When I saw rainbow cakes like this one on Pinterest, I knew I had to make one! What better occasion than my son's first birthday? And just like that the theme was set. I perused post after post of cake tutorials. After all of the research this is how I went about making mine:
After much deliberation I chose to use boxed cake mixes over starting from scratch. I used three boxes. Yes, you read that right THREE. I did not want wimpy layers!
I used Wilton's icing colors to get nice vibrant layers. Make sure you grease and flour your pans so your layers don't tear up! Let your layers cool completely before you even attempt to start icing and stacking.
I iced my cake directly on the stand, but put foil under the edges to keep the stand clean. (we were out of wax paper/parchment paper. always improvising!) Use a long knife to cut the bumps off of each layer so they are even across the top. The entire process of stacking the layers was wonderfully fun and exciting for me. I was absolutely giddy by the time I added on the red layer!
You can use toothpicks to keep your layers from sliding. I certainly did! But it also helps if you make crazy faces, don't wear makeup, and have sunglasses on your head even though it is dark thirty at night.
Make sure your icing layers are nice and thick! When you are done stacking add a verrry thin layer of icing called a crumb coat. It does what it sounds like, captures all of the crumbs. After adding my crumb coat I let the cake sit out over night. Logan's party was the next day.
When you add the icing feel free to put it on thick! You can use it to hide imperfections in your stacking. See above how the yellow layer goes in a little? Keep working and smoothing until your icing is just like you want it. Oh by the way, I used this icing recipe. It worked very well and tasted great!
Last step: Slice and dig in!
I'm sure I left something out. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments below!
