Rainbow cake to brighten up your life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Cake Doctor,

Life is so mundane – my friends are all busy with new boyfriends,  I don’t have any holidays on the horizon, and my job bores me to tears. Is there a cake that will brighten up my life until my friends start calling again, Christmas holidays approach and I find a new job?

Glum & Gloomy

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Dear Glum & Gloomy

Don’t worry – everyone goes through a dark patch from time to time, so I’m pretty sure things will soon start looking up. In the meantime, however, you sound like you could do with some colour in your life. Something that will keep you busy, cheer you up, and put a spring back in your step. Your prescription’s rainbow cake!

Rainbow cake isn’t hard to make, but it does take some time and attention. It’s not tricky – just one large cake batter divided into five portions, coloured with rainbow hues, baked separately, then stuck together with gooey frosting. Once your cakes are stacked, the rainbow is hidden by a generous coating of more frosting, leaving you with a parcel of happiness that’s white and marshmallowy on the outide, and an explosion of multicoloured sponge on the inside!

Take some time to concoct this beauty, and soon you’ll forget your woes. Rainbow cake is bound to cheer you up, buttercup!

Love,

The Cake Doctor x

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Complaint: glum and gloomy

Prescription: rainbow cake (inspired by Whisk Kid blogger Kaitlin Flannery’s rainbow cake)

Ingredients

For the cake

375g plain flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

½  teaspoon salt

225g unsalted butter, at room temperature (or, fridge-cold, blased in the microwave for 30 seconds)

450g caster sugar

5 egg whites, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

350ml (full cream) milk, at room temperature

Red, orange, yellow, green and blue food coloring

For the marshmallowy frosting

8 egg whites

900g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celcius (or 190 if your oven’s not fan-forced).

Butter the bottom and sides of as medium cake tins of the same size as you can kind (one is fine, but you’ll have to re-prepare each after each cake cooks) and line the base with baking paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in to a large bowl and set aside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place the butter and sugar in another bowl, and beat with a freestanding electric mixer, a handheld electric whisk, or just a wooden spoon until increased slightly in volume and paled a little in colour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add the vanilla, then gradually pour in the egg whites, continuing to mix until they are well combined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, tip about a third of the flour, and about a third of the milk into the butter, sugar and egg mixture. Mix together gently, and repeat twice so that all of the ingredients are eventually combined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, divide the batter between five small bowls (cereal bowls will do). Add as much food colouring as you like to each bowl (one red, one orange, one yellow, one green and one blue) and whisk until each is a homogenous shade of brightness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, tip one colour into the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes, or until the sides of the cake have come away from the edge of the tin and a gently-inserted skewer comes out clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow with each of the remaining five mixtures, until you are left with five Olympic rings of cake.  Leave each cake to cool in the tin for about ten minutes before turning out on to a rack to cool further.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, it’s time to make the frosting. Place the egg whites, vanilla extract, sugar and ¼ cup of cold water in a large heatproof (this usually means Pyrex) bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (but make sure the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beat the egg white mixture with an electric hand mixer for about 15 minutes, or until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to burn the cord of the mixer or bring the mixer into contact with water. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the frosting has more than doubled in size and a gently inserted finger withdraws to form a stiff ‘peak’ of frosting, remove the bowl from the saucepan and continue to beat for a further five minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, place your blue cake on a plate and spread with icing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Repeat this process until your cakes are stacked one on top of the other, with a thick layer of oozing icing between each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, use the rest of the frosting to cover the cake entirely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then, your rainbow cake is ready! Every slice will reveal another rainbow of cake. That should cheer you up no end!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love,

The Cake Doctor x