Rainbow Cake – for a sweet birthday girl

This is a long overdue post . A little bit of flashback before that. I had left my job due to personal reasons and was wondering how to utilise the spare time. And to almost all friends whom I  pestered with my ranting on what to do now, the answer was – ” Why don’t you start baking as a start up business? ”  I love to bake, but as a start up –  I’m apprehensive. And seeing the beautiful cakes flooding the net, I am even more petrified. But at some point you have to start … So slowly I am learning the technicalities of cake decorating, one step at a time…

The first “official order ” for cake was for our friend’s little daughter’s birthday.  And I decided to try the Rainbow Cake , which kid doesn’t like a rainbow 🙂 . Later I got worried as one cake won’t be enough for all the friends at the party and so made a Red Velvet Cake too. A selfish motive too – I  wanted people to try out my cakes and get honest feedbacks.

The birthday girl was quite thrilled to see the colourful cakes . My little happy client gave me a thank you note for bringing her the cake. How sweet … !! And as for the verdict from my friends,( or future would be clients 😀 ),  it was a thumbs up 🙂

 

Let’s move on to the recipe.  This is the same recipe for the 1-2-3-4 cake I had blogged earlier. The batter was divided into 6 parts, added different colours to each layer , poured into individual pans and baked . I could bake 2 pans at the same time , but still baking all the layers will take time. Better bake the cakes a day in advance and then do the frosting the next day .

And here’s wishing all my readers a very vibrant and joyful New Year. May all your dreams come true…

RAINBOW CAKE

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE

• Butter – 1 cup
• Powdered Sugar – 2 cups
• Flour – 3 cups
• Egg – 4
• Salt – ¼ tsp
• Baking powder – 3tsp
• Milk – 1 cup
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

FOR SUGAR SYRUP

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

FOR FROSTING

• Whipping cream – 2 cups
• Mascarpone cream – 250gm
• Icing sugar – 3tbsp

METHOD

TO PREPARE THE CAKE PAN

Butter a cake pan and sprinkle about 1 tbsp of flour.  Gently toss the pan so that all sides are coated with flour.

TO MAKE THE CAKE

1. Separate the egg yolks and whites.
2. In  a deep bottomed bowl, beat the egg whites till they whip up. It will look like whipped cream. Keep it aside.
3. In another deep bottomed bowl, beat butter using egg beater for 2 minutes.
4. Add powdered sugar to the butter and beat well till it looks creamy.
5. Add the egg yolks one by one and beat well for around 10 minutes
6. In another bowl, sieve flour and baking powder.
7. Mix one third of the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture slowly using a wooden spoon.  Add one third cup of milk  and mix again. Repeat adding flour and milk alternately 2 more times.
8. Add the vanilla essence .
9. Add the egg white to the batter . Using a spoon slowly mix in the egg whites using the cut and fold method.
10. Pour the batter into the pan . The batter should fill only till 2/3 rd of the pan or you can use 2 pans. Bake at 180 degree for around 30 minutes . You can test if the cake is done, by inserting a tooth pick . If the tooth pick comes out clean ( without any crumbs on it) , then the cake can be taken out of the oven .
11. Let the cake cool to room temperature before applying icing

TO MAKE THE SYRUP:

Stir the sugar, water and essence in a small saucepan and bring to boil. Simmer till the sugar has dissolved, and cool completely.

TO ASSEMBLE :

1.  When the cake is cooled, use a long serrated knife and cut off the top to make it straight. Slice the cake into 2 halves (if you have used a single cake pan).
2. Pour the sugar syrup on both halves to make it soft.
3.  On top of the first half spread the whipping cream or any filling. Place the second half , soaked side down, on top of the first.
4. Coat the top and sides of the cake with cream to give a thin uniform coating.
5. Keep in fridge till the icing sets. better to keep for atleast 3 to 4 hours.

 

• 6 layer cake
• Birthday Cake
• cake
• dessert
• layer cake
• mascarpone cream
• Rainbow cake