My sister Julesie had a birthday on Friday, and because of the fitness conference I had this weekend–recap post is in progress–and the fact that the younger boy had the Homecoming Dance on Saturday night, we had to schedule the birthday festivities for this evening. We went out to a favorite restaurant, and then it was, of course, time for rainbow cake. Regular readers already know that the rainbow cake is a staple of almost all of our family birthday celebrations: our mom has made us rainbow cakes since we can remember, and I’ve carried on the tradition. (Want a partial look back? Click this.)
The recipe itself is phenomenal: it’s pound cake (ish), which means it’s structurally heavy enough to really hold the shape of those cool Wilton cake pans, of which I have many (Need a Harry Potter cake? Let me know.). The last couple of years have brought both laziness (some of the detail on those pans is crazy and can take up to five hours to decorate!) and a renewed sense of creativity as I often choose to use a plain-shaped cake pan (circle or rectangle) and just creatively frost it.
For Julesie’s birthday cake today, I was inspired by the many Food Network cake challenges that we I watch around here, and decided to create a stack of gifts.
Something else I’ve been mixing up (no pun intended) is the coloring of the batter. Traditionally the rainbow cake is the four colors of food coloring you buy in the store: red, yellow, blue, and green. The last couple of years? I’ve used my Wilton color instead, which blows open the possibilities. Today’s cake was burgundy, violet, pink, and yellow inside.
After layering the colored batter into different sized loaf pans, it was ready to bake!
I wasn’t sure if the bake time would be much different since I was making four smaller cakes rather than one large one, so I had to keep checking on it.
Originally I was going to stack them straight up, but the younger boy suggested that I offset them.
After 2 1/2 hours of decorating (during which I watched three episodes of “Glee” online: multitasking rocks!), I had a stack of yummy presents.
Happy Birthday Julesie! Love you!
©2010 Suburban Scrawl
11 Comments
Heather
that really is so awesome, i just cannot believe that you made that! awesome!! and it looks so tasty! 🙂
WeaselMomma
You have completely raised your cake making bar! That looks awesome.
Mom24
That cake was wonderful. Kuddos.
House of Jules
Scrumdiddilyumptious! Thank you so much!!! xoxo
ifmomsaysok
Excellent cake baking skillz!
Meeko Fabulous
Hmmm . . . You know . . . A certain secretary I know is having a birthday next month . . . 😉 LoL
As Cape Cod Turns
Who will make yours for your birthday next month?
Anonymous
Well if you wait till thanksgiving I will make your cake this year unless Jules does it before that. Great job. So glad you are keeping the tradition going.
Wish I could have a piece now.
Love
Grandma W
kat
Mmmmmmh yummmy!!! You are so crafty and wonderful and just a good sis to have. Bet Julie was thrilled.
Michelle
Gorgeous. And 2 1/2 hours? Yikes! I need to budget more time for cake decorating, I think. Egads!
So Julesie is only 5, huh?
NYCPatty
OH
MY
GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is a beautiful cake! I am so behind on blog reading (and answering your email that you gave me great feedback on)so I am just getting time to comment. I really hope you sister enjoyed the cake.
Be honest, have you been interning with Cake Boss? 🙂