Brighten someone’s day with a Rainbow cake!
Be ready for oohs and aahs when you unveil this guaranteed-tomake-’em-happy cake whipped up with easy-from-scratch vanilla cake layers and colorful buttercream frosting!
CAKE LAYERS 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing 1 3/4 cups superfine sugar 6 eggs 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1/4 cup milk
BUTTERCREAM 3 1/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature 10 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, from 3 (16 oz.) pkgs., sifted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Yellow, purple, blue, green, orange and pink concentrated food colorings
● Cake layers: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 3 (8") round cake pans and line with parchment paper. On medium speed, beat butter and superfine sugar together in large bowl until light and fluffy. On low, add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt; stir in with large spoon. Stir in vanilla, then milk until combined. Divide mixture among pans, spreading evenly. Bake 20-25 minutes or until skewer inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pans 5 minutes, then turn out onto rack. Cool completely before trimming tops slightly to level. Cut each cake layer in half horizontally. ● Buttercream: Beat butter, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla together in large bowl until light and fluffy. Transfer 2 1/2 cups to separate bowl; tint yellow with food coloring. Divide remaining buttercream among five bowls, about 1 1/2 cups each; tint each portion with a different color with food coloring. Once cake layers are cold, sandwich them together using 1/4 cup of each different colored buttercream between each layer, then coat cake completely with thin layer of yellow buttercream (about 1 3/4 cups) to catch crumbs. ● Using a ruler, measure height of cake, then using a toothpick, mark mid-height point on cake side all the way around. Refrigerate cake 1Spoon1 hour. each of remaining colored buttercreams into a
separate disposable pastry bag and cut 1/2" opening in each tip. Line up bags in order in which you want to pipe colors, then using marked center guideline, pipe rows of dots onto cake—three above line, as 2Useshown below left, and three below.
back of teaspoon to spread each dot of icing from center to right, as shown. Clean spoon between 3Continueeach use.
with your next row of dots, but move colors all down one position, as shown, checking often to make sure lines are vertical. Continue in this way with all remaining colored buttercreams but 4Pipedon’t spread final row of dots.
circle of dots around outer top edge of cake. Spread these dots as before, as shown, then continue to center, reducing amount of dots when it gets tight. Finish with one dot in center. Makes 18 servings.