The Easiest Rainbow Cake

Two Saturdays ago,we skipped DW’s Kindermusik class because DW seemed tired and was ready to take his morning nap. On top of that he hasn’t taken a shower yet and we didn’t want to rush! So 30 minutes before Kindermusik, we played hooky. Of course as soon as DW finished his bottle of milk, he jumped up and started playing with BDW! (Antok? anong antok?!)  BDW and DW were playing upstairs and I was in the kitchen milling about prepping for the big challenge ahead. Fresh from my Devil’s Food Cake “win” I figured that with a little bit of patience and a little bit of luck, I might as well go ahead and do the Rainbow Cake too!

So without further ado, here’s the Amateur’s Guide to Making a Rainbow Cake

Here’s what you need

1 box butter cake mix (Betty Crocker or any brand, you can also use a lemon cake mix)
3 eggs
1 1/3 cup Water
1/2 cup butter
Ferna Food Coloring

TIP: You can replace the eggs, water and butter with a 12 oz can (1 can) of diet sprite or 7-up for a lemon-lime flavor AND to cut down on calories! Yes it’s a weight watchers secret! Also, you can use soda if your kid or someone in your family is allergic to eggs 🙂  Just google Soda Cake Mix and you’ll get tons of ideas on this 🙂

Clean bowls
Hand Mixer

TIP: Get all your bowls and handy gadgets out so you won’t have to scramble for them as you go along the process.  Get out all that you need, di na bale OA! you can just pack up the unused stuff anyway.

Mix up the eggs, water, butter and cake mix in a big bowl. Beat the ingredients together in low speed for 30 seconds then on medium speed for 2 minutes. The mix will be smoother if still a bit lumpy.

At the supermarket, I was only able to buy 5 bottles of liquid food coloring. Luckily a box of cake mix is equivalent to five small bowls! I scooped out the mix from the mixing bowl using a soup ladle. 3 ladles = 1 bowl.

A few drops of color is enough, I did about a few drops and then I accidentally spilled  more coloring into the other bowls because I’m clumsy like dut 😛 the colors became so intense for the other bowls that I dropped a few more coloring in the other bowls to even out the colors 🙂

Using the ROYGBIV sequence, I dropped Purple first then Blue in the first round pan which would make up the bottom layer of the cake.

For the second layer, which would be the top layer I poured Red, orange then Green.

TIP: Don’t forget to grease your pans first before pouring the mix!! I prefer to use butter or margarine for this. If you don’t have a brush to to grease the pans with you can use tissue paper. Just swipe the paper on the butter then wipe the pans with it 🙂

Bake the cakes and clean up!

Both layers will be done in 30-40 minutes. The best test is the toothpick test. If you see that the cakes have risen and the top seems firm, get a toothpick and insert it and if it comes out somewhat clean, it’s done!

After cleaning your stuff and waiting for the cakes to bake, you can do the white frosting.

Thick White Frosting
2 1/2 cups Sifted Powdered Sugar
1 cup shortening
2 teaspoons Almond (or Vanilla) flavoring

Beat the shortening and add the sugar half-a-cup at a time. Add 2 teaspoons of almond or vanilla flavoring. I actually thought I used vanilla until I saw my unopened bottle of vanilla flavoring sitting on the counter! Gaaah! The almond worked though (thank god) and it made the frosting not too sweet 🙂

Chill the frosting. You can just cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and keep it in the ref 🙂

When the cakes are done, allow them to cool for a while, pan and all on a cooling rack. We don’t have a cooling rack so I used my mom’s trivets (just like this one) 😀 Hey whatever works right?!

TIP: Setting the right temperature is important. I think the oven was too hot so the cake on the left “broke”. Our oven kasi is in centigrade and the conversion from fahrenheit is not too exact. I’ll err on the side of caution next time and just take the temperature lower by at least 5 degrees. (naks may ganon!)

Greasing your pans good would come in handy when it comes to assembling the cake because the cakes pop off from the pans smoothly! In fact I turned the pans upside down and they came off right away!

Because the top of what should be the first layer cracked, I decided to make it the bottom layer. Wrong! It didn’t matter pala haha :p oh well, the frosting recipe can cover the entire cake. Make sure to also frost the top of the first layer too so that both layers can “stick” to one another. I used a small spatula and a spoon to frost the cake. The thick mixture was hard to spread so I just did short upward strokes and left it at that.

Frosting the first layer:

Fully Frosted!

And voila! It’s ready to serve 🙂

I was so happy that DW loved the cake! He pointed out the colors while he was eating 🙂 BDW also said it was a good tasting cake and my brothers agreed too 😀 Yay!

DW got a bit confused though.When DW saw a piece of paper, he started coloring the whole thing with his green crayon and started eating the whole thing ahaha :p I had to tell him that he can’t eat paper and he could only eat colored cake wehehe :p

Of course, DW’s grandparents had a better idea on what else to do with DW’s cake!

Practice!!!

So there! That’s done!! But I still need more practice though but at least the great cake experiment is turning out quite well!! Yahoo!!!

P.S. This recipe is based on Omnomnicon’s recipe here. Thank you so much to Joy of Gourmeted.com for pointing me to her!!