How to: Bake Rainbow Cakes and Cupcakes

The first time I saw a rainbow layer cake online, I was in love.

I decided I simply had to try it out for myself, and I was thrilled with the results. They are really quite easy. You can also adapt the recipe to suit cupcakes (see additional notes at the end).


First, make a basic buttercake mixture.
My favourite is the 2-4-6-8-Buttercake that my wonderful Nanna Betty taught me.

2 eggs
4oz butter
6oz white sugar
8oz self raising flour
and a healthy dash of vanilla extract
(to convert ounces to grams, multiply by 28. I generalise and multiply by 30 - e.g 4oz = 120g, 6oz = 180g)

To make the Buttercake mixture, cream together the butter and sugar, and slowly add the eggs and flour. Beat until smooth.

TALL RAINBOW LAYER CAKE
(1) To make the tall layer cake, I make a double mixture, and divide into 6 small bowls. Add enough food colouring to each bowl to get a strong colour. I start with a teaspoon of colour and add a drop at a time until I reach the brightness I like {I use the affordable "Queen" food colours readily available in the supermarket}


(2) Make 6 layers by baking each colour individually in an 8" pan. Each cake will be quite thin, don't panic! Bake at 180C for 10-15 minutes {check regularly with a skewer and take out as soon as cooked}.

(3) Sandwich the layers together - either with a basic buttercream, or simply by layering them while hot out of the oven so that they stick together:


(4) Frost the outside with buttercream and decorate as you wish! In the past I have surrounded it with white chocolate shards or rolled out fondant icing to cover.

To make buttercream simply beat together margarine, a teaspoon or two of vanilla extract and icing sugar until it is a lovely pale colour and tastes fantastic :)

Et Voila!


RAINBOW 'DROP' CAKE

I make my Rainbow "Drop" cake for smaller crowds. Using a single batch of buttercake, mixed up with the same colours as in Step (1) above, I drop spoonfuls of batter into an 8" pan in concentric circles. Bake at 180C for 25-30mins.

Or you can make lovely little CUPCAKES like these:

Image from Baking Bites - unfortunately I don't have a photo of my own cupcakes to share.

(1) To make cupcakes, I thin down the buttercake mixture slightly by adding some milk (about half a cup, but I add it slowly and stop if the batter starts becoming too runny).

(2) Mix up the colours in the same way as for a full cake.

(3) Add one teaspoonful of the purple mixture into each cupcake case/patty pan. Tap the tray on the bench to distribute the batter evenly.
Add one teaspoonful of the blue mixture to each pan, and gently tap the tray (do not try to spread the mixture out as it will mix with the colour underneath).

(4) Continue with each colour. Depending on the size of your cupcake cases, you may need to use less colours so as to not overfill each case.

(5) Bake at 180C. Allow to cool, and frost with a generous serve of frosting :)

***

You could make these in any colours you like. Pastels, blue & pink for a baby shower, company colours, favourite football team colours - the sky's the limit!

I'd love to see your variations - please do email them to me at nosuzyhomemaker at gmail dot com if you give it a go!

Easter for Kids who can't have Chocolate...

Growing up, I was on a strict zero sugar diet for quite a few years. It was hard to stick to, as almost everything processed has sugar in it. I wasn't a fan of carob at all either (ew). Easter was a particularly hard time for me as I watched everyone get mountains of chocolates! My parents always got me a giant stuffed rabbit and various other little things to make up for it.

My Rocket has a sugar intolerance. Unlike mine (which was a health issue) his is behavioural. If he has more than a small amount of sugar, his behaviour is atrocious. And of course, he gets in trouble for it. He also can't control his emotions, so when he gets in trouble he wails and cries like we've just told him he has to sleep outside with no dinner, when in fact we've simply said something like "quit swinging off the balcony while shrieking the theme song of Spongebob Squarepants".

People used to think we were cruel for not letting him have sugary sweet things, so they would sneak them to him behind our backs. I tell you what is cruel - giving him sugary things. Because all it does is end with him in trouble, us with headaches, and him crying his eyes out. GIVING him sugar is cruel.

The point of all this is to say that I - like my parents - have had to be creative with avoiding chocolates as gifts at Easter. It is a tradition now that we give each other shoes at Easter. Really cool shoes, mind you, like Chucks with flames on the sides! This year we went with slippers and ugg boots though because coming into winter we are going to need them!

This year I came up with my favourite idea yet though....

I bought a packet of plastic eggs from the dollar store that flip open for you to put little gifts in:



I already had some packets of Lego that came free in a box of cookies a while ago (so yes, I went and bought about 20 boxes of these cookies when they were marked down!):


I broke up the Lego sets into little pieces and put a few pieces into each little egg:


I plan on hiding these all around our shack for him to find on Easter morning - that way he gets a special Easter themed treat that is not chocolate - AND - we get something to keep him occupied for some time while he puts them together! (AND the whole thing cost a grand total of $2!)

I love these eggs, I think we'll be reusing these for many different things in years to come!

Do you have any special Easter treats for your kids that are not chocolate related?? Please share :)

Puppy Party Sneak Peek

Monster Baby's birthday party is this Sunday. I was absurdly excited to plan it, but unfortunately life has firmly got in the way and a lot of my planning has been laft far too late to pull off all the things I wanted to do :(
On the upside, a fortunate find has led to a whole new theme (still going with puppies though...little man demands it!)
For a sneaky peek...

<---- this is some paper we stumbled upon in a dollar store and that I am using for all of the matching stationery (gift boxes/decorations/napkins/party hats/water bottle labels/cookie bag labels/cupcake toppers etc)

These are our guideline colours - but now I am leaning more towards lots of shades of brown and a hint of green with less blue. I do already have some adorable blue dog bowls in these shades so blue has to be in there!



And these ----> are my craft project for this evening. Let's see if I can pull them off. Martha Stewart seems to think they are easy but methinks she may be more experienced than I!!




Stay Tuned for some more party goodness in the next few days :)

Catch of the Day...

I must have this!



It's a cute little fish...that turns into SUSHI with a quick flip inside out! Given my little Monster's obsession with sushi...I think he'll go nuts for this. And how super cute is it??

You can find the instructions on Cut Out + Keep here or by clicking on the picture above.
Stay tuned for a step by step tutorial on how I made this...provided that I can actually complete it and have it look any good!!


{EDIT TO ADD}


Oh my gosh they have squid to sushi as well! My Rocket's favourite food evah is squid (squiddy!) and he will go mad for this. Looks like I'll be going to the craft store after work today!