Danae’s rainbow cake!

Ingredients:

Vegetable shortening

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 1/3 cups sugar

5 large egg whites, room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple gel food or whatever 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush six 9-inch-round cake pans (or as many 9-inch cake pans as you have, reusing them as necessary) with shortening. Line bottom of each cake pan with parchment paper; brush again and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. Slowly add egg whites and mix until well combined. Add vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Add flour mixture and milk in two alternating additions, beginning with the flour and ending with the milk. Mix until well combined.

Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls (i used an ice cream scoop to divide the batter). Add enough of each colour of food colouring to each bowl, whisking, until desired shade is reached. Transfer each colour to an individual cake pan. Transfer to oven and bake until a cake tester inserted into the centre of each cake comes out clean, about 15 minutes (working in batches if necessary).

Remove cakes from oven and transfer to a wire rack; let cool for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto a wire rack; re-invert and let cool completely.

I used whipped double cream and fruit (two layers with banana and two with strawberries) but I have also used buttercream for filling as well. It tastes as good as it looks and my niece loved it!

Carrot cake!

Ingredients:

225 gr wholemeal self-rising flour

2 level teaspoons baking powder

150 gr muscovado sugar

50 gr chopped walnuts

100 gr grated carrots

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 large eggs, at room temperature

150 ml sunflower oil

Frosting:

175 gr full-fat soft cheese

50 gr softened butter

100 gr sifted icing sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

 

Pre-heat the oven to 180 ° C/ Fan 160 ° C/ Gas 4. Use a 20 cm round cake tin and line it with baking parchment. Measure all the ingredients for the cake into a large bowl and beat well until thoroughly blended and smooth. Turn into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 55 minutes until the cake is well risen. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then remove from tin and peel off the parchment.  Finish cooling on a wire rack. For the frosting add all the ingredients into the mixer and combine until smooth. Spread over the top of the cake. Chill in the fridge as the topping is soft. I usually use a little green coloring for the topping, to stay true to the carrots growing upside down in nature. 🙂

Valentine’s

Red Velvet Cake 😉 Family loved it! DO give it a try. They are so many recipes out there, i am just going to post the one i used this weekend and we all loved it. I hope you enjoy it as well.

For the cake:

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3 tablespoons red food coloring (really intense red)

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup buttermilk

2 1/4 cups self-rising flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vinegar

Cream cheese frosting:

350gr cream cheese

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon lilac food coloring

Alternative frosting:

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup of butter

Preheat the oven at 175C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
Shift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a bowl. In another bowl whisk together the buttermilk, vanilla and red food colouring. Into the mixer bowl beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Keep beating (scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time) until the mixture is much lighter in colour and very fluffy in texture. Add the eggs and then start adding the flour mix altering with the buttermilk mix (2 spoons of buttermilk and 3 spoons of flour mix) until all is combined. Dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar and combine with a wooden spoon in the mix not too vigorously conserving the airy mixture we have created.
Divide the butter evenly into 3 greased and floured 8″ cake pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes. I like my cake layers quite thin so i but less butter in the tins and bake for 15 minutes instead. Set the tins on a wire rack remove the cake layers and leave to cool completely.

Get on with the frosting: In the mixer bowl beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until light and fluffy. I usually cut the butter in small cubes and that helps a lot in creating a smooth mix. Gradually shit in the sugar (scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time) until is thoroughly combine. Take half the frosting out for filling the layers of the cake and combine the rest with the lilac coloring for frosting the outside of the cake.

 

Alternative frosting: shift the flour in the milk and cook flour in a low heat until very thick, stirring constantly. Let it cool completely. Cream the sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy and light then add the cooked mixture of flour and milk. Beat in high speed until very fluffy it will look liked whipped cream. Take half the frosting out for filing the layers of the cake and use he rest for covering the cake on the outside. I actually used a very thin layer of jam as well in the middle but you can just use the frosting only.

 

Sky is the limit. Fabulous cake.