No. 3 - A Rainbow Cake.

So, in light of my boss leaving, to have her bambino, we are eating cake this week at work - for my day of cake I decided to make attempt a rainbow cake.

I am just going to say it was hard work.

And it should have been harder. It really should have a red and a yellow layer, but my red food colouring was rubbish (think more brown then red - that’s the last time I don’t use paste) and I couldn’t find a yellow. To be honest, I didn’t search very far for a yellow, but I couldn’t find one.

So I started off with a basic sponge cake recipe, that I added extra vanilla to just because I thought it might be a good idea. And then I separated it into bowls, I did do 5, because I tried to make a red layer. I attempted it. And my housemate did. She poured more and more red into the cake mix and it got grimmer and grimmer and came out a bit of a muddy, reddy colour, a little like this but maybe browner. Which really shocked me after this colour at Halloween.

But just look at the colour of the blue. Don’t you just want all your food to be that colour?

The next failure came in the form of the cake tin. A good workman always blames his tools right. The cake tin was way too big for the amount of mixture I’d made, which means the layers are a little thin….

But after that realisation the baking was easy.

I used a tin with one of those revolutionary removable bottoms. It made getting the cake out a dream.

But since we only had one it took forever. Half way through I got so bored I nearly gave up with only the blue and orange layers done but my housemate talked me back into it. And then the Gaslight Anthem track came on Zane Lowe to cheer me up. Then I watched a few, back to back, episodes on 90210 on 4od. Nothing like a bit of teen drama to pull you through a baking morose!

And other triumphs include;

The oven only made it rise a little oddly, hence the wobbly edges. Which in our freakishly uneven oven is such an achievement.

The colours that worked, worked – and I mean worked. Mmmmmm, e-numbers.

The frosting went on pretty well too. It covers the wobbly layers of the cakes, I mean I know it looks a mess, but it was late by this point. And it tastes good.

But I have learnt from the experience - next time I shall buy some red (and yellow) food colouring paste, and also a non-8” cake tin. Maybe like a 6” one? In fact I will buy 2 of them. Then I can make the cake way faster….. because although these ideas seem great at the time, they do get a bit tiresome after a while.

I will attempt it again, and next time there will be all the colours. And there will be flat, beautiful looking frosting, like Whisk Kids'.

Next up – Rock and Roll Battenburg!