The Evolution of a Rainbow Cake

We all spent the Holiday Weekend at the shore, where we celebrated my Niece and Nephew's birthdays. My sister-in-law and I decided to make a rainbow cake for these two knuckleheads. This being our first rainbow cake, I thought I would document our crazy experiment.  FIRST: We used a white cake mix instead of a yellow cake to allow the colors to really pop. Then we separately mixed the batter with food coloring to make our rainbow colors in their individual bowls.

We only had 2- 9 inch regular cake pans, 2- 8 inch cake pans and 2- 8 inch pie pans. Hence why this assemblage looks pretty funky!!  Like a bunch of crazy pancakes.  After layering the pieces with icing we trimmed the edges before icing the entire cake to make up for the different pan dimensions. I trimmed the layers using a sharp knife while channeling TLC's "The Cake Boss".

Tah-Dah! The finished cake complete with swedish fish, sprinkles and candles. (icing recipe below)

And the birthday kiddos blowing out their candles.

BAM! the interior of the cake, pretty awesome for our first time! 

(look closely, there is a bottom layer of purple)

And the Birthday girl eating her special rainbow cake.

What we learned: Each layer was a little funky and they varied in thickness here and there, this would be remedied by using all the same size pans for each layer. For next time I think we would also double the recipe using two white boxes instead of one. An easy fix.  But it was tasty and really fun and most importantly a big hit!  If you want to make yours from scratch- check out Martha Stewart's recipe.  

And here is my Grandmother's SUPER easy Icing Recipe:

(we doubled it to make enough for the layers, so what you see below)

3 Cup 10x (confectioner's) sugar

2Tbl sour cream

1/4 C. Butter- soft

1 Tbl Vanilla

juice of 1/4 lemon

Cream together the butter and sour cream. Add sugar and then cream together well. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Whip till of spreading consistency.

*Since this is such an easy icing recipe you have to make it right before you plan on icing the cake- it will get too hard to ice if you let is sit around while you make the cake. We iced the cake and then put the whole thing in the fridge until after dinner.*