Rainbow Layer Cake

This cake was extraordinarily fun to make and even better to look at! The sense of accomplishment at the end is well worth it, and even if you're not a fabulous chef, you'll be praised by the cake- attendees because this cake is just so darn impressive!

You will need:

2x 340g packets of vanilla or plain cake mix or you can make your own, as I did, using my favourite recipe for buttercake ****

Different colours to tint batter with.(You can mix these in conjunction with each other to make new colours. I find this colour chart particularly useful.) I used Red, Pink, Orange, Green, Blue and Purple though I would recommend using substituting the Pink for Yellow. 

Frosting! Use any kind you like. I prefer to use this recipe:

1/2c margarine

1/2c shortening

1/8t salt

1 1/2t vanilla extract

5c icing sugar (confectioners' sugar)

1/4c milk

Mix margarine & Shortening until light and fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat like mad. 

You could also use fondant and just drape it over and cut to measure, if you want a 'cleaner' finish.
You may also want to decorate your rainbow cake. I would suggest stencilling a rainbow over the top of the icing and colouring with tinted powdered sugar or coloured sugar crystals.

Method:

Preheat oven to 180c or 160c fan-forced. 

Mix the cake batter, (as directed on packet or in my recipe) and divide into as many bowls as you would like colours (if following this recipe, that would be 6 bowls.) It should equate roughly to about a cup and a half per bowl.

Tint the batter,making sure to get nice vivid colours. 

Grease the cake tins you're using; the round 20cm ones work best. Bake the cake batter for 25 minutes, rotating halfway through cooking, or until cooked through. 

Stand in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. 

I only had one cake pan and did all six layers seperately but as you can imagine, it took me a really long time and I wouldn't recommend it. Try using 2, possibly 3 cake pans if you can. 

Important Tip: Place your cake layers onto the surface that you will be transporting them on, whether this is a cake board, a serving tray or a cake carrier. It makes it a lot easier in the long run as this is a heavy cake and difficult to move until fully cooled and iced.

Start with whichever colour you like. It does look pretty to have them in 'rainbow' order, so if you're not sure, I'd suggest Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red. 

Make sure to level the top of the cake once they are cool; the layers need to be flat so that they can give some stability to the structure of the cake.

Use frosting (about half a cup, but it really depends on your tastes and the size of your cake) until you have an even, half inch layer of frosting across the cake layer. Put the next cake layer on top and repeat with frosting and cake layers until you run out :)

Coat with frosting and smooth over then decorate however you wish!

3 in 1 biscuits

I found the recipe for these on Kidspot when I was baking with the little monsters.
Super fun to make and they look brilliant!

You will need:

• 250g butter, softened
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ½ cups plain flour
• 8-10 drops red food colouring
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar together with a spoon in a bowl or using an electric mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the flour and mix until a smooth dough forms.
 
Divide the dough into four.

 Colour one portion with red food colouring and another with cocoa powder. I did this in separate small bowls with a knife, but you could knead the colour in.
Wrap the four dough portions separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
Roll each piece of dough on a floured surface into a rectangle shape about 18cm x 20cm.

To make swirly biscuits, place the pink dough on top of the plain dough, trim edges into a neat rectangle.

Now, roll into a log.

Repeat with the other plain dough and chocolate dough.

 To make the marbled biscuits, knead the trimmings together and roll into a log.

Slice the logs into 5mm width biscuits using a serrated bread knife. Place biscuits on baking trays and cook for about 15 minutes until golden.

• Recipe created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot.

Classic Carrot Cake with a touch of Awesome.

Okay, so here's the deal. There's carrot cakes, and there's this carrot cake. This moist, textured, rich carrot cake that practically hugs you.

You can also make it into adorable little cupcakes, like these:

I used gummy carrots, found at my local corner store. The awesome recipe for this cake was actually invented by my clever partner, TJ.
Here's what you'll need:

For the cake:

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs

½ cup milk
¾ cup flour

¾ cup wholemeal flour

2 ½  cups grated carrot (blend further in food processor if desired)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice
1/2 cup hot water
100g melted butter

For the icing:

50g butter- softened

½ cup cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla essence

1+ cups icing sugar

1+ tbsp milk

Okay, so firstly, pre heat the oven to 160c.

Combine flour, wholemeal flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices in a bowl. Set aside.

Add butter to sugar and brown sugar, beat thoroughly. Beat in eggs. Alternate adding water and milk with dry ingredients to ensure even consistency. Beat for 2-3 minutes with an electric beater, then pour mix into a well-greased cake tin.

Bake at 160c for around 45 minutes, until cake springs back and does other cake-like things when tested.

Icing: 

Beat together butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Alternate adding icing sugar and milk, beating continuously until desired amount and consistency of icing is reached. (You probably want it thick enough to hold it's shape but soft enough to pipe.) You can either cover it in icing, like this:

Or you can be a little more subtle and pipe it, like this:

This cake is an absolute dream to eat!

Marvellous Mud Cake and an Introduction.

Hi everyone!

I'm delighted to welcome you to my baking blog. It's linked to my awkward dinosaur blog and it's completely different in design in content, but not in quality!

I love being in the kitchen. Cooking is fun, but baking is what really stirs my passions. Cakes, cookies, muffins, fudges, breads... There's just something about getting involved with the food that kindles a special kind of joy for me.

Today I made a special mud cake with chocolate fudge frosting and peppermint icing spots. It is simply divine- moist and fudgey on the inside, with creamy rich icing on the outside.

To make, you'll need:

Cake Mix:

375g butter (softened)
1 and 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain all purpose flour, sifted.
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup cocoa powder, double sifted. 
200g dark or milk chocolate (I used milk chocolate), melted.
3/4 cup milk

• Preheat oven to 160°C. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and use an electric mixer for around 5-8 minutes or until the mixture is light and creamy. 
  
  

• Gradually add eggs and beat well, then fold through the flour, baking powder, cocoa and melted chocolate. Stir in the milk.

• Spoon the mixture into a 22cm round cake tin. lined with non stick baking paper. I also like to spray the inside of the cake tin with cooking spray- it helps the sides of the cake to not stick. Bake for 75 minutes (an hour and a quarter) or until a knife comes out clean from the middle. 

• Cool in the tin for about half an hour and transfer to a serving plate. Now to prepare the icing!

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

250g dark chocolate
1/2 cup pouring cream
70g butter

• Put ingredients in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Make sure that the bowl isn't touching the water. Stir until melted and smooth. Remove and set aside to cool.

• When cool, beat with electric beater until thick and fluffy. I chose to lattice the icing and then fill it in to get a more even cover, but you can just dump the icing in the middle and spread it if you like. :)

 Peppermint Icing Spots:

1 and a half cups icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint essence
1 egg white

• Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add egg white, stir. Add peppermint essence and stir until smooth. Put into an icing bag and pipe rosettes or circles onto cake.