Vanilla Rainbow Cake

This cake is awesome and perfect for a kids party, first birthday or even a psychedelic 70's party. You could also customize the colours for any holiday, Hallowe'en, Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Easter etc. I wanted to make it as a trial for Jayden's first birthday cake and it worked great as a 'half' birthday cake too, showing off all the pretty colours. I also imagine that it would make pretty amazing cupcakes too. Most of the rainbow cake recipes I have seen used boxed cake mixes, pop and store bought frosting. I decided to make a vanilla cake from scratch and then tint it accordingly. I used organic ingredients but you don't have to. Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp.

4 eggs

4 tsp. vanilla extract

3 cups flour, sifted

1 ½ cups milk

½ tsp. salt 

3 ½ tsp. baking powder

Neon or regular food colouring (I used both)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp.

4 oz pkg. cream cheese

2 1/4 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease and flour two 9x9 inch pans. I used spring-form pans so the cakes were really easy to remove.

2. In a medium bowl, cream sugar and butter by hand. Beat in the eggs, one at a time with a hand mixer, then stir in the vanilla. Blend ingredients well, until fluffy (5-7 min). After this step, mix as little as possible otherwise you will have a flat cake.

3. Combine sifted flour, baking powder and salt and add to the creamed mixture in stages. Combine by hand, with a wooden spoon, don’t over-mix. Finally stir in the milk until the batter is smooth. 

4. Divide batter into 6 small bowls and colour with 10-12 drops each of neon food colouring, don’t over-mix. Spoon batter into greased pans, one colour on top of the other, 3 colours per pan. I actually accidentally did all 6 colours per pan but it still turned out great so feel free to experiment! 

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes in a preheated oven or until toothpicks come out clean. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

6. Make frosting while your cake bakes or is cooling. Cream butter and cream cheese, add icing sugar and vanilla, blend until well combined.

7. Let layers cool completely on a wire rack.

8. Ice bottom layer with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting. Place top layer on top and ice top and sides. Place on cake stand and cover. 

I was also thinking that it would be fun to tint the icing and might try it with cupcakes. To make a rainbow of colours, divide the icing into 4 or 6 small bowls, (however many colours you want to make), tint and ice as desired. Fun!

Here's a picture of a rainbow cupcake that my friend Sarah made, amazing!