I am a big kid at heart and have been wanting to make a rainbow cake for AGES. What’s great about this recipe is that it’s not until you cut into the cake that you will see the rainbow coloured layers. To make one takes a little more time than just a regular Victoria sponge recipe and I recommend using gel food colouring to make this cake, which will give you a really vibrant coloured sponge. After trying a couple of recipes I found that this one, with a cream cheese frosting works best.
What you will need:
For the cake mixture:
- 4 free-range eggs
- 225g/8oz caster sugar
- 225g/8oz self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 225g/8oz baking spread, margarine softened, plus a little extra to grease the cake tins
- 6 different gel food colours
For the frosting:
- 100g butter, softened
- 250g cream cheese
- 600g icing sugar sifted
I recommend using the small disposable ‘flan cases’ that you can get in the shops to bake the layers in.
How to make the cake layers:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Gas mark 4)
Cream the softened butter and the caster sugar in a large mixing bowl.
Crack the eggs and mix them in, then slowly sift in the flour and baking powder
Next divide the mixture into six individual bowls. I did this by eye, but if you wish to be a perfectionist you can weigh out the mixture and divide equally.
Next start adding the gel colours in to the divided up mixture. Be sure to add a little at a time as the gel colours are very bright and it’s easy to overdo it. Mix them until you have colour evenly throughout the mixtures.
Grease up your flan dishes with some of the butter and add the mixtures.
Cook in the oven for 20 minutes. Test that the cake is cooked throughout by sticking a knife into the cake and seeing if it comes out clean.
Take the cake layers out and leave them to cool on a cooling rack.
How to make the frosting:
Melt the butter a little in a heatproof bowl, in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, until it’s almost completely melted. Mix the butter until there are no lumps left and then add the cream cheese. Whisk the mixture to remove all of the lumps.
Gently sieve in the icing sugar. If you wish you can add a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice now to take away a little of the sweetness.
Chill the frosting in the fridge for 1hr
To assemble the cake:
Get the plate or stand that you want the cake to be served on and a little of the icing to the middle to stick the bottom layer of the cake. Once you have added the bottom layer add frosting to the top, but not too much as it will be pushed out to the sides by the weight of the cake.
After you have done the first three layers place the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
Build the next three layers using the above process again, try to keep the layers as even as possible.
Apply a layer of the frosting all over the cake, you will be able to see some of the colours through the frosting.
Place the cake in the fridge to set for another 30 minutes
Add the final layer of frosting, and add any sprinkles or decorations that you want!
