My little Noah is turning 6! I seriously can’t believe it. His mom asked me to help plan the food his Rainbow party and of course I said yes! I’m a bit in love with this cake and even though I tore up my kitchen TWICE and ended up with food coloring all over my hands (don’t ask)… and the dishes for this were a beast. But…
The thing with kids parties is that you don’t need to go over the top to be classy and have fun. Your life does NOT have to be over the top to be pinterest worthy. And honestly, I think kids at this age are just happy their friends are around and having fun.
Anyhoo, we looked around and really just fell in love with this Rainbow Layer Cake from Love and Olive Oil. And while it was a bit daunting, I made sure to try it out before hand just to make sure it would turn out right. See, I’m more of a cupcake gal, so a whole cake felt pretty out of my league. Especially one like this!
Rainbow Layer Cake
Cake ingredients
2 boxes white cake mix
2 boxes vanilla pudding
2 c vegetable oil
8 eggs
Red, blue and Yellow food coloring
Simple Syrup – You can make your own by combining 1c sugar and 1c water over high heat. Stir the sugar is dissolved then remove from heat.
Skittles for decoration
Frosting:
1c butter
1c vegetable shortening
4 tbsp (or more) cream
2 lb powdered sugar
Tools:
Large mixing bowl
3-6 small mixing bowls (I just used the ones we eat with)
Offset spatula
Kitchen scale – you don’t need one, I just prefer to have one
Spatula
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Weigh your mixing bowl (you’re going to need to know this later) – If you don’t have a scale, skip this step.
- Combine your vegetable oil, eggs and pudding. Once they’re all mixed together add in your cake mix. Your batter is going to be VERY thick so if you’re using a hand mixer, you might want to finish it off by hand.
- Weigh your batter in the mixing bowl. Okay, here’s where math comes in. Subtract the weight of the mixing bowl then divide that number (batter weight) by 6. Got it? Write that number down.
- Take your small mixing bowl and weigh that without anything in it. Got it? There should be a little “barre/on” button on your scale. Press it to zero out the weight of the bowl. Now, put in the amount of batter by weight that you got from step 4.
- Okay, now that math is over, you’re going to go ahead and mix your colors. Work backwards starting with PURPLE, BLUE, and GREEN.
- Spray your pans down with non-stick baking spray, pour/spread your mix and stick it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.
- Once your first round of cakes are done, remove them from the pans and place them on your cooling racks.
- Repeat steps 6-8 but with YELLOW, ORANGE, and RED food coloring.
- Once your cakes are cooled, level each by using your cake leveler or serrated knife. You want each top to be flat. A cake leveler is going to give you nice even layers, but it really just depends on what you have in your kitchen. – Make it work 😉
- Finish each layer off by drizzling simple syrup over the cut tops of each layer
Frosting:
- Cream butter, vanilla and vegetable shortening together.
- Add powdered sugar SLOWLY until its all incorporated.
- When you get about half way through with the powdered sugar add your cream.
Frosting your Rainbow Layer Cake!
Its time to build your cake! Using an offset spatula (or the back of a spoon), spread some frosting on the base where your cake is going to sit. Place the PURPLE layer top up and add a thin layer of frosting. Lay your next layer, BLUE, TOP down. Add a thin layer of frosting. Repeat this step until all 6 layers are stacked.
Give it a quick crumb coat… a super thin layer of frosting. Just enough that pieces of cake don’t come off when you’re doing the actual frosting.
Let that sit for about an hour, then start frosting your cake. Sides first to get an even coating, then top, then sides again.
If you want a smooth finish, dip your spatula in water and use it on your last pass over the cake.
Decorate with skittles and serve the surprise!
2 Comments
So cute!!!! How did it taste?
February 19, 2016 at 11:00 pmIt was amazing if I do say so myself. And the kids agreed… because there wasn’t any left! Oh, and then there’s the test one I brought to the church… and that one was gone before end of second service!
February 22, 2016 at 11:58 am