“Hope is a rainbow of thought.”
Harley King
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!
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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