Rainbow Cake

From: Chef #454012

On Mar 10, 2009

my kids favourite

From: Charishma Ramchandani

On May 29, 2001

The lovely colours of this cake tempt your eyes...and melt your heart...and make your mouth water, just to have a bite and then have another one and then one more...endlessly!!

From: CarsonM

On Sep 21, 2007

I thought this was a really fun and interesting cake! I did bake it for a friend's birthday, and it was really festive. Rather than distinct layers, for some reason my cake turned out beautifully marbled, with red all around the outside and green tendrils snaking into the yellow interior of the cake. I must admit that I wasn't convinced that the flavors would go well together (even though I'm a big fan of all three), but it turned out to be a very subtle cake with a flavor that was almost indefinable (albeit distinctly fruity and fragrant) if you didn't already know what was in it. I did make several changes to the recipe. First: it doesn't specify a baking temperature or a pan size. I went with an 8" pan; baaaad move. The unbaked batter was almost level with the top of the pan, and as it baked, some of the batter came over the sides of the pan (fortunately just a bit, and I had put some aluminum foil down over the baking rack just in case). I also decided to try baking it at 350 degrees, which worked, but took about twice as long as the recipe suggested. The increased baking time could also have been a result of the fruit that I added to the cake. Even though I purchased mostly natural flavor extracts (from Faerie's Finest online), I was concerned that the cake might taste like "fruit extract" rather than "fruit", so I added 1 well-drained 8-oz can of crushed pineapple to the yellow layer, and about 8 oz diced fresh strawberries to the red layer. Also, the rose essence that I purchased didn't really smell like what I think of as "rose", so instead I used 1 T rosewater, which imparted a really nice flavor and fragrance to the green layer. (I then ordered the cake red/yellow/green, from bottom to top, so that the heavier fruit was at the bottom of the cake.) I suspect that this extra liquid may have increased my baking time. Finally, I decided to try including some icing with the cake, on the assumption that it would be more exciting to slice into a frosted white confection to reveal the vivid colors within. I tried Silky Vanilla Butter Frosting (#23715), which had a nice flavor but was a pain to frost (especially on the mushroom-shaped cake that resulted from my 8" pan). Still, it did the job of concealing my vivid green cake top, and the interior did create a bit of a sensation when it was cut! I'm giving this recipe a rating of five stars because I thought it was really pretty, memorable, and had an intriguing, unusual and delicious flavor. I liked the extra fruit in it, but I don't think it was absolutely necessary. But, I would definitely recommend using at least a 9" cake pan, be prepared to wait longer for it to bake, and try out an innocent-looking icing to increase the "wow" factor.

From: Chef floWer

On Feb 1, 2008

This recipe was great, I had three children helping me, one 6 year old and two 4 year olds. They all enjoyed themselves. The kids chose the colour orders and the had green on the bottom, yellow in the middle and pink on top. The only problem with the cake was it didn't cook in the middle but the crust was burnt. However the outside of the cake tasted yummy and the kids ate all the cooked parts. Thank you Charishma Ramchandani