Rainbow Birthday Cake

By The Canadian Living Test Kitchen

123 people added this to their Recipe Box

Rainbow Birthday Cake
Photography by Matthew Kimura

This recipe makes 12 servings

Nutritional Info
Per serving: about	-
cal	724724 cal
pro	7 g7g pro
total fat	35 g35g total fat
sat. fat	21 g21g sat. fat
carb	99 g99g carb
fibre	1 g1g fibre
chol	155 mg155mg chol
sodium	485 mg485mg sodium
% RDI:	-
calcium	88 calcium
iron	1111 iron
vit A	3232 vit A
folate	66 folate

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Spring showers bring the delightful surprise of a rainbow that brightens any gathering. Making the batter and icing once then dividing it for colouring makes it easy.

Ingredients

1 cup butter , softened1 1cup cupbutter, softened
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar 1-3/4 1-3/4cups cupsgranulated sugar
4 eggs 4 4eggeggs
2 tsp vanilla 2 2tsp tspvanilla
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour 2-3/4 2-3/4cups cupsall-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder 2 2tsp tspbaking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda 3/4 3/4tsp tspbaking soda
1-1/4 cups buttermilk 1-1/4 1-1/4cups cupsbuttermilk
red, yellow and blue Food colouring red, yellow and blue Food colouring
1 Butter Icing Recipe 1 1Butter Icing Recipe
orange, green and purple Food colouring
1/3 cup yellow (candy) moulding wafers 1/3 1/3cup cupyellow (candy) moulding wafers
Fluffy Icing Recipe Fluffy Icing Recipe

Preparation

View large image of Rainbow Cake.

Grease sides of three 9-inch (1.5 L) round cake pans; line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper. Set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir into butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, making 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 of buttermilk. Divide among 3 bowls. With food colouring, tint 1 red, 1 yellow and 1 blue. Scrape each into 1 of the prepared pans, smoothing top.

Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven for 30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pans on rack for 15 minutes. Run knife around edges; turn out onto rack and peel off paper. Turn right side up; let cool on rack.

Divide Butter Icing among 3 bowls. With food colouring, tint 1 orange, 1 green and 1 purple. Place red cake layer on flat serving plate; spread top with orange icing. Top with yellow layer; spread top with green icing. Top with blue layer; spread top with purple icing. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until icing is firm.

Meanwhile, to make "sunrise" garnish for top of cake, in bowl over saucepan of hot (not boiling) water, melt moulding wafers. On waxed or parchment paper, trace 2-1/2-inch (6 cm) circle and 3-inch (8 cm) square; turn over onto baking sheet. Spread shapes with melted wafers. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until set. Hold knife under hot water for 30 seconds; press into square from 1 corner on diagonal to cut out sun's rays, reheating knife after each cut. Cover top and side of cake with Fluffy Icing. Press sun and rays vertically into top.