RAINBOW CAKE
Use this cake for a Noah's Ark theme, a Saint Patrick's Day
party or a Wizard of Oz party.
The first thing I want to say is that I am a very bad baker.
That said, quite a few of you have requested some simple cake
decorating ideas "by mom, for mom." So, I'll give you the ones I
have. |
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The second thing I want to say is that
as cool as the store bought cakes might look, you'll NEVER get photos like these from a
trip to Safeway! |
| And the third thing I want to say,
before I start to explain this cake, is that the beauty of round cakes is you get TWO of
them. Don't stack them! Use them each separately. This allows you to decorate twice and use the best one for presenting at
the party (the second one can be cut up and served behind the scenes... your guests will
think you're amazing for making such a small cake stretch so far *grin*.)
It also allows separate (fight free) decorating if you happen
to have two helpers! |
INSTRUCTIONS:
 | Bake a round-version cake (just your basic store bought one will
do). We used chocolate (of course).
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| Let cool (leave it in the pan).
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| With the cake still in the pan, use a knife (preferably a serrated
bread knife) and slice off the rounded top
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| the top makes a perfect reward for hungry helpers who are having
trouble waiting for the final masterpiece!
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| Use a cake holder, pizza pan or a cutting board as your surface (you
can cover with tinfoil if desired.
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| Flip the cake upside down onto the surface. (the bottom of the
cake is a smoother/flatter surface to decorate) |
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| Mix some icing (1/4 cup soft margarine, 3/4 cups icing sugar, 2 Tbsp
milk and 1 tsp vanilla mixed together). It actually takes double this recipe for the
whole cake, but I mix it in this size batch so I can take a break in the middle (and let
the icing set a smidge before applying another layer).
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| Split the recipe in half and add blue and green food coloring.
We used paste for the green and drops for the blue (it only takes a toothpick dip or two
of the green to get this color.)
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| Spoon green over 1/2 and blue over 1/2 the cake. Spread with
the back of the spoon or a knife. It's pretty easy, actually. This is a
horizon, so it doesn't have to meet in a perfectly straight line (you're allowed the
occasional bush *grin* |
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You have a couple options at this
point.
| You can just arrange smarties to make a rainbow shape (the easiest
method) or
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| you can decorate with colored icing.
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We'll do the icing method first.
| Mix your second batch of icing. |
| Spoon a couple tbsp of it into a ziploc bag. |
| Add a few drops (or toothpick dips of paste) into the bag and
seal. |
| With the bag closed, smoosh it around (fun for the kids!) to mix the
color with the icing. |
| Once it's sufficiently mixed, snip a tiny corner off the bag with
scissors. |
| Carefully squeeze the icing out to form the first stripe of your
rainbow. |
| Repeat as many times as you need to to get the colours you want in
your rainbow (we did red, orange, yellow and green). |
| WIZARD OF OZ: At this point, you can put a yellow brick road on
with yellow icing, using the same method. |
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The smartie method is even easier.
| Simply take a bunch of smarties and separate them into the proper
colors (eating the leftovers, of course). |
| If you mess up the first option and want to salvage the cake, just
lay smarties over the top of the stripes you piped on (that's what we did in the picture). |
| Lay them around the cake, one color at a time, to form a
rainbow. |
| VERY IMPORTANT!!! If you're using candies (smarties), put them
on no more than a couple hours before serving. When they sit a long
time, the colour gets sucked out of the smarties by the icing and they turn white. |
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THEME IDEAS:
WIZARD OF OZ: At this point, you can put a
yellow brick road on with yellow icing or yellow smarties. You can even dot on a few
red "poppies" in the grass with red icing.
BIBLE (NOAH's ARK): Take a large marshmallow
and put it on a piece of wax paper. Roll it flat with a rolling pin (another fun,
squishy thing for kids to help with). Cut out a really simplistic bird shape with a
sharp knife. (you can draw a template on a piece of paper first).
OR
Purchase a tiny cookie cutter in the shape of a bird (there are a
whole bunch of tiny 50 cent cookie cutters at Crafts Canada... I'm sure other craft stores
have them too... I use them all the time to cut shapes out of meat, cheese, pj sandwiches,
cantelope, honeydew melon, etc when asked to send healthy, but fun snacks to
school!) Use the cookie cutter to cut the marshmallow (like above) OR place the
cookie cutter on the cake where you want the shape to be. Pour in white sprinkles,
coconut or white sugar.
OR
Frost the cake in chocolate and use a paper plate cut in half and tape together to shape of a half moon... then
use animal cookies to make the animals marching all over the cake and around the
edge. Its a great snack while the kids are waiting to cut the cake.
Thanks to Kimberly who sent this idea in!
ST. PATRICK's DAY: Buy green sprinkles or
decorating sugar at the store (or take regular white sugar or white coconut and mix with a
toothpick dip of food coloring paste or a couple drops of food color). Take a
shamrock tiny cookie cutter and place on the grass. Pour in some of the green
decorating material to make shamrocks.
OR
Cut green fruit rollups into shamrock shapes and put these on the
grass. |
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