Esther's 16th Birthday Cake

This week has been Esther-palooza. A whole week of celebrating our second child who is growing into an amazing woman. Her birthday request this year was for a rainbow cake. A friend had sent a picture of a cake she wanted to make. I randomly showed it to Esther and here we are!

I visited several websites to get ideas on how to make it. In the end I did it my own way - but it turned out pretty well. Thanks for the suggestion, Kara!

So - here's how:

• Two boxes white cake mixe (I have my favorite white box cake - this is about looks, so no need to complicate the process with homemade cake!)
• Eggs, oil and water for cake
• food coloring GEL - helpful hint picked up from blogs - gel colors are brighter than regular food coloring
• round cake pans
• Icing (lots and lots! I included my recipe below if you want to make homemade cream cheese icing)

I followed directions on box and made one cake mix. Divide the cake batter equally among three different bowls. Add one gel to each bowl. I baked each layer about 12 minutes - but my oven is not reliable, so watch carefully. It is a thin layer and will not take long.
Repeat process with next three colors.
ROY G BIV is the acronym I learned in school for the colors of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. I only made six layers... but the sky's the limit!!

Spread a think layer of icing between each cake. A helpful hint: spread a super thin layer over the top of each cake before adding the total amount of icing you want. This allows the icing to spread smoothly without pulling up pieces of cake.

This final product was yummy!



Cream cheese icing:
3 - 8 ounce packages of cream cheese
2 sticks of butter (1 cup of butter)
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp of vanilla

You may add more powdered sugar to get your desired consistency.