Rainbow Cake for Pinktober … THINK PINK #birthday #pinktober
“Hope is a rainbow of thought.”
Harley King
Rainbow Cake for Pinktober. Ever tried baking with an 18 year old. Maybe , I should rephrase that. Ever tried with an 18 year old teen like mine who has a rainbow baking obsession? It’s a LOAD of work! LOTS!! Beware … but the fruits are sweet! Cut a slice and you know it’s so worth all the dishes, the messy kitchen, the batter splattered walls with ‘Ooops I did it again Mama!’, ‘Can Coco lick the bowl? Please?’
‘I’m gonna make Papa a rainbow cake for his birthday! Coco’s gonna help me!‘ Coco was game of course … and the day began tediously! First to get the child out of bed, then to get her out of a shower, then to get her off the phone. By the time I was at my wits end, she was ready to paint the kitchen in rainbow colours! ‘Let’s start now!!‘
October 1st marks the beginning of breast cancer awareness month all over the world. American Cancer Society uses this time to boost their campaign to raise awareness to breast cancer and to inform people that there is now a 98 percent rate of survival if the cancer is detected early. October is the month where you will see pink ribbons everywhere, which has been the national symbol for breast cancer awareness since it was first introduced back in 1991.
It took us all day to get the cake going. Six layers and a small oven, only 2 baking tins and a load of power cuts, yet we marched on. Much to my chagrin, she took naps in between while I washed and cleaned the kitchen after every ‘round‘. Once again, be warned … there is tons of washing up!
Time for the frosting. We ‘amicably’ settled for a salted caramel butter-cream icing {after a battle of sorts of course}. It’s a delicious frosting and soon she was spooning more into her mouth than onto the cake. A few disagreements later, in this incessantly hot October, she ‘splooshed’ the icing on. That was when the Dad called from work. ‘Is the cake PINK he asked? My cake is always the Pinktober cake.’
Next cue! PINK!! It’s nice to have a daughter who loves art. Also nice to have some marzipan on hand. She had fun doing the letters, the ribbon {that she was well aware of as it’s an annual feature} … the rest was a breeze. She did the whole cake on her own!
One slice later, the rainbow knocked our hearts away! This is the absolute joy of a birthday cake. Despite it being a butter rich cake, with an indulgent buttercream frosting, the Rainbow Cake is a fantastic ‘once in a while‘ baking adventure. A big {read greedy} slice is definitely on the sweeter side, but a thin slice hits all the right chords!
The cake tasted even better the next day, and being a butter cake, it keeps really well for a few days. However, the kids nibbled away at it and it was soon gone. The daughter later said that she was surprised I even let her make one! She knows that I barely ever make such heavily ‘buttery’ cakes. Then again, she has a thing for rainbows and a passion for baking rainbow cupcakes and cakes.
This cake was worth every dish I washed, worth the million times I cleaned the batter splattered counter and wall tiles, worth all the spoons she licked and all the piping bags she used up! It’s a fun cake to bake. You must try it for a special occasion bake!
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Recipe: Rainbow Cake
Summary: This is the absolute joy of a birthday cake. Despite it being a butter rich cake, with an indulgent buttercream frosting, the Rainbow Cake is a fantastic ‘once in a while‘ baking adventure. We loved the salted buttercream frosting. Cake adapted minimally from the Whisk Kid
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour {plus cooling, chilling time}
Ingredients:
- Cake
- 360g plain flour
- 4tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 225g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 450g cups sugar
- 170g egg whites, room temperature {about 6}
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 350ml milk, room temperature
- Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple gel food coloring
- Filling
- 400ml low fat cream
- 100g icing sugar
- few drops almond extract
- Topping
- 200g sugar
- 2tsp water
- 100ml low fat cream
- 1/2 tsp salt
- vanilla extract
- 170g salted butter
- 100g low fat cream
- 200g icing sugar
Method:
- Cake
- Preheat oven to 180C. Brush six 8-inch-round cake pans {or as many 8-inch cake pans as you have, reusing them as necessary} with shortening. Line bottom of each cake pan with parchment paper; brush again and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
- Cream together butter and sugar. Slowly add egg whites and mix until well combined. Add vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Add flour mixture and milk in two alternating additions, beginning with the flour and ending with the milk. Mix until well combined.
- Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls. Add enough of each color of food coloring to each bowl, whisking, until desired shade is reached. Transfer each color to an individual cake pan. Transfer to oven and bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean, about 15 minutes {working in batches if necessary}.
- Remove cakes from oven and transfer to a wire rack; let cool for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto a wire rack; re-invert and let cool completely.
- Place the bottom layer on serving platter {or lazy Susan} and spread with about a cup of buttercream. Repeat for remaining layers.I placed an adjustable dessert ring around the cake to hold the layers in place.
- Refrigerate until set, about 30 mins to an hour.
- Using an offset spatula, cover cake again with remaining frosting.
- Salted Butter Caramel
- Place sugar and water in a deep saucepan and simmer undisturbed until the sugar caramelises to a golden brown. Add the cream {CAREFULLY as it will splutter}, take off heat briefly to mix in, then return pan until it all comes together to a smooth sauce.
- Take off heat, add salt and vanilla extract. Allow to cool completely.
- Frosting
- In a large bowl, beat together the salted butter, cream and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy.
- Slowly pour in the cold salted butter caramel and continue whipping until firm and smooth.
- Chill until required.
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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
31 Comments
Manju @ Manju'sEatingDelights
It looks absolutely gorgeous Deeba…she’s def gotten your skills 🙂 A Rainbow cake has been on my mind ever since I did a Rainbow themed b’day party for my son’s 1 st b’day but as it was a kids b’day I didn’t want to use food colors…but I bet sooner or later I will try making this cake at least once. Happy b’day to ur hus and a lovely gesture for Pinktober!
sangeeta khanna
So much work but the joy of baking something together, such days get embedded in the memory for ever. Wishing Mr. PAB a happy birthday again 🙂
Rosa
A beautiful cake for a good cause! Your daughter is very skilled. You must be really proud of her.
Cheers,
Rosa
Coco in the Kitchen
Deeba, this is the cutest post ever!
Your family is very sweet….love my “twin” Coco, too!!
Thanks for honouring the Pinkies. xo
gloria
what lovely cake, look georgeous Deeba!!
and I love the pictures, your saugther is like my daugther, she helps me too!
have a lovely day Deeba:))
Vimitha
Thats a gorgeous cake Deeba.. Love the colors and a beautiful effort
Shruti
Gorgeous!!! So pretty this cake looks 🙂
Simi
Amazing ! Amazing ! Amazing! I don’t know where you get the patience from. Your teen is as talented as her mother ! So nice of you to share your story with us . Happy bday to hubs!!
Romila
its a gorgeous cake n m salivating by just looking at it!
Must have tasted wonderful!
Your daughter is definitely talented like you 🙂
Romila
The cake is gorgeous n I am salivating just by looking at it.
Must have tasted wonderful!!! You daughter is talented like you 🙂
Deepali Jain
lovely cake and I am sure you must be so proud of your daughter!
natasha
Love it! And you had me in splits about your daughter :D, I could so relate to that! But she seems to be just as talented and skilled as her lovely mom….Wonderful job Deeba, both on your children and the cake!
Selma
Stunning Deeba! The colours are simply beautiful! Two tins, power cuts and a teenager – “Brava” is all I can say! And you found time to snap such evocative photos…Coco is simply adorable…
Harini
Such a lovely cake with clear layers. I am wondering about your talent level for being able to make such a cake.Beautiful decoration too.I will be spending hours digging your blog from now on.Happy to discover 🙂
manjeet
Hey Deeba,
Thanks for the salted caramel buttercream frosting recipe.Have been looking for a good one , which could withstand the humidity of mumbai and yours looks like it would.
Lovely cake..a query though..
I will have have to reuse my tins..so till one batch bakes , what do with the batter? Chill it or just let it be in a cool place?
Cheers,
Manjeet
Deeba @ PAB
Spot on Manjeet… felt the same way too. You can leave the batter siting in a cool place. A suggestion that might help … weigh the bowl that you are making the final batter in. That way you can figure out the approx net weight of the batter, and then divide it into 6 {approx again as bowls tend to hang on to some batter too}. Am I making sense here?
xo
Abha
Happy Birthday ( belated ) to Mr. PAB.
Thumbs up to your colourful baking and your creative daughter’s arty work
Tah
I have never liked rainbow cakes. Somehow it has never appealed to me in anyway! But THIS, Is lovely!!!
Deeba @ PAB
Thank you Tah… me neither. But this was special!
Alka
My first time here. This is beyond awesome. I am a pathetic cook so I am speechless.
Poornima
Hi, I am a very sad cook but seriously you guys are hugely talented. I love the creativity and the finish, I love the rainbow and it is just looking so delicious! I want to come over 🙂
Poornima
Hi, This is fantastic creativity. It is looking so great. I loved the finish, I love rainbows and it is just looking so yummy. I want to come over 🙂
nidhi
Beautiful cake. Love the colours. Perfect.
Priya
Wowww Deeba! It all looks so colorful and vibrant. Just right for the festive seaon! I too love baking but have tried only simple ones. Baking a rainbow cake is definitely on my to-do list
ruchira
I <3 this cake. So pretty. Love that you have chosen all pop colours. Yay! Also somehow I missed this post. I saw two two pumpkins. Got a bit confused.
Richa Sainani
Looks awesome, really creative and yummy recipe to sight. I will try this in the coming week. You can see some similar cake recipes earlier made by me at home on:
Sunanda
Hi Deeba,
I was keen to make this cake for a long time but just could not find the time. Finally I decided to take the plunge last sunday. It takes a lot of time (like you mentioned ) but the results are delicious.
Since it was my first time at baking rainbow cake I made it with only four colors and the caramel butter frosting was to die for. I can say that this is the best frosting I have made so far.
Both my son and husband just couldn’t stop looking and licking the cake off lazy Susan:). Thank You so much, it was fun great fun making the cake.
Deeba @ PAB
Thank you for baking from PAB Sunanda, and thank you also for taking the time to write back. Means a LOT to me. So glad you enjoyed it!
JUDY XAVIER MIRANDA
HI’ FRIEND
This cake is looking very nice. I gathered so many tips to your rainbow cake. I will try this cake for my daughter’s birthday. Thank you so much. No, words to say.
Anu
Its really amazing. Thanks for sharing. We will certainly try to give it a shot. I am gonna bookmark this blog now 🙂
Anu
Really amazing. Would like to give it a shot. Bookmarked this blog for future as well