I love Pinterest, it is a wonderfully visual place for inspiration and ideas. Two such ideas popping up a lot, are the gorgeous RAINBOW CAKES and more recently the Pinata Cakes (cakes filled with M&Ms or Smarties). I decided that I wanted to have a go at BOTH for Pip Squeak’s 4th Birthday party which was “Unicorn” themed. We had already been collecting Unicorn Party Ideas and we decided anything “rainbow” would be good. Make sure you also take a look at these Rainbow Cookies – my kids ADORE making these and they are a great activity in the run up to a party to keep kids busy! And THIS would make a great “party bag” idea for a rainbow party!!
PS I have been asked about the pink sandwiches in the background: they are just a little pink food dye added to our bread machine!
Always wanting to be one to credit, I looked for the original Rainbow Cake Source… boy was it an epic journey: With the help of Creative Playhouse‘s googling skills we discovered that the Whisk Kid probably popularised it when she made the cake for the notrious blogger hater Martha Stewart (she doesn’t like sharing a slice of her cake with anyone). But then Whatever popped up, a little more digging… and Off the Meat Hook .. could this go on for ever? Yes! Retrolife and then of course The Imagination Tree made a lovely Rainbow Cake as part of her fun Willy Wonka party! Rainbow cakes EVERYWHERE. The moral of the story? It is impossible to trace things back to the originator.
Surprise Rainbow Cake Ingredients
I decided to go for a simple Victoria Sponge to make our cakes. I took our “normal” recipe and doubled it to make 6 cakes (one Victoria Sponge recipe is usually enough for two cakes, but I decided to make 3 thinner ones, to reduce the “stack” a little):
- 450g Selfraising Flour
- 450g Butter
- 450g Sugar
- 8 eggs
- 2-4 tea spoons of vanilla essence
- Food colouring (I used food colouring gels called Sugarflair)
- A drop of milk if required
BAKE at 180C
(This made the SIX cakes. But I made half of the above TWICE)
- 2 pots of double cream
- Icing Sugar
- Smarties or M&Ms
I used 3 20cm/ 8″ cake tins
Surprise Rainbow Cake Methodology
I made two batches of 3 cakes. I thought a “normal” Victoria Sponge recipe quantity would be easier to manage that the double quantity. As our oven isn’t very good and I only had 3 cake tins anyway, this work out just fine anyway.
1) Weigh your mixing bowl BEFORE you add any ingredients and make note of the weight
2) Mix all your ingredients until you have a smooth cake mix (you can add a little milk to make it runnier)
3) Weigh the bowl + ingredients and work out how much dough you have. It happened to be that my quantities approximated 900g, which I divided into 3 batches.
4) Add a “tip of a knife” of the food gel in each bowl and mix well. If need be add a LITTLE more colouring to get the desired colour.
5) Scoop into your three cake tins and bake 12-15min. Use a knife to test if the cake is cooked through.
FAIL ALERT
Now.. here is where I made a mistake. I squeezed all three tins into our not so good oven. I know it isn’t good – it is old and needs replacing, the back is hotter than the front (the door doesn’t shut properly etc). So… one of my 3 cakes came out all lopsided – one side rose higher than the other”. Argh.
So with the NEXT three, I actually started cooking ONE tin at a time. Yes, a little more time consuming, but each layer is small and cooked in 12-15min. And they turned out SO MUCH better….
Cool on a rack (I didn’t have enough rack space, so also used some Pizza trays.
6) Once fully cooled – actually left them overnight and finished them halfway through the unicorn birthday party – beat your double cream with a little icing sugar to sweet until stiff.
7) Using a large cookie cutter, cut a hole in each of the first 5 layers. (I kept the circles I cut out and made a mini tower cake for a play date that could make the party and who was coming to play the next day).
8) Stack your cakes in rainbow order – purple, blue, green, yellow, orange. With some cream between each layer.
9) Fill with Smarties.
FAIL ALERT
Smarties DO react with moisture (i.e. the cream), so it is worth doing this shortly before serving. If you have to make this cake ahead of time, I suggest the more “non melty” M&Ms.
10) Add the red layer to the top (no hole) and then cover in cream.
We decorated our cake with some Unicorn Playmobil.
And finished! Happy kids.
Oh… and the next day, we had a playdate for one of the friends that couldn’t make it… the kids got an unBirthday Cake. Can you guess where it came from?! Waste no want not and all that!!
Emma says
ooooh, that is amazing Maggy! Did Pip Squeak like it?
Red Ted Art says
Yes she did! But she was quickly distracted with playing with her presents again! Sigh.
Jenny from Cheetahs In My Shoes and Just Photos By Me says
I am so glad it worked out Maggy! I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed – I think the small hole worked brilliantly x
Red Ted Art says
I think a dash of salt really helped too!
Jo says
Hi. Is the ingredients quantities you give for just one batch of 3 cakes – do you need double the quantities stated (if that makes sense!) X
Red Ted Art says
The 450g etc is for ALL SIX cakes. I made half twice.
Susan G says
Looks amazing! Did you miss eggs in the sponge recipe though?
Red Ted Art says
Goodness, clearly I was tired from the party!!!! Yes, the eggs were missing. Have added them now. Thank you.
Susan G says
Yeah was trying to figure out if it was 6 or 8 eggs! I’m so making this for my own next birthday, forget the kids!
rebecca says
this is genius
Mama Syder says
Total genius! I love it! x
Mammasaurus says
Looks super Maggy – and I love the pink sarnies too!
Red Ted Art says
Thank you Mammasaurus, was very happy with the result!!!
Kat says
This looks awesome Maggy! It was really fun searching for the original 🙂 Happy Birthday to Pipsqueak! 😀
Red Ted Art says
Yes it was fun, wasn’t it!? Thanks for your help!
Katy Addis says
What a beautiful cake! Thanks for putting this up and including the tips. Am definitely going to make this for my boys next birthday xx
Red Ted Art says
Lovely!! Have fun with it!
Sachelle says
What a fabulous idea! Freddie’s 5th bday in April and I am defo going to give it a go!
Red Ted Art says
So pleased!! Have fun and do post some photos!
Tammie says
Hi, I was wondering when you say pots of double cream, do you mean heavy cream or whipping cream & we have 500ml & 1 litre cartons…which would it be?
Also would all purpose flour work?
It is my daughter’s 5th b.day on Monday & would like to make this.
Thank you for your help.
Red Ted Art says
Double cream here in the UK is like “thicker whipping cream”, though you should be ok with whipping cream too. 1 liter craton should just about be enough! And if your use all purpose flour, you have to add bakind powder to help make the cake rise!
Jo says
I love this! Would it be ok to make it about 2 hours before serving with the smarties in do you think?
Red Ted Art says
I am nervous about teh smarties “bleeding” when in contact with the cream. Which is why I assembled it AT the party. You could use M&Ms which are more hard wearing instead.. just make sure you don’t have any peanut allergy guests!
Clare says
This cake is awesome and I am planning to make one for my twins’ second birthday.
It was so lovely to see you try and trace the original recipe – because the first I heard of a rainbow piñata cake was in the recent Asda magazine – and I have to say it looks a heck of a lot like yours…
Amanda says
Thanks for this recipe! Just made this cake for my sister’s birthday and it was a huge success!
Susan says
At what tempreture did you bake them? the recipe doesn’t say
Red Ted Art says
Ah sorry, will amend – 180C
Susan says
hank you 😀 gonna try it out this friday
Red Ted Art says
Wonderful! Enjoy!