Disaster Averted

I'm really behind on posting the things I've made lately, but I wanted to write about the Blockette's "cake disaster that almost was" while it was still fresh in my mind.

Many months ago I was surfing the Internet and came across Conversations With a Cupcake's Bow in the Clouds Six Stack Cake. Blockette had been peeking over my shoulder and saw the photo on the blog and inhaled all the air in the room. "Mommy, I want that cake for my birthday!!!"

I thought, why not. It looks like fun. Yeah. Fun. Fun if you like disasters and a huge mess. I went through 2 dishwasher loads of dishes making this one little cake. (Well, I guess at six layers it wasn't such a little cake.) At one point half my hand was purple from the food coloring gel. Thankfully, it washed off after several scrubbings. I thought I was going to have rainbow hands to match the rainbow cake.

I knew I was really in trouble when I flipped over the first 2 cake pans and one of them fell completely apart. The inside was still uncooked. How did that happen? I baked it for 25 minutes, five minutes longer than the longest suggested cook time. I gently placed the cake back into the pan and cooked it for another 15 minutes. That seemed to work. At least the cake was set, although it had seriously deflated.

Once the layers had cooled, I made the frosting. This was the first time I made frosting completely from scratch. Wow did that ever make a lot of frosting! The frosting was much thinner than the stuff from a can that I usually use. I put a thin schmeer of frosting between each cake layer, just enough to help keep the cakes in place. I attempted to put a crumb coat on the exterior of the cake but the icing kept sliding down and pooling at the bottom.

I waited an hour and made another attempt. Same results. Lather, rinse, repeat for another 4 hours. At this point, the frosting had thickened up quite a bit, but now the frosting was too heavy for the moist cake and the cake started to tilt. Hooray for the leaning tower of Rainbow cake!!! I improvised and inserted some bamboo skewers to help prevent any further slippage. That seemed to work, but then the frosting started to slide down again.

I figured the cake wasn't going to get any better and I should just quit while I was ahead. I threw on some rainbow chocolate chip sprinkles Blockette had picked out, and called it a day. You can see in the photo below how the frosting continued to melt downward. Apparently gravity was not the best buddy of this icing. I'd hate to think what would have happened had it actually been a humid summer-y day, and not in the low 70's. Thank goodness for unseasonably cool weather!

Anyhow, the Blockos ate dinner and put the excited almost 4 year old Blockette to bed. I went back into the kitchen to spy on the cake. There was a small blue moat forming around the base of the cake. I tried not to panic/cry. A few hours later Mrblocko and I headed off to bed ourselves. I peeked once more at the cake and the moat had grown. I calmly got out a pink cake mix I happened to have in the back of the pantry and resolved get up early and make cupcakes. I waited to have my meltdown until after I got to bed. Mrblocko assured me everything would work out in the end. I was not a believer.

That morning I awoke to find a nice blue lagoon around the cake and the side had sprouted a slow orange leak. Good thing I had that pink cupcake mix. The cupcakes baked with no problems and I went about my business preparing for the party.

Eventually, it was cake time. I didn't have Blockette blow out her candles on her cake, but put them on cupcakes instead. I wasn't sure if the cake could stand the short journey from the kitchen to the dining room without sustaining structural damage. Mrblocko thought we should at least cut the cake and see what it looked like. I was afraid of what I might discover, so I made Mrblocko do it.

He exclaimed, "Look Honey! It isn't ruined. It looks cool!"
Here is the first slice.
Notice that the blue layer is almost non existent, and the purple layer is much thinner than the other layers. Eureka! That's why there was a blue mess around the base of the cake. The weight of the other 4 layers pressed out the fruit juices from the purple and blue layers.

How did the cake taste? Delicious! My best friend MrsThunder said she was curious to find out if you could taste the food coloring gel. If there was any weird taste resulting from the gel, the fruit covered it up nicely. No one went back for seconds because even a tiny sliver wound up being a huge slice. I couldn't eat my whole piece. I think that was more due to the frosting. Man was it ever uber sweet! It was good in small doses between the cake layers, but if you got a big hunk of it you needed a healthy swig of milk to neutralize the sweetness.

I sent the leftover cake to work with Mrblocko. He said it disappeared in less than 15 minutes. People said it was very rich, but it didn't stop them from eating the cake. I also had Mrblocko give some of the cupcakes to our neighbors. We still have a lot. I'll probably send the leftovers to work with Mrblocko just so I don't O.D. on cake.

Unless I was bribed and it was a very special event, or if I had selective amnesia, I wouldn't make this cake again. It was good, but too many things went wrong. I do think that if I wanted a particular fruit flavored cake I'd make this on a smaller scale. I was especially fond of the orange and lemon layers. I bet either one, or both would make a tasty 2 layer cake.

I won't make the frosting again. It was just too sweet. I have over a cup left over that I'm not sure what to do with. It's too bad it's so sweet. I love eating leftover frosting on graham crackers. Maybe I'll use it to frost sugar cookies. I think if I warm it up so it gets to a thin glaze consistency it would be used in a smaller dose and therefore, not nearly as sweet. Any other ideas of what to do with super sweet leftover frosting?

Bow in the Clouds Cake from Cheeky Kitchen
2 boxes white cake mix
6 eggs
1 c. water
2/3 c. oil
1/2 c. raspberries
Zest of 1 orange + 2 T. juice
Zest of 1 lemon + 2 T. juice
Zest of 1 lime + 2 T. juice
1/2 c. blueberries
1/2 c. blackberries
Wilton Icing colors in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple

In large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, water, and oil . Scoop 1 c batter in 6 small bowls. In 1st bowl, mix raspberries and 1/4 t red coloring. In 2nd bowl, mix orange zest, juice, and 1/2 t orange coloring. In 3rd bowl, mix lemon zest, juice and 1/4 t yellow coloring. In 4th bowl, mix lime zest, juice and 1/4 t green coloring. In 5th bowl, mix blueberries and 1/4 t blue coloring. In 6th bowl, mix blackberries and 1/4 t purple coloring.

Prepare six 8" cake pans by greasing and flouring each generously. Using a spatula, spoon and spread each color of batter into its own cake pan. Bake in an oven, preheated to 350F for 17-20 min, til tops spring back when touched lightly. Allow to cool completely. Frost with White Chocolate Frosting.

Billowed White Chocolate Frosting
1 c. butter, softened
1 bag white chocolate chips
3 lbs. powdered sugar
1/4 to 1 full cup milk

In  large bowl, microwave white chips JUST until melted. Immediately beat in butter until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and beat  til light and fluffy. BE SURE TO ADD YOUR MILK in bit by bit, beginning with 1/4 c at first, then slowly adding by T til desired consistency is reached. Cover and refrigerate 5 min to firm up just slightly. Makes enough frosting to ice between each layer of cake, and around the outside of the cake.