New Beginnings Cake!

Last week, I got a private message from a friend at church bending my ear about the Young Women New Beginnings program that was on Sunday. They were looking for a dessert that would incorporate all of the value colors (there are 8 of them) and be a complete "showstopper" (their word, not mine). I thought about it for a minute and remembered there was a rainbow layered cake I'd been DYING to try! So I pulled up the recipe and had it made within the next few hours.

To simplify the steps, I bought 8" aluminum cake pans that I sprayed with Pam and lined the bottom with parchment circles. My oven has three racks so I was able to bake them all at the same time which was very convenient. I recommend spending $5.00 on the pans because it's worth saving your sanity and you can just toss them in the trash when you're done! Easy!

I made the frosting she has on her blog but it didn't make a ton, so I only used it as filling between each layer, then made a regular buttercream (using shortening/powdered sugar/butter extract/vanilla) to coat the whole cake. Rolled out fondant and put that on too because my big idea was to put girls all around the perimeter of the cake, each representing a value.

My original idea was to paint these little girls directly to the cake, but since I've never actually painted on a cake, I thought it's better to be safe than sorry so I mixed some fondant with gum paste and rolled out a small ball and painted on that, then cut around each girl and allow to harden on the counter. Then I used some frosting in a piping bag to glue them to the side of the cake.

All-in-all, the cake was a huge success. The girls loved it. The leaders loved it. The flavor was really delicious -- thanks to that whipped buttercream that calls for FOUR sticks of butter. WOW. I loved the rainbow layers and will definitely make this cake again!

Suzanne