Red Velvet. I never really got past it.

And the good news is that now they have a recipe book. Happy Tuesday baking!