Anonymous wrote:I want to try these rainbow heart cookies soon!

Brilliantly clever, adorable....Time consuming!

For the poster who asked about making this with jello, it works great. Here is a recipe although I just winged it once.
http://www.recipe.com/tie-dye-fruity-cupcakes/

I want to try these rainbow heart cookies soon!

I've done the rainbow cake using my favorite regular yellow cake recipe, and the gel color from michaels. Use a scale to weigh the batter to keep the layers even.

I made this using the Joy of Cooking "lightening cake" recipe--but you could use any kind of recipe that you'd use for generic "birthday cake."

Agree with PP that the key is to weigh the layers to get even cakes. And spring for nice gel colors. I used only one pan, because I don't have multiple pans the same size, and I wanted all the cakes to be the same size. For the first layer you have to watch the bake time; for the regular 9" round cake pan recipe I used, I think the bake time for 1/7 the recipe was somewhere in the 7-10 minute range.

Also, each cake will rise in the middle. You may want to trim the bumps a little as you stack the cake.

To get the cake out of the pan easily, butter the pan, then line with parchment paper, then butter the paper. When the cake is done, flip the entire thing -- cake plus paper -- upside down onto a cooling rack. Then peel off the paper, gently.

What kind of cake pans did people who have tried this use? I don't have 6 cake pans, so am wondering if I should just reuse the 2 I have, or try disposable pans. I'm not so great at getting the cake out of the pan unmolested and am picturing 6 cakes crumbling one after another. I appreciate any tips, thanks!!

I've done a rainbow cake. Like PP said, the trick is to weigh the layers. Make the cake batter, weight the entire batter, then divide by the number of layers you want. Weigh each layer and color/bake separately. You need to watch the first one carefully to figure the baking time--after that, it's pretty easy.

If you want to make a reasonably uncomplicated homemade fondant, you can do marshmallow fondant:
http://baking911.com/frosting-icing-etc/fondant/marshmallow-fondant-or-mmf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did this, but with cupcakes. I used a white store bought cake mix and mixed my colors in different bowls using gel food coloring. I used about a teaspoon of each color, and they turned out really cool. Kind of psychedelic. Anyway, the kids loved the cupcakes because when they bit into them, all these vibrant colors were visible.

For the cupcakes, did you layer the batter, rather than layering cooked cakes?

Yes. I layered the batter tsp by tsp until the cupcake tin was full. It really does look cool when the kids bite into them.

Here's another recipe from Sweetapolita: http://sweetapolita.com/2011/04/rainbow-doodle-birthday-cake/

Hey = OP - If I were you I'd avoid the checkerboard option unless you have a bunch of time to "practice (i.e., make a bunch of cakes to try it out). I tried this one for my DS's 2nd b-day thinking I'd see if I could do it when he was old enough to care what it looked like:

http://www.stayathomeista.com/2012/05/construction-machine-birthday-cake.html

Awesome in theory, but a TOTAL PITA. It took forever and didn't come out well (luckily it tasted just fine, and it was just DS, me and DH for that so no witnesses to the crumbly mess it turned out to be)


Stick with the plain rainbow!

My daughter's 6th birthday is this Saturday and we're doing a wizard of oz theme with... Rainbow cake! For those pp concerned with the coloring (I'll admit to being in that camp), I found a product called Color Garden that is all natural food based dyes. From what I've read, the trick is soft frosting and a cake leveler. Good luck OP - I'll be in the same boat trying to pull this off!

Yeah this is not an appropriate cake for fondant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can make a layer cake you can do it. You just have to use a shit ton of food coloring. And white cake with no yolks. Don't do checkerboard - too many crumbles and too hard to frost.

Will a cake cook properly with no yolks?

Yes, I make egg-free cakes all the time.
To get even layers you need to measure out the batter. The gel type of food coloring will give you richer, more vibrant colors (and it doesn't take as much food coloring). I would advise against store-bought fondant. Plain fondant does not taste very good. Marshmallow fondant is pretty easy to make and is delicious!

OP here. I was thinking that I don't need fondant, except maybe for the face on the LEGO head. I was thinking rainbow cake inside, with white buttercream between the layers, white buttercream crumb layer, then yellow buttercream frosting (smoothed out as much as possible).

Anonymous wrote:I did this, but with cupcakes. I used a white store bought cake mix and mixed my colors in different bowls using gel food coloring. I used about a teaspoon of each color, and they turned out really cool. Kind of psychedelic. Anyway, the kids loved the cupcakes because when they bit into them, all these vibrant colors were visible.

For the cupcakes, did you layer the batter, rather than layering cooked cakes?

Anonymous wrote:I've made this cake:
http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/03/16/leprechaun-trap-cake/

I just used regular white cake mix and eggs. The colors were beautiful.

OP here. WOW! That looks way too ambitious for me! So you used whole eggs (not egg whites) and your colors still came through nicely?