Rainbow Cake

Have you heard of "baby cakes?"  Instead of finding out the gender of baby at the doctor's office, some mothers are opting to have the Dr. write down the baby's gender and seal it in an envelope.  The mother delivers the envelope to a baker who makes either a pink or blue cake and frosts it.  The parents find out the gender of the baby after slicing into the cake. I'm thinking another occasion for cake is just genius.

When my sister gushed over the idea, I thought it might be fun to make her a cake with a surprise.  With no babies on the horizon, I thought her birthday might be the perfect occasion to whip up the Rainbow cake I've been admiring for ages.  You would think a grown woman would could resist rainbows. I blame Pinterest for my recent rainbow addiction.  I really do. 

Have to throw a little love for Mesa Grill.  I took my sister to brunch at the Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace and it was outstanding, phenomenal, delicious, spicy and just outright YUM.  I really wish my photos had turned out so that I could share with you the delight that is Ranch Style Eggs with a crispy flour tortilla and ancho chile sauce.  It was one of the best meals I've ordered in ages, and that's not just because I secretly root for Bobby Flay on many Throwdown episodes.  Any place that advocates a margarita with your brunch and brings a bread basket full of little coffee cakes, blue corn muffins, green chili puffs and cookies is not too shabby in my book.  Definitely worth a trip if you are in town.

You would think that with that enormous breakfast, we wouldn't have room for cake, but after we got home, we perservered.  We are just that dedicated.  I used Whisk Kids' Super Epic Rainbow Cake recipe and followed it pretty closely except  that I substituted almond extract  for the vanilla and lemon in both the cake and the frosting, I only made the one batch (9 egg white recipe) of frosting and then covered the cake in coconut.

I have to admit that despite the shocking amounts of food coloring required, I absolutely loved making this cake. I love those vibrant colors.  It wasn't as difficult or time consuming as it appears at first--the frosting might be the most time consuming part.  The cake recipe makes enough for all six layers.  I have three 9inch cake pans so was able to bake these in just two rounds, and they are so thin that they only take 15 mins to bake. 

And even with all of those colors popping everywhere, when you cover it with all of that creamy meringue buttercream, the colors are perfectly hidden, just waiting there patiently to surprise everyone with that first cut. It's such a fun surprise too, even when your sister guesses it's a rainbow with the first knife slice just by seeing a bit of red crumb at the top and a bit of purple crumb at the bottom.  We are a RoyGBiv kind of family.

Happy Birthday dear sister!