Rainbow Cake

Outside decoration with edible markers

A baby shower in Spring - Colors around the house so vibrant and inspiring - A rainbow cake it is, i decided having not so long ago seen this one! I also tried the cake recipe from the same blog!  Here was my chance to experiment with natural colors - You may recall my Rainbow Cheesecake, which I made with food coloring a milestone post of mine - This time I decided I would make it a lot healthier - as cakes go - and used a bunch of different coloring agents for this purpose - Also with my cheesecake, we poured the colors one after another from the middle and had them spread to the sides - whereas these are individual cakes that make up the rainbow.

Here are my coloring agents
Freshly Juiced blackberries 2-3 tbsp
Freshly juiced Strawberries 2-3 tbsp
Freshly juiced blueberries 3-4 tbsp
Freshly juiced carrot  - 3-4 tbsp
Freshly juiced Spinach -3-4 tbsp
Saffron for Yellow - 6-8 threads
Rose Syrup (from Indian Store) for bright Rose
NOTE: All the colors get twice enhanced when they are baked - so don NOT be disheartened if the colors appear pale as you mix them in - I was a bit concerned but got with it soon enough :)

I would follow the white cake recipe from Joys of Baking or another renowned site - the cake that went with this recipe tasted awesome, but they initially dried up a bit and I fixed it by using sugar and evaporated milk - The end result was incredibly soft and completely flavorful cake - The Vanilla extract completely camouflages any smells of the spinach.
It was so much fun making the buttercream - I was blown away by how much was required and how labor-intensive a cake such as this one can be - But we do not make rainbow cakes everyday  and even one color at any given time will suffice -

Our cake expert, Anita Gupta gave me the recipe for the buttercream
Here it is  -

• 5 large Egg whites beaten to stiff but not dry peaks
• 1 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• pinch of Cream of tartar 
• 3 sticks (12 oz.) salted butter cut into small pieces, semi cold
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 1/2 capful orange extract

Instructions

• Cook sugar, cream of tartar and water in a small saucepan over medium high heat, stir until sugar dissolves and syrup begins to boil. Cook to 240 degrees. Remove butter from fridge while syrup is cooking, set aside
• Cut your butter into small pieces and leave in fridge while cooking syrup. 
• Beat the egg whites in KitchenAid bowl with wire whisk attachment. Stiff, but not dry peaks.Turn mixer speed to medium low and pour the cooked sugar syrup at a steady stream, not too slow but not all at once either. Pour between the beater and the side of bowl to prevent splashing. Turn mixer to high speed and beat until the outside of bowl feels cool to the palms of your hands. 
• Change to the paddle mixer attachment, turn speed to medium low and add butter a few pieces at a time till it is all used and begins to combine, turn mixer speed to high and beat until the outside of the bowl feels cold to the palms of your hands and mixture has begun to come together, looks fluffy and shiny. Add the flavorings and beat till well combined.If mixture looks curdled or separated it may be because the syrup wasn’t cooked to 240 degrees, you pour the cooked syrup in too quickly, or you added the butter too quickly and it may have been too warm. It needs to have a slight chill to it. 
• You can still salvage the icing, continue to beat on high speed until it comes together and is fluffy. If you end up with a soupy mixture at the bottom put the mixer bowl and paddle attachment in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Beat again on low speed until it begins to come together, than turn speed to high and beat until fluffy and shiny.

Now for the pictorial

Follow recipe to make cake batter  - add the color to it

Fresh from the oven

The flavors

The stack before and after torting (looked like a leaning power of Pisa before being sliced down the middle yielding 2 mega cakes :)

Torting is slicing the cake down the middle - can be done with dental floss  

Torting the cake with a dental floss -this is a superlative and stress free idea - You must try it!

The buttercream

With a wedge cut off - first glance at the result

Thankfully a piece got photographed!! :)

To top this we were blessed with a real rainbow (I call it Shrey's rainbow since she spotted it and was SO excited to be the one to ) 

Ended up being a double rainbow -to match the 2 cakes - what are the odds ;)

The second rainbow is clearer in this one!

This was a wonderful experience and I got to do it with a friend which made it all the more doable :) These are projects to do with a friend or family member - the experience becomes that much funner!
Adios Amigos until my next post!