12-Layer Rainbow Birthday Cake for Sam

Twelve Layer Rainbow Birthday Cake for Samantha

 Live and Learn would be an excellent motto for this baking story.  Along with never show children photos of gorgeous cakes on Pinterest unless you intend to make one.


My little friend Samantha turned 12 in June. Also with an August birthday, I know that it just doesn't seem fair as a kid to have your birthday in the summer. You miss out on all the fun school celebrations--like friends decorating your locker, birthday cake to share in the classroom, and a big sleep-over on the Friday night of your birthday with your classmates. Even worse for Sam, this year all her best friends were on summer vacation the week of her birthday. When her mom said that she requested a 12-layer rainbow cake like the one I had shown her on Pinterest, I figured how difficult could that be? I'm laughing as I type this, now knowing the answer.

Sam was quite confident the cake wouldn't fall.

Did you notice the chopstick peeking out of the center of the cake in the first photo? My last ditched effort to keep all 12 layers from sliding as the cake made its journey to the Schlitterbahn Waterpark an hour south of Austin! Not only did the cake have to not fall apart, the icing had to not melt in +100° heat. My friend Lynn always gives me the best of food challenges. Some day I'll share the teacher's appreciation luncheon petit fours adventure.

Weeks earlier I had pinned several Rainbow cakes on Pinterest (addictive website) and then followed the links to see how each had been made. The technique seemed pretty obvious: cake mix, food coloring, canned icing and you were done! My simple plan was nixed when Sam's mom showed up with a recipe for classic bakery icing from the Internet; and there we were--in my kitchen making someone else's recipe for icing! I had totally lost control of this project before it began.

The new recipe used shortening (not butter) and was deemed by the blogger (with her gorgeous photos of over the top decorated cakes and colorful flowers made with said icing) as perfect and the only recipe she would ever use! Hmmm...photos looked amazing, professional bakeries used this type of icing--guess we'd give it a try. Besides, Sam hated real buttercream. I should have known at this point that this cake was doomed.

I took deep breaths when our cake designer Samantha added alternating chocolate cake layers to her drawing of the perfect cake; but I admired her ideas and youthful enthusiasm. Had I realized she hated white cake and only planned to eat the chocolate layers, I might have been less than accepting of the plan. Oh to be young and believe that anything can be made in Debbie's kitchen. Pressure was definitely on now.

Thin rainbow cakes.

Alternating layers of chocolate cake were split in half....6 chocolate layer, 6 rainbow layers.

Rainbow layers ready.

Let the fun begin--awful icing doesn't stick to the cake and I re-made it twice!

Half-way done!

You can see Sam's diagram in the left-hand color.
Seems I was roasting peppers for Chiles Relleños also (background). How optimistic!

Done and resting in the fridge overnight to firm up the icing. We were also exhausted!
I'm sure we ate take out that night.

As the three of us baked, iced and layered the monstrous cake, the excitement built in the kitchen. How high would the cake would actually be? (15+inches.) Would it fit in my refrigerator overnight? (barely.) Did we have enough icing? (Nope--took 2 more recipes.) How would we decorate the top? (desperate baking times call for desperate icing decorations--come back tomorrow and I'll surprise you I told Sam.) I had no idea what I was going to do!

Day two: Please don't fall. Note chopstick in cake.

I had to come up with some creative way to top the cake with that icing.
I considered just filling the top with rainbow gumballs.

Decided to pipe rosettes all over cake instead.

This is how my brain felt at the end of day two!

Icing recipe was so thin that it leaked out of decorating bags. In desperation I added canned icing!

Read to decorate on day two. Looks can be deceiving though......

This was not going to be easy.....

Exactly how I felt....like crying rainbow tears.

I actually had to scape off all the side decorations and re-do the icing.
Samantha kind of like the funky look though. Why didn't I stop there?

Don't laugh....at this point I was actually kind of proud of what I had created
using that #!)-%-! icing recipe.
I'm sure it was the thicker canned icing that spelled our SAM.

All's well that ends well!
Mom removing cake from it's last minute visit to the freezer to firm the icing 
for the one hour car trip!

File that recipe idea far, far away!

Lynn found a file box to hold the giant cake and left her car running to keep it cold. Their journey south to the water park birthday trip began. Mom forgot to tell me she was stopping on the way at the outlet mall--she locked her car and left it running and the cake only melted a tiny bit! When the family gathered at their waterside cabin that night to cut the cake, Samantha's smiles made it all worth while. I'm such a sucker for a happy kid.

A few weeks later the rainbow cake experience transformed into rainbow pancakes for the little nieces and nephews. A much better, tastier choice in my opinion. Also, less stressful on Aunt Debbie.

Thanks Sam.

P.S.

A few days later we met for dinner and Sam brought me a slice of her birthday cake to taste. It was delicious, she claimed. However, after the story of how their three Weimareiners had only taken a few bites out of it when they brought it back home, I politely declined.

There is no recipe for the cake or icing, just pictures of the process. If you do decide to make someone in your life a rainbow cake, I suggest you use boxed cake mix, canned icing and food coloring. And if they're over 6-years old, bake the cakes in square pans, cut into 4 triangles and turn it on its side for a long, narrow cake. There are great photos on Pinterest of this cake. Best part is that it won't slip or slide and will not require a decorative chopstick.

Happy 12th Birthday Samantha! Next year you get a cupcake tower.

You couldn't say NO either!

Ready for a laugh--keep scrolling!

 The first slice before the family dogs took a bite. 
You have to laugh--it's so awful...but Sam loved it!

Newt loves Sam!
And so do I.....
Happy 12th Birthday.