Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Rainbow Cake

Today was Lucy's third birthday, and I REALLY wanted to make a rainbow cake for her because I've seen so many seriously cute pictures of them online. The problem is, I don't know much about baking and/or cake decorating. Fortunately for me, my neighbor, Christine is great at it! She volunteered to help me make the toddler cake of my dreams (ok... so she basically did the whole thing, but I learned a whole lot watching her!).

First, she mixed one white box cake mix according the directions (you can certainly make it from scratch, but it saves a ton of time using a box mix), then weighed it and divided it by six. Using that number, she weighed out six equal portions of batter for the six layers, then put them into six bowls. Then we used gel dyes (not food coloring) to make the colors really saturated.

She baked each layer for nine minutes, then let them cool and started stacking them up with a layer of frosting in between.

I thought it would be really pretty and fun to put dum dums on the cake since Lucy is a big fan of lollipops. Christine had the idea to make a border all the way around the bottom, and I thought it would look pretty to do a graduated color pattern.
We left the sticks attached to the dum dums and just pushed them into the cake. Isn't it pretty?
Here's the top view:
Look how excited she is!
Ta Da!
It was SUPER sugary, but we made quite a dent in it.

42 comments:

Unknown said...

oh, my gosh, that is the coolest cake EVER! pinterest is amazing, no? ;)

bRob said...

That is beautiful!

Hopefully my mom doesn't mind doing this for her 20-something-year-old ;) I would go nuts!

Megan said...

That is such a fun cake! Nice work on making something so amazingly special for your little girl.

jacquelyn said...

That is a very groovy cake! I think I might need to tackle that...with a freidn as well (:

Jessica said...

AMAZING! You did a great job!!

2SewRetro said...

Gorgeous!!! I love the excited look on Lucy's face. :) Happy birthday to her!
ps. Love your music. :)

Unknown said...

SO cool! reminds me of my childhood "Rainbow Brite" days! I love it! Happy belated birthday to Lucy Lu! HUGS!!!!

Anonymous said...

I love the picture with you and Lucy and then Dave and Nora are in the mirror. I know it has nothing to do with the cake, which is pretty cool by the way!

Distressed beauty said...

Oh wow that is the coolest cake! I'll have to come back here for the tips if I try to make it. Thanks for sharing!

sweetmelbelle31 said...

Very cool! Boy does she look HAPPY

Anonymous said...

wow! I love it! great job!

Angela said...

That's adorable! Great job! And thanks for giving the secrets of how it was made, as well!

Home School Dad said...

JJ my daughter Lucy wrote you a letter earlier this year and you wrote her back saying you also had a daughter named Lucy. We found out today that they not only got a rainbow birthday cake (our Lucy's were cupcakes) but also share the same birthday.

We look forward to seeing you the next time you tour through Chicago/Wisconsin area.

jennyb said...

I love Rainbow cakes...I love the idea of bordering them with the dum dum suckers. :) You can also make this in a double layer cake, by baking all the colors in one pan (just drop the colors on top of each other one by one--they will spread out/fill the pan on their own and bake).

Tina said...

JJ, that looks so fun! I'm glad your neighbor was able to help you accomplish the task! Lucy loos so happy, I love it. You are such a great parent (along with Dave, of course). Happy birthday, Lucy! Way to go, JJ!

Dave Roller said...

Love it!! My Lucy (who emailed you) has the same birthday as your Lucy but in 2005, and we made rainbow cupcakes. She declared her birthday a "JJ Heller" themed party because she got your CD and shares her birthday w/your Lucy, and the rainbow thing too. Blessings to you!

Dave Roller said...

(Sorry, I am Amy, Homeschool Dad's wife, and I commented under his name, sorry about the double posts!)

Anne @ Flour Box Bakery said...

That cake is so beautiful! I love your little girls' reaction to her cake. Priceless!

{kayleigh nikolai} said...

I want my mom to make me a cake like that! I had no idea there were that many colors of dum-dums...what a great idea for decoration!

Anonymous said...

That's so cool! We did the same sort of cake for my birthday a long time ago, but we only did like, three colors but I still loved it cause I was really into rainbows when I was younger lol;) BTW, the dum-dums idea is really cute!

I Have A Reason to Sing said...

That is sooo cute! I definitely want to make that for the next friends birthday! :)

Hannah DeAnne said...

JJ I love your cake (and your music!)!!! I don't have fb and would love to see a picture of Nora! But anyways I hope you come to Tx soon!!

charliegirl said...

fab. i have a little 3-month old named lucy!! love your blog and your music.

Anonymous said...

Coolest cake ever!! Great job JJ:)

Julie said...

Aww that is adorable! :)

Alissa said...

very cute cake!

Wild Kat said...

love it, great job!

Anonymous said...

LOVE love LOVE love LOVE!

sakepapaya said...

the cake is beautiful.

Eve said...

That`s simply amazing ... and yummy. Lucky Lucy!

Savories of life said...

what a grand idea. May be I will make one. Come on over and see my giveaway and win a bag for your little one or earrings for yourself.

Ellen @ Black and White and Loved All Over said...

it's soooo beautiful. i want a piece!

Anonymous said...

Wow! That is so creative. I really like all the colors.

Mali Korsten said...

What a pretty cake! I think I'll make one for the next person in my family to have a Birthday!

Anonymous said...

What a brilliant Idea! I liked the idea of putting the lollipops around the base of the cake.. :)
You should definitely think about coming to Long Island, NY during a future tour. I LOVE your music and your creativity.

Lisa said...

This is amazing!! Waiting for more blog posts!

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Marianne (Mare) Baker Ball said...

this is so cute! just finding your blog through another one. Don't see how to join your site....let me know. Would love to stay in touch! You've done some really cute things!

Isabelle said...

Hello,
nice to meet you! I have found your blog by accident!
My Blog have the same name in German.
This cake is great and I like your other Postes, too.
Excuse me! My English is not so well.
Best regards Isabelle
from http://liebenswertekleinedinge.blogspot.de/

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