So, this week’s blog is a cake I absolutely love. As I mentioned last week, I was looking forward to a baking day after my uni work last week. So this is a cake I made for my family, not really for any occasion other than it made me happy. This week’s blog is how is made this fantastic rainbow cake, now all I’m saying is simple is better. I wanted to use this cake as an experiment, so I could learn a couple of things for future cakes. When I make tiered cake I always use 8inch tins, recently I bought some 6inch tins to see the difference. For my VE day cake I used a striped scraper with normal buttercream and this week I wanted to see the difference with Swiss meringue buttercream. It is rare I make this type of buttercream but I personally prefer it because I just think it’s so light. I’ve got hopes to make another cake like this but with black buttercream and neon colours. Time flew by when I was making this cake and I loved baking it.
I started by making one cake mix, I was curious to see how I can split a mix in 6inch tins. So I creamed 175g caster sugar and butter. I then added 3 eggs and then 175g self raising flour. I didn’t want to get too adventurous with the flavours so kept it simple by using some vanilla. I always use baking paper in my tins and my new tins, the bottom of the tin doesn’t come out. I wanted to try a new trick to grease my tins, so I put butter in the tins and then dusted some flour. I got rid of the flour that didn’t stick to the butter. I then split the mix between the two tins. I baked the cakes for around 30 minutes at 180 degrees. Whilst the cakes were baking, I made another mix for another two cakes. I needed the cakes to have a certain height so I could get each colour of the rainbow on the cake. I repeated the mix and made four cakes in total. They took a little persuading to get out of the tin but they didn’t stick. I left them to cool and then focused on making the buttercream.
It wasn’t until I stacked them on top of each other I realised how tall the cake was. It was easily the tallest cake I’ve made. For the buttercream I had left the unsalted butter soften, this is important but you don’t want it too soft. I wiped my bowl and whisk with vinegar apparently this stops any grease and helps the meringue work. In a metal bowl I added 315g egg whites this was about 10-11 egg whites. I also added 600g granulated sugar to the egg whites. I whisked this over a pan of water until the sugar had dissolved and was around 60 degrees. I then put this in my Kitchenaid and whisked until the meringue was at room temperature and the peaks were glossy. If the meringue is still hot the butter will melt. Once the meringue is cool, I added 510g unsalted butter in small amounts and then left it to thicken. If it still looks runny keep whisking it, it will get thicker. It’s important there is no egg yolk whatsoever near the buttercream because it won’t work. Once it’s a nice consistency, you can add a touch of salt and then your flavouring, I added vanilla.
Once my buttercream was ready I started to stack my cakes. I piped some buttercream around the edges and then added jam in the middle. I then did a crumb coat around the cake and smoothed this out using my Finch bakery scraper, which is amazing. Once I had my crumb coat I found some space in the fridge for my cake to cool. I then added another coat of buttercream and smoothed it out. I then turned my scraper around and left stripes in the cake, this was where the rainbow buttercream was going to go. It was at this point I realised I was running low on piping bags. I used zip lock bags instead to save the precious bags. I coloured the buttercream I had left, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. In the gaps of the cake I coloured each stripe a different colour. I then smoothed this out at first the colours look merged but after a few scrapes the white lines become more visible. I was debating whether to put rainbow buttercream on top but decided to keep it simple and just use white buttercream. To keep it simple I added some rainbow sprinkles and then just stepped away and admired it in all its beauty.
The next job was to take a good photo. I started taking a couple inside but wasn’t happy with the lighting. I then took some in my favourite spot in the garden next to the blue shed. There was some dedication getting the shot I was happy with. The sun was just passing the shed and I had to stand on a step to get the cake in the sunlight. At one point I had the cake balanced on one hand and then tried to take a photo. Then my parents lifted up a table and I had to stand on a step to get the shot. I absolutely loved how simple this cake looked but the rainbow just stands out. I think this is up there with my favourite cakes I’ve made. This is a cake that I hope has brightened up your day and you love it as much as I do. I’ve been on a baking mission this week, building up blogs I’m really proud of and getting closer and closer to 4000 followers. I hope you have a brilliant week and stay safe.
Lots of love,
Hannah x
Comments