Go Ride the Rainbow

Honestly, I had never thought about making a rainbow cake before this. My impression was that it is filled with artificial coloring. But of course rainbow cakes look beautiful. Being terrible at frosting cake, I've always avoided frosted cakes :p

Two days ago, my niece came home with a cute little mini rainbow cake model made out of some kind of clay. It looks very real and the kids were yearning for some. They asked if I know how to make one. "Well.. I've not made one before... but I can try..." I replied with hesitation. You know you've got to keep your promise to kids. Well they are not small kids anymore, but they are and will always be to me :D

My adventure begins.. a new challenge, and excitement! I am not that keen in using bottled coloring, although I would consider if out of wits - you know, you don't wanna burn your own bridge, give yourself an alternative :D

Thanks to Foodmadewithlove and Growing a Green Family for sharing their recipes and ideas, I was inspired and started preparing with no hesitation. You know, sometimes the more you hesitate, the more the likelihood of not pursing - ok, that's only me I guess :D

The thought of baking cakes 7 times in a day is kind of daunting. But what other choice do I have when I only have one 20-cm cake pan? Nike - just do it.

By the time I was baking the 5th cake, I was thankful that I had no ideas for the other 2 colors and had decided to stop at 5 colors.

Please refer to Food made with Love for the original recipe. For help on natural coloring, please refer to Growing a Green Family. Both blogs have very useful tips and steps on how to make a rainbow cake. Here's the recipe I used, mostly adapted from the two lovely blogs:

Ingredients

For one 20-cm round cake

120g cake/top flour (sift with baking powder)

2/3tsp double-acting baking powder

40g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature

60 to 80g caster sugar (I reduced the sugar to 60g for the last 3 cakes as I was mindful of the amount of sugar for the entire cake eventually)

120g milk

1 egg

1 drop of vanilla paste

Flavors:

Blue - 45g fresh blueberries & 60g water, boiled to release color, then mashed using a strainer.

Green - 2tsp matcha powder, sift with flour.

White - just follow the cake recipe.

Orange - 1 medium carrot, boiled with water covering carrot, discard water, mashed.

Pink - 1 small red dragon fruit, mashed.

Notes:

- The pink layer was too moist, one dragon fruit is probably too much :p This layer also took longest to bake.

- I was between pumpkin or carrot. There was not much taste of carrot, maybe it's because I boiled it first. Maybe I should have just shred it and use it without boiling.

- Blueberry layer looks pretty and tastes best, in my opinion :p

For the frosting, I followed this recipe from Simply Recipe. I reduced the icing sugar to 1.5 cups. Still a tad too sweet for me.

Honestly, I don't think I will make this cake again because it's too much work. Unless I have a few pans of the same size :) Will probably also try a different frosting, cream cheese frosting is not quite my cup of tea :p But overall, it is quite a good experience! The cake looks pretty when it was sliced :D But seriously, I would not recommend eating more than one small slice a day because it is just loaded with way too much sugar and fats :p

Although not related, while I was making this cake, I thought about our Founding Father, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.

"There's a glorious rainbow that beckons those with the spirit of adventure. To the young and the not-so-old, I say, look at the horizon, follow that rainbow, go ride it." - LKY

Thank you, Mr. Lee, for giving up your life for a successful Singapore.