Cooking: Rainbow Number Birthday Cake (Tutorial)

Scarlett's Rainbow Art Birthday Party wouldn't be a rainbow party without a rainbow cake! I love the rainbow and ombre layered cakes with tinted batter and frosting but I opted for colored candies in rainbow stripes. I used Sixlets purchased in bulk from a local party store and Scarlett was super thrilled about it! She told me over and over again how much she loved her cake!

The cake itself is an almond buttermilk cake with almond flavored buttercream frosting. Definitely over the top and yummy in a rather mind-blowing way, if you are into almond, which I am! I formed the number "5" on top It was definitely a highlight of the party. 

I'm not sure you need it, but I've got a bit of a how-to for making a rainbow cake, and the recipes, after the jump.

You can view Scarlett's Rainbow Birthday party here.

I started with three 9" layers of almond cake (this recipe, which I varied by substituting 1 cup of homemade almond flour--ground blanched almonds--for the part of the regular flour, for even more almond flavor and texture). I doubled this recipe to yield three layers.

After cooling the cakes I wrapped them in plastic wrap and froze them overnight. This is the best trick ever for making the frosting go smoothly--no little cake bits mixed in. Then I frosted with almond buttercream (this frosting recipe with almond flavor instead.)

Then I built the rainbow stripes. I started at the bottom with the red row and then nestled the second, orange, row in the spaces in between the first row of Sixlets. They were more secure this way. I pressed the candies gently into the frosting.

And kept adding rows...

Until I got to the top. The last, yellow row, was right on the top corner of the cake.

To make the number "5" I first traced the number shape in the frosting with a toothpick. The yellow Sixlets are right on top of this line. It was then easy to trace around the yellow 5 with orange and red Sixlets.

I decided to fill in the rest of the top of the cake with these aqua blue Sixlets. I barely had enough! It would have been nice to space them a bit more tightly, but I love the way the number 5 pops from this background.

Ta-da! It's a rainbow cake. And not too difficult either.

More rainbow posts are on the way....