Rainbow Cake

This is one of the most popular cakes, Google rainbow cake and you will see 1000's of creations, some better than others. I haven't made one in ages as it makes a lot of cake, about 3 cakes in one! Next big "do" I plan on making one but with chocolate and coffee layers and iced with a chocolate mousse. Nom.

I like Martha Stewarts recipes but it can be tiresome converting the recipe, why can't they just use the metric system?! She also uses way too much icing, I always halve her recipes for icing as they can be so intense it makes the back of your throat hurt and your eyes squint. In this recipe she recommends a cup of icing per layer, this can be a bit much so feel free to reduce as necessary.

Ingredients:

• Butter for greasing your tins

• Baking paper, also for lining your tins

• 3 cups Plain flour

• 4 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 250gm unsalted butter, room temperature

• 2 1/3 cups caster sugar

• 5 large egg whites, room temperature

• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature

• Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple food colouring.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160c fan forced. Brush six 9-inch-round cake pans (or as many 9-inch cake pans as you have, reusing them as necessary) with the extra butter. Line bottom of each cake pan with parchment paper; brush again and set aside.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. Slowly add egg whites and mix until well combined. Add vanilla and mix until fully incorporated.

2. Add flour mixture and milk in two alternating additions, beginning with the flour and ending with the milk. Mix until well combined.

3. Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls. Add enough of each colour of food dye to each bowl, whisking, until desired shade is reached. Transfer each colour to an individual cake pan. Transfer to oven and bake until a cake tester inserted into the centre of each cake comes out clean, about 15 minutes (working in batches if necessary).

4. 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.

5. Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level. Place four strips of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate or lazy Susan. Place the purple layer on the cake plate. Spread a scant 1 cup buttercream filling over the first layer with a small offset spatula so it extends just beyond edges. Repeat process with blue, green, yellow, and orange layers.

6. Place the remaining red layer on top, bottom-side up. Gently sweep away any loose crumbs with a pastry brush. Using an offset spatula, cover the top and sides with a thin layer of frosting (also use any of the excess frosting visible between the layers). Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

7. Using an offset spatula, cover cake again with remaining frosting.

8. Add sprinkles because you always need sprinkles

Notes:

• Place your layers in the freezer to cool before cutting and stacking. This will reduce the crumbs and give you a nicer finish

• If you don't want to buy all the food colouring colours use Red, Yellow and Blue and mix your own. You can also use whatever colours you like, ombre is very popular!

• If making in summer add a layer, cover in icing then refrigerate for a good 15 minutes and then add the next layer, keep going until you have all your layers.

• Does your cake lean? Add a few BBQ Skewers through the layers to keep it all together, just remove them before serving.