Rainbow Cake

My child is three years old.  I am mother to a lively, rambunctious three year old boy.  Three years ago, this being was inside my uterus.  Now we're rocking out to Gaga together in the kitchen.

Yeah, he's got some moves.  Mama's teaching him everything she knows. 

The kid also has great taste in birthday cakes.  At last year's zoo party, the Smitten Kitchen monkey cake made its debut.  This year, we were all about rainbows with this rainbow cake from the Whisk Kid baking blog. 

How gorgeous is that?  It looks like a regular cake, frosted white, then you cut into it and - BAM! - holy hella rainbow.  It's fun.  It's sweet.  It's happy and colorful and joyous.  It's everything life as a three year old should be. 

The secret to making this cake?  Actually, there are two secrets: lots of food coloring and a mother with some baking skills and extra time on her hands.  I didn't make this cake - Ben's grandmother did, per my request.  It took her hours, as she only has two cake pans ("You could've borrowed mine!" I tell her later), and had to mix each color separately, pour, bake, cool, remove, clean, repeat, repeat.  

Yes, both myself and my child are spoiled rotten by this woman, but in her happily retired way, she seems to enjoy every second of it.  

Aside from the colors, the cake itself is rich and very sweet.  As with most homemade cakes, the texture is thicker and denser than the airy, squishy cakes you get at a grocery store, and I like it that way. We skipped the  "lemony swiss meringue buttercream" frosting that accompanies the original recipe and instead made a basic buttercream that worked just peachy, although I definitely see how lemon would add a bright flavor to match the bright colors. 

Check out the original Whisk Kid rainbow cake recipe here or the reposting of it on Martha Stewart with a video and more insightful recipe comments here.

And a very happy birthday to my little man!