A Guide to Making the Perfect Layered Cake, Rainbow Hued with Buttercream and Chocolate: Easy Sweet Recipes

It's hard to pinpoint the exact location but somewhere in Europe, layer cakes, the English call them sandwich cakes, were being made by bakers who would layer sheets of baked sponges with a spread of frosting or jams. Slice into one and you'll see the beautiful layers on full display and to celebrate this beautiful and artsy cake, which is said to be disappearing because of the effort taken to make it, we picked the rainbow layer cake. Here's an easy sweet recipe and in case you don't want food coloring you can of course avoid it.

Classic Rainbow Layer Cake Recipe

This recipe uses food coloring to dye the cake’s seven layers in the colors of the rainbow for a more natural look. You can avoid the food coloring and have yourself a plain multi-layered cake.

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• 400 gm all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 225 gm unsalted butter, softened
• 400 gm granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 240 ml buttermilk
• 15 ml vanilla extract
• Gel food coloring (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, indigo)

Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

• 5 egg whites
• 250 gm granulated sugar
• 340 gm unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

White Chocolate Rainbow Topping:

• 115 gm white chocolate chips
• Gel food coloring (rainbow colors)

Instructions

• You will need a 6-inch round cake pan, or of them, for this recipe. Grease it, then flour it and set aside, then preheat your oven to 180°C.
• Take a bowl and mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and the salt. Keep aside.
• In another bowl, add the softened butter and sugar and beat it using an electric whisk, on high speed. Once it reaches a light and fluffy consistency, crack in the eggs one at a time. Make sure to mix between each egg addition on medium to low speed. Add the vanilla at the end and give it a quick whisk to combine.
• Grab the flour bowl, and also the buttermilk and add them to the butter-egg mixture bowl. Do this in batches and alternate while mixing after each addition. [Skip this part if you are not using food coloring] Divide the cake batter into seven bowls.
• Add a drop of food coloring of the 7 different colors and mix to get an even color.
• There are two ways to go about baking this cake. Do it one by one baking each cake layer separately or take 7 cake pans and go at it in one go. Bake all of the cakes for 15 minutes. Test with a toothpick inserted in the center for doneness.
• Let the cakes cool in the pans before transferring to a wire rack to cool further.
• For the meringue buttercream: take a heatproof bowl, whisk egg whites and sugar in it. Take a deep pot, fill with water and once it starts simmering, place the bowl over it. The bottom of the bowl shouldn't touch the water.
• Keep whisking as the mixture starts to heat up. Let the sugar dissolve into the eggs and remove from heat once it reaches 71°C.
• Switch to an electric mixer if you hadn't been using it already and on high mix it till stiff peaks form. Let the meringue cool down.
• Add the softened butter into it in batches and keep whipping with each addition. Add the vanilla next and mix again until smooth and creamy.
• White chocolate rainbow topping: melt the white chocolate over low heat either in a microwave or double boiler (similar method as the meringue)
• Divide the chocolate into different bowls, add a drop of individual food coloring into them and mix till uniform.
• Put these colored chocolate in piping bags.
• Start with your color of cake loaf and add to a cake stand. Slather Swiss meringue buttercream on top of it. Stack the layers making sure to add the buttercream after each layer.
• Once done, add a thin layer of the buttercream frosting all over the cake and pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Repeat this after 30 minutes, this time smooth the buttercream.
• Take the colored white chocolate and pipe onto the cake's edges, to create a drip effect on your cake. Alternate the colors for a visually striking cake.
• You can also add sprinkles or little silver balls to the cake as toppings or on the sides while the buttercream is still soft. Refrigerate until reading to serve.