Pin Reaper: Riki1
Twitter: @erikawonn
Original Inspiration: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/176836722840746699/ via http://www.brit.co/rainbow-cake/
What I Did: One year ago today, I made this delightful cake for my best friend’s birthday. After all, what is better for a St. Patty’s Day birthday weekend than a rainbow cake? Nothing! So I took painstaking care to color each layer and bake them to perfection. I cooled them over night and then started stacking each layer. As the cake got higher, it slumped more and more. My homemade buttercream icing was NOT strong enough to hold the weight of the seven lopsided layers. (Hindsight: Take a knife and level each layer before stacking…duh). Also, ignore those overachievers who say homemade icing will be best. It might be made with more love, but the industrial strength Pillsbury icing will surely hold up better. After the layers start shifting and crumbling apart right before my eyes, I took the rest of the icing, and just started globbing it all over the top. For added “fanciness”, I added rainbow sprinkles. Maybe I could hide this fail with some beautiful sprinkles. As you can see, I nailed it! Maybe my dreams of a bakery are a little far-fetched, and maybe I should keep my day job. Nevertheless, my friend was very appreciative, and the story of the rainbow cake will live forever.
My Result:
Next Time I Will: Level the layers before stacking. Use a very stiff icing, I suggest the store-bought kind versus homemade.
You need to find a good buttercream icing that doesn’t actually use butter - powdered sugar, heavy cream, and shortening. Level your layers, and make sure to have a decent amount of icing between the layers, and you can also level additionally between the layers using icing.
if making a serious layer cake like this, go out and spend $3 on a cake leveling wire. Don’t try to use a knife to level your cakes. Use the wire in a back-and-forth sawing motion. Having level cakes also makes the whole thing easier to frosting. Cake making is no joke, look up basic cake how-to’s before attempting something like this.
It also looks like the original design uses half layers for each color. Waaay less cake that way & easier to stack once they have all been leveled.
Those are layer cakes divided in half, probably with a wire cake cutter thingy. That’s actually only 3 cakes total, each one cut in half horizontally. Not seven total layers.
Using a real, meringue buttercream would be the key. Also, the picture has a very small diameter. It’s not an 8-9 inch cake pan. It’s def 7 total layers, but you just bake the layers with a very small amount of batter in it. You couldn’t get all the colors if you just cut cakes in half.
Having made many wedding cakes, etc. The above advice is great, but also when you are doing layers, using dowel rods to help stabilize the cake is very important!
Do not buy store-bought icing! (Unless you get professional grade icing.) What they sell in the baking isle (Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, etc.) is too thin for something like this. When making buttercream icing yourself, you can make it stiffer by adding less liquid from the start. As others have said, thin level layers are key to something like this. There are lots of cake decorating classes available and basic decorating videos online. Don’t give up! Just keep practicing.