Surprises Abound!

Wow, I just love surprises, both giving and getting them. First off, I would love to thank Nina Baydoun from Tabkhet el Yom for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. This is my second award, after the last Sunshine Award I got. If you want some a variety of the best Lebanese food, then be sure to check out her blog!

Here are my nominations:

1- bakingwithbrennan

2- Teenage Girl Cooks

3- Allison Eats

4- A Melbourne Girl at Heart

Speaking of surprises, I’ve been eyeing this multi-layer rainbow cake I found on foodgawker foreverrrrrr! I finally got the excuse to bake it up today for my sister’s party. It was so funny because all the party guests did not know what to expect when I told them there was a surprise for them inside the cake. I mean, it looks like a totally normal cake from outside, with the plain white icing and what not. They probably thought that I put some strange material inside. Surprise!!!!! They had no idea that there would be a rainbow inside after the first slice was cut.

The cake itself was pretty easy to make. I followed a white cake mix recipe that I found here.

Rainbow Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups of all-purpose flour
2 cups of sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
5 large egg whites
1 cup of milk
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
Gel Paste (I used the Wilton Colors: Christmas Red, Orange, Lemon Yellow, Leaf Green, Sky Blue, and Purple)

Tools Needed:

Measuring cups: tablespoon, teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1 cup, 1/2 cup
2 Mixing Bowls (for dry/wet ingredients)
Electric Mixer
Parchment Paper, Pencil, and Scissors
9″ round cake pans
Toothpicks
Mini bowls (for separating the egg whites)
6 medium bowls/spoons (for separating the 6 colored layers)

Preheat: 350 F

Directions:

Mix together all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
Cream all the butter with an electric mixer. If you forgot to leave it till it reached room temperature, then microwave it for about 20 seconds before creaming.
Add in the sugar, egg whites, vanilla extract, and sour cream mixing well in between each and every addition.
Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk to the creamed mixture. Mix until well incorporated.
If you have a scale, you can weigh the amount of the total cake mixture and divide it by six to see how much to add to each of the 6 divisions. My lack of a kitchen scale lead me to improvise and use another method. Instead, I used the measuring cups to scoop the mixture into each of the 6 bowls laid out. I started with a 1/2 cup for each and then added another 1/3 cup to each dividing the rest of the mix as equally as I could.
Next, use the toothpicks to add the 6 gel food colorings to each of the 6 bowls. The color you see of the raw cake mixture is how it will turn out after being baked, so add the food colorings according to your own discretions.
Now, trace the cake pan with a pencil on the parchment paper and cut out the circle. Butter the parchment paper after putting it in the cake pans. I used two cake pans at a time in the oven, because I only had two.
Pour the colored batter into the cake pans and bake for about 15 minutes or until well done.

For the icing I wanted to try something different so I did a Swiss Meringue Buttercream from here. I didn’t really like how it turned out though, because it was not consistent enough to ice a cake. I had to add half a can of store bought frosting to it to make it less runny. This was only for the filling though, in between the layers. For the outside frosting, I went with the recipe that I have been using from my previous cupcake post. It hasn’t failed me yet and is the perfect icing for a cake!