Yesterday I celebrated the fourth anniversary of my 25th birthday (I’ll let you do the math…)
Anyway, I saw this as an excellent opportunity to try out an extravagant recipe for my birthday cake. Yes, I know – making my own birthday cake is weird. Why don’t I just go and buy one, or force Mr B into the kitchen to make one for me?
Well, if baking my own birthday cake is wrong, I don’t ever want to be right. Being a baking freak, cake making is my idea of bliss. I rarely get an opportunity to make a kick-ass cake, since it’s just Mr B and I in the house. And since Mr B doesn’t really have a sweet tooth, I’d end up consuming the whole cake myself…
So, what did I end up making for myself?
The outside looks like a tall (and rather messily iced) Leaning Tower of Pisa Cake, but on the inside…
Holy Colour Riot!
This, my friends is a six-tier Rainbow Layer Cake. I have seen these pop up on a few baking blogs in the last six months, and I mentally filed the idea away for a special occasion. And what could be more special than celebrating my *cough* last year in my 20s?
The cake itself is a vanilla buttermilk cake, the batter dyed in an array of lurid colours. Each cake is sandwiched together with super-decadent cream cheese icing. The end result may shut your pancreas down, but it sure is good.
To make this cake I followed the instructions posted on Tasty Kitchen for the cake, making a few changes. I should also add I spent an insane amount of time drooling over the (what I believe to be) original cake at Whisk Kid. Whisk Kid’s cake is impeccable, and I wish I’d had the patience (and egg whites) to tackle the Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream she used. Oh well, next time…
My cake, by comparison, is rather…homespun. Granted, this was the first time I’ve made a cake taller than three tiers, but I’m a harsh personal critic, so allow me to obsess 🙂 In hindsight I could have used my cake level cutter, but the cakes appeared level to me. Upon cutting the monstrosity, I realised the layers weren’t exactly level. Oh well. Should I attempt this again, I’ll definitely be levelling the cakes. And using Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream…
The Tasty Kitchen version called for using packet cake mix, which isn’t my thing, so I made a double batch of Nigella’s Buttermilk Birthday Cake from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. It was perfect – a delicious, tender cake which also holds its shape nicely. I used the icing recipe from the Tasty Kitchen version and just about had a heart attack. There was an ungodly amount of cream cheese in there, and the volume of the icing was as much as the cake batter. I thought I would have plenty of leftovers…I was scraping the bowl at the end to get every last smear out. You want to have a distinct contrast of colourful cake and white icing between each layer, so you’ve got to use a lot of “sugary spack filler” to achieve that look.
Above is the piece of cake I cut for myself on my birthday, which filled one of my serving platters…told you this baby was huge. The combination of tender vanilla cake and tangy-sweet icing was divine, although there really is way too much icing. I’ll admit to leaving (quite) a bit of icing on the plate. If I made the cream cheese icing again, I’d add some lemon zest and juice. There’s just something about citrus paired with cream cheese icing; the lemon takes the icing from creamily cloying to edible crack, if I do say so myself…
I had a lot of fun making this cake; I would definitely attempt it again, armed with the knowledge I’ve acquired from the experience. Oh, and if you’re local to me and want to try a slice, send me a message, and we’ll see what we can arrange. There’s only so much cake Mr B and I can eat ourselves…and Mr B doesn’t really have a sweet tooth…
brilliant love it… so cool 🙂
I’ve never seen anything like it! Thank you for sharing it with us.
OMG what an awesome cake, and I love the way you described it, I am salavating as i read your blog. Good job, wish I was closer for a slice 🙂