Rainbow Dreams
Rainbow
Dreams.
I made this cake for one of my stalls on my local
market a couple of weeks back; I had all my usual caramel cakes and chocolate
cakes. But I always like to have something fun for the kiddie winks. However
this cake was actually more of hit with the adults who visited my stall, I
suppose we are all young at heart.
I will put the basic method and ingredients list
below and for a more detailed recipe please continue to read on.
So like many of my recipes I will use my basic
sponge recipe as this can be altered to suit many cakes. Start of by creaming
400g of unsalted butter in your stand mixer or with your hand whisk, it is best
that the butter is left to be at room temperature before you do this. Once the
butter has reached a smooth creamy texture (should take around 2 minutes if the
butter is at a good temperature) slowly add 400g of sugar. I prefer to use
light brown sugar in my sponge cakes however caster sugar works just as well or
to get the flavour of the light brown sugar but the lighter colour that the
caster sugar provides you could use half of each. Let them mix together until
they soft and creamy. Be sure to use a
spatula mid way through to scrape down any mixture on the sides and loosen any
butter stuck to the base of the mixer to ensure it has thoroughly combined.
Something so satisfying about the look of brown
sugar and butter together and the taste is unreal. Do remind me to share my
brown sugar butter cream recipe with you at some point- it’s delicious.
One by one add in 7 large eggs or 8 medium. Mix
until combined. You’re getting to the fun part now!
After mixing for around three minutes you should
have a velvety smooth mixture. Make sure not to over mix your mixture this will
whisk out all the air in the sponge delaying its rise and also risking the mix
to split. 
So with each tub of cake batter add a colour of
your choice. I would highly suggest investing in some professional food
colouring or gel. ‘Rainbow Dust’
and ‘Sugarflair’ are two of
my favourites. I used the following for the cake above –
Rainbow
dust Turquoise
Once each colour is thoroughly mixed spread evenly
in each cake tin. Place in the oven for 30 minutes at 180’c fan. When 30
minutes has passed test the middle of the cake with a cake tester or a butter
knife if it comes out clean with no wet or sticky mixture then the cake is
done.
Allow the cakes to cool in there tins for ten minutes
and then place on cooling racks for a further 20 minutes.
This is the bit where I get really excited and have
to calm myself down before I eagerly decorate the cakes before they have cooled
and end up with a melted creamy rainbow mess. Nobody travels to the end of the
rainbow to find melted cake do they? NO Emily! They don’t, so pull yourself
together wait 20 minutes it will go quick.
Okay so whilst your cake is lying on its racks
looking pretty having a cool down prepare yourself some scrummy buttercream. So
I suggest for the best butter cream you just over double the amount of icing
sugar you have to butter. I prefer to use Stork but you can use any unsalted
butter at room temperature.
In your stand mixer cream 250g of butter and then
weigh out 600g of icing sugar add this into the creamed butter spoon by spoon.
Then mix in 1tsp of vanilla essence in until it is fully combined and delicious.
Place your first sponge down and lightly ice the
top of the sponge then lay your second sponge on top and repeat until you are
on your last layer lightly ice the top of the top layer and around the edges of
the cake this is called a crumb coat- refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Colour your remaining buttercream with any colour
of your choice, I chose Rainbow dust Turquoise, I suggest that you match the
colour of your buttercream with the colour of your top layer, as you can see I
have done above. Using a palette knife and a back forth motion evenly spread
the coloured icing along the top of the cake and the edges until smooth but
thick enough to cover the crumb coat.
This is where it gets confusing and I have to make
sure I don’t ramble on. Lay one of your
cake tins out on some parchment paper and cut around it. Find yourself a
smaller circle or a 4” cake pan and lay this on the parchment circle and cut
around it once more. This should leave you with a small 4” parchment circle and
6” parchment ring. Throw away the circle. And gently place the ring on the top
of your iced cake gently pressing it down.
In the middle of the ring pick yourself some pretty
sprinkles and sprinkle them on pressing them down gently as you go. Peel off
the parchment circle this should now leave you with a neat circle of sprinkles
on the top of your cake.
Now grab a teaspoon and fill with sprinkles and
tilting the cake slightly tip the sprinkles along the bottom of the cake
pressing down as you go around the cake, make sure you keep the height of the
sprinkles as even as possible.
With the remaining coloured icing place it into a piping
bag with a wide star tip, I use a ‘wilton 1m’ moving your tip up then down and
pulling back along the bottom of the cake to create your border. Then create
large rosettes on the top border of the cake.
I topped
each rosette with some pink and lilac mimosa’s that I bought from my local Sainsbury’s
just to tie it all in.
And Voila your masterpiece is complete and ready to
devour.
Ingredients:
Buttercream-
Decoration-
Method:
Step
One:
Prepare four 6” cake tins by buttering them and
lining them.
One by one add 7 large eggs or 8 medium into the
creamed butter and sugar until combined.
Mix in 400g Self Raising Flour, 1 TSP baking
powder, and 1 TSP vanilla essence. Once combined you should be left with a
smooth cake batter.
Evenly distribute the cake batter into 4 tubs and
to each one add food colouring, this should leave you with 4 tubs of cake
batter each a different colour. Evenly
spread each batter in a tin. Place in the oven on 180’c/350f/GM4/ for 30
minutes.
Step
five:
Test the cake with a tester or knife in the centre
of each sponge, if it comes out clean the sponge is done. Allow to cool for 10
minutes in the tin, and then transfer on to cooling racks for a further 20
minutes.
Prepare your buttercream by creaming 250g of
stork/unsalted butter in your stand mixer; spoon by spoon add in 600g of icing
sugar until fully combined, mix in 1tsp of vanilla essence.
Layer your sponges filling each one with
buttercream and then apply a light layer/crumb coat of butter cream to the
outside of the cake. Refrigerate for
10-20 minutes.
Colour the remaining food colouring with a colour
of your choice; I suggest colouring it the same colour as your top layer as I
just think it looks better. Now apply a generous coat of coloured buttercream
on the cake. Place the remaining butter cream in piping bag with large star tip
leave to side.
Lay some parchment paper out and on it cut round a
6” tin. On the 6” parchment circle lay down a 4” tin and cut round this. This
should leave you with a 4” parchment circle and 6” parchment ring. Throw away
the parchment circle and lay the parchment ring on the top of your cake and
gently press down. Get some sprinkles
and sprinkle them on the inside of the ring and press them down gently. Remove
the parchment ring. This should leave you with a perfect sprinkle circle on the
top of your cake.
With a teaspoon go around the edge of the cake pressing
on sprinkles, creating a sprinkle border make sure you keep the height of the
border as even as possible around the cake.
With the piping bag create a border along the
bottom of the cake and large rosettes on the top. Top each rosette with a
mimosa or m&m etc.
Voila!
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