Rainbow Cake

My son is usually very particular when it comes to his birthday cake. He takes his time and debates all of the different flavors, sizes and themes that he can go with. He is very serious when it comes to cake. But this year, he wanted me to surprise him. So when I saw the recipe for this RAINBOW CAKE, I knew exactly what I would make for his 6th birthday! It was a bit pokey to make, but the results were worth it. He loved the bright colors-- which are the result of food coloring paste (no little triangle shaped capped food coloring for this recipe-- you'll never get the desired results).

The recipe that I saw was ironically close to my recipe for Watergate Cake, by the fact that it was made with 7-up and instant pudding. However, the recipe did not call for eggs and it called for diet 7-Up and fat-free instant pudding, ( which was only used in the frosting rather than in both the cake and the frosting); a pathetic attempt to make a fat-free cake. If you're going to eat cake-- you deserve to enjoy it and put all the goods into it. No skimping here. I adapted my own recipe for this Rainbow Cake.

Ingredients:

White Cake Mix
1 cup 7-Up
1 cup water
1 package vanilla instant pudding
2 eggs

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients for 1 minute (usually a cake needs to be mixed for about 2 minutes, but you will be mixing again when you add the coloring).

2. I measured the entire batter so that I knew what I needed to measure in order to have 6 equal portions. Conveniently, the batter equaled 6 cups! How easy!



I simply used a 1-cup measuring scoop to divide the batter into 6 separate bowls. I then tinted each bowl with a different color.



3. Grease 2 round cake pans.

4. Now, I used my first three colors in the first pan and then switched to do the last three colors in the second pan. I did it like this, because you want to use about 2/3 of the total amount of batter in each bowl for the bottom colors. (Make sense? Basically, if I did all 6 colors in one pan before moving onto the 2nd pan, I would end up having a hard time making sure I had equal amounts of batter in each pan.)

5. So use about 2/3 of your first color (red) and plop it dead center into the pan. Don't worry about swirling it around or anything-- it magically will work out.

6. Add about 2/3 of the batter of your second color (orange) smack dab on top of the first color.

7. Do this also with your third color (yellow).



8. This is where you want to now go to your second pan and work the colors backwards. Using about 2/3 of the batter for the LAST color of your rainbow (purple), plop it into the empty 2nd pan.

9. Do this with the next color (blue) and again with the green.



10. You should be left with about 1/3 of the batter for each color.

11. Go ahead and finish up your rainbows--- put the remaining green, blue and purple in your first pan and put the remaining yellow, orange and red in your last pan.



12. If you insist, give the pans a little swirl to make sure that your batter is even. Don't do this too hard- you don't want to mix your colors and as tempted as you may be, do NOT drag a knife through it to marble the cake.

13. Put your two pans into a preheated 350° oven and bake until cake test is complete (about 25 minutes... but watch them-- you have mixed up your ingredients a tad from the given directions on the box).

14. Cool the cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.



15. Frost with either frosting of your choice, or with whipped cream (I mixed another package of instant vanilla into mine before frosting). Also tuck some waxed paper under the edges of the cake while you frost so that your plate remains clean. When you're done frosting, simply slide the waxed paper out.




Keep refrigerated.