Rainbow Vertical Cake Food

RAINBOW CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to the temperature called for in the cake mix instructions. Lightly grease five 8-inch cake pans and dust with flour, tapping out excess flour.
• Place the ground bananas, blueberries, mangos, peas and raspberries in separate medium mixing bowls.
• Prepare the cake mix batter according to package instructions, using the eggs, egg whites and oil. Divide the batter among the five mixing bowls. To the raspberry batter, add 4 drops red food coloring. To the mango batter, add 1 scant drop red and 3 drops yellow food coloring. To the banana batter, add 4 drops yellow food coloring. To the green pea batter, add 3 drops green food coloring. To the blueberry batter, add 3 drops blue food coloring. Mix each bowl of batter until well combined and uniform in color.
• Scrape the batters into the prepared cake pans. Bake in batches (3 pans in the first batch, 2 pans in the second), rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven; when cool enough to handle, turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• To assemble the cake, place the blue cake layer onto a cake platter and spread the top with 1/3 cup frosting in an even layer. Top with the green layer and spread with 1/3 cup frosting. Repeat with the yellow, orange and red layers until you have stacked all the layers. Frost the sides and top of the cake in an even layer. Use the reserved bananas, blueberries, mangos, peas and raspberries to decorate the top of the cake in a rainbow pattern. Any remaining fruit can be crushed lightly, mixed together and used to decorate the sides of the cake.

RAINBOW CAKE WITH MARZIPAN VEGETABLES AND SMASH CAKE

Steps:

• For the cake layers: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans with cooking spray and parchment and set aside.
• Sift together the flour and baking powder in a large bowl, then lightly stir in the salt and set aside.
• Cream together the butter, coconut oil and granulated sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Reduce the mixer to low and add the vanilla and sour cream. Gradually add the dry mixture and mix until about 80 percent combined. Divide the batter evenly among 3 bowls. In the first bowl, stir in the carrot juice and 1/4 cup milk and fold together until smooth and just combined. In the second bowl, add the beet juice and 1/4 cup milk and fold together until smooth and just combined. Blend together the mint leaves and remaining 1/2 cup milk in a blender until very smooth, scraping the sides as needed. Add this to the third bowl and fold together until smooth and just combined. Transfer the batters to the cake pans and spread them out evenly.
• Bake until the tops of the cakes are thinking about starting to turn brown and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out with a few crumbs on it; begin checking for doneness at 30 minutes and try your darnedest not to let it overbake. Let sit in the pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• For the buttercream frosting: Beat together the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, then mix in the salt, vanilla and heavy cream. Mix until creamy.
• Level the tops of the cake layers, retaining the scraps, then stack them up with a layer of frosting in between each. Frost all over and decorate as desired.
• To make a mini cake, stack up the cake scraps that were cut off from the layers and cut out four 2 1/2-inch circles. Stack them on top of each other and frost all over. (The scraps should be moist enough that they'll all stick together!)
• Use food coloring to dye the marzipan (deep purple for beets and orange for carrots). Mold into vegetables, using rosemary for the stems. Place on top of the cake.

RAINBOW LAYER CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.
• In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Divide batter evenly among 6 small bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each.
• Using food colors, tint batter in 1 bowl blue, 1 bowl red, 1 bowl green, 1 bowl yellow, 1 bowl orange (using red and yellow) and 1 bowl purple (using blue and red).
• Refrigerate 3 colors of batter until ready to bake. Pour remaining 3 colors of batter into cake pans.
• Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center and begins to pull away from side of pan. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks; cool completely.
• Wash cake pans. Bake and cool remaining 3 cake layers as directed.
• In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer on medium speed until light yellow. On low speed, gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat in vanilla. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until frosting is smooth. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy.
• Trim rounded tops off cakes to level, if needed. On serving plate, place purple cake layer. Spread with frosting to within 1/4 inch of edge. Repeat with blue, green, yellow, orange and red cake layers. Spread light coat of frosting on top and side of cake to seal in crumbs, then frost with remaining frosting.

EASY SIX-LAYER RAINBOW CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease six 9-inch round cake pans and dust with flour.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
• Beat 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, milk, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla extract in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in flour mixture and mix until just combined.
• Divide cake batter evenly between 6 bowls. Mix in different food coloring to each bowl, creating 6 different colored batters. Start with just 1 to 2 drops of food coloring in each bowl, then mix; you can always add more.
• Bake each cake in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
• Beat cream in a chilled glass or metal bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Stir together confectioners' sugar and mascarpone cheese in a separate bowl, then fold gently into the whipped cream until smooth.
• Spread frosting on each layer of cooled cake, placing one on top of the other. Cover the top and sides with the remaining frosting. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.