From my kitchen: Tilly Pamment’s rainbow cake

Tilly Pamment has many strings to her creative bow – photographer, food stylist and creator of luxurious Australianmade botanical linens and original photographic prints designed at her home in the Blue Mountains. This month Tilly shares her recipe and memories of rainbow cake.

There is something innately cheering about a homemade cake. This has little to do, I feel, with the level of sophistication or perfection of the cake, and everything to do with the forethought and care that went into the baking.

My love of baked goods, and of food in general, has been shaped by my family – by my English GG (grandmother) who made fabulous sponge cakes and trifles; by my Nanna who had a no-nonsense approach to cooking (and life), but a love of whipped cream; by my parents who always cooked good food, from scratch, and now by my husband and two kids who are my chief tastetesters and perhaps harshest critics!

This recipe is the birthday cake of my childhood, my version of Nanna’s rainbow cake. This is the only cake I remember her cooking and the one she always baked for my brothers and me – a rite of passage for birthdays spent with her. Essentially a stacked butter cake – one layer flavoured with cocoa, one coloured pink, and one left in all its vanillery glory – the layers then sandwiched together with whipped cream – this cake is more than the sum of its parts. Simple, nostalgic delight. Here’s to you, Nanna.

Rainbow cake

250g self-raising flour

⅛ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

¼ teaspoon salt

275g caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

250ml buttermilk, at room temperature

125g butter, melted and cooled

1½ tablespoons Dutch cocoa, mixed with 1½ tablespoons hot water

2 tablespoons freeze-dried strawberry or raspberry powder, or a few drops of pink food colouring

FILLING

300ml thickened cream

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 tablespoon icing sugar

1 Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease and line 3 x 18cm sandwich tins with baking paper.

2 Place flour, bicarb soda, salt and caster sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, stirring briefly to combine.

3 In a separate bowl, place eggs, vanilla, buttermilk and melted butter, whisking lightly to combine. Pour wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry and mix on low until smooth. Increase speed to medium and beat for a minute or so, until the batter is lighter in colour and texture.

4 Divide batter into three equal portions. Place one third into one of the prepared sandwich tins, smoothing the surface with a spatula, and set aside. Place another third into a medium mixing bowl and add cocoa powder mixed with hot water. Mix to a smooth batter, taking care not to over-mix, and spoon into second sandwich tin. Add freeze-dried berry powder or food colouring to remaining batter, mixing to incorporate before spooning into last sandwich tin.

5 Bake cakes for 20-25 minutes or until risen and cooked through. Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes in their tins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

6 When cakes are cool, whip cream, vanilla bean paste and icing sugar together to stiff peaks. Place chocolate cake layer on serving plate (trim top to flatten if necessary), top with half the whipped cream. Stack the berry layer on next (again trimming if necessary), topping with the rest of the cream. Top with the final vanilla layer, dusting liberally with icing sugar.