Rainbow Cake II

This weekend marks the end of my first week in school. Its been great so far being back to where I feel I belong: being a teacher. It has been challenging in terms of time management as I struggle to sleep early and wake up at 5am to get ready for school. Being a night owl (with a family of owls who don't sleep early), I struggle to sleep early. Anything before 12 midnight is not the norm in my household! But no such late nights for me any more as it would mean very few hours of sleep every night! Adjusting is indeed tough.

Nevertheless, I'm thankful that God has granted me with a great working environment that is coincidentally that fav boy's primary school that he used to attend! God has indeed a great sense of humour! 

In any case, I baked a cake for Rui En's first birthday party which was held at Downtown East Resort. This place sure brings back loads of memories. It's like the place for 'birthdays and celebrations', Singapore style. The favourite boy and I attended the party and the place sure brings back loads of memories. Anyway, this is the second rendition of the Rainbow Cake with a different recipe from the first one. 

I made a Hello Kitty cake with this 10" square rainbow cake as a base with a 7" carved Hello Kitty cake on top. This tutorial & recipe will be for the rainbow cake layer below (: I did a total of 7 layers for this cake..

This cake will take about 2 - 3 hours to bake depending on your speed and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5. 

Rainbow Cake Recipe (Revisited) 

This recipe yields a 7 layer 10" square cake

The recipe is split into 3 batches to prepare and bake

BATCH 1 (Yields 2 layers)

160g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

110g unsalted butter

150g castor sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs (55 - 60g)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

BATCH 2 (Yields 2 layers)

160g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

110g unsalted butter

150g castor sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs (55 - 60g)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

BATCH 3 (Yields 3 layers)

240g plain flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

165g unsalted butter

225g castor sugar

3/4 cup milk

3 eggs (55 - 60g)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

*NOTE: What I did was to whip up one batch at once and bake one layer before the other. If your oven allows for even baking of 2 layers, by all means go ahead and bake them together (: 

Filling

500g cream cheese

220g unsalted butter

330g icing sugar

2 tbsp vanilla bean paste

Frosting

200g non-dairy whipping cream

Wilton Gel food colouring, I used 7 colours for 7 layers

Steps

Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt.

Allow butter to 'warm' up to almost room temperature (I usually cube my chilled butter and let it thaw for 10 minutes in room temperature) and add the castor sugar. Whisk together till creamy. This can be done using a machine whisk or even a hand whisk (with some determination of course).

You should get something like this.

Add an egg yolk. Mix well.

Add the other yolk and mix well.

Add in the vanilla bean paste. Try using vanilla bean paste rather than vanilla essence/extract as it tastes so much better. The other two are just so artificial. 

Add the milk and flour mixture alternately, 1/3 portion at a time, ensuring that each layer is well mixed before adding another.

Remember to mix it well! Weigh the batter ALONE. Split batter into 2 equal portions. I had each portion at 310g - 320g. 

Colour each portion accordingly with a small portion of food colouring. Pour one portion of batter into a 10" square baking tin lined with baking paper and spread it as evenly as you can with a spatula. It will be good to have 2 baking tins so that you can rotate them. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or till' cooked. 

Remove cake from baking tin and allow cake to cool in a cake caddy/air tight container. 

Bake remaining 6 layers and allow to cool completely. 

Prepare a sugar solution of 1 part hot/boiling water to 1 part castor/fine sugar and mix well to allow sugar to dissolve. Have the sugar solution in a spray mist bottle.

CREAM CHEESE FILLING

Have the cream cheese come close to room temperature in a mixing bowl for about 10 minutes. You may cube it to allow it to 'thaw' faster. Using a spatula/hand whisk (I prefer a spatula), whisk it vigorously by hand to cream it. Alternatively, use a machine whisk. 

Add cubed butter of room temperature (cube and thaw in room temperature for 10 mins) into cream cheese and whisk vigorously.

Add in icing sugar and vanilla bean paste. The specks you see in the cream cheese frosting is the vanilla bean paste. It may look 'unclean' but it sure will taste better! Mix well!

You'll get a mixture like this. 

Have one layer in the middle of the cake board (I used a 14" cake board). Spray with a small amount of sugar solution to keep the cake moist. Apply a layer of cream cheese filling (about 1/6 of the cream cheese). 

Add second layer. This cake is relatively manageable despite being thin. Nevertheless, do handled with care.  Repeat steps for remaining layers. 

You should get lovely layers like this!

Whip up the non-dairy whipping cream and use it to frost the cake. 

This video tutorial will better help you visualise how you can cream the cake (This is for creaming of round cake but the method is relatively the same). 

Refrigerate cake till you're ready to serve. The beauty of this cake is the excitement and joy when cutting the insignificant looking white exterior to reveal the many beautiful layers within. Have fun baking this! (: 

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: