Happy Birthday, Dave!*

For my husband’s birthday, I felt invincible. I thought I could do anything. I thought I could conquer the world. Smack! Reality set in. I cannot conquer frosting. I am no Duff. I think this could qualify as a cake wreck**, except I do not claim to be professional.

I decided to try the Rainbow Cake as found on Omnomicon's blog. I did not follow her recipe for a diet cake, just her technique for colors. I also thought that if I gave him a gray frosted cake, he might think something was up. So I went with his favorite color, lifeguard orange.

First off, no matter how easy she makes it look, it takes forever. I used two cake mixes to make three layers. (For some reason, my Pampered Chef cake pans came in a set of three so I feel obligated to use all three. I don’t want one to feel lonely and unloved.) The start to put-it-in-the-oven time was an hour! Bake time was 28 minutes. I let it cool as best I could but I needed to get it frosted before he came home.

In hindsight, I should have waited a bit longer or perhaps used purchased icing because my “buttercream” frosting did not hold it together very well. Our two-hundred year old house has a definite slant and the layers were sliding downhill as I tried to frost it. Oh well. Next time, bake the cake a day early. Lesson learned. Check.

In an effort to spruce it up a bit (ha), I threw on some candy sprinkles. Take that, you ugly cake, instant cuteness (ok, not really, but it was midnight and I wanted to sleep).

As he cut into the cake, he seemed really surprised to find the rainbow. Despite the disastrous frosting job, the colors came out vibrant. I will say that red is hard to come by. With a white cake mix, it simply turned pink. Then darker pink and darker pink until I had half the tube in the bowl. So next time, I will use a heavier hand. I love the blue and purple, though! In the end, Dave and the kids were impressed and pleased (I think Dave the chef was just happy he didn’t have to bake his own birthday cake). So it was all worth it.

Oh, and did I mention the burn on my finger? I will sacrifice my skin for you, lover! You are totally worth it.

*Annette!! I need your book! I fear that every comma placement is wrong. Gaaah!
**If I see this cake on Cake Wrecks, I will know who to blame.