Rainbow Layer Cake - EGG FREE version

The How-To

The Recipe - Basic Vanilla Cake

2 and 1/2 cups of plain flour

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 and 3/4 cups of sugar

250g butter (melted - I think this is the key to the great cake)

1 and 1/2 cups of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence/extract
red, blue and yellow colouring
NO EGGS! The receipe actually has 4 eggs But I just LEFT them OUT!

Vanilla Butter Icing

250g butter
2 cups of icing sugar sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

I used two quantities of the basic vanilla cake and one and a half quantities of the Icing. 

I have three round cake tins, so made three cakes from one quantity of cake mix.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C

I started with the first quantity of cake mixture 

Place all the cake ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix until well combined.

I have an electric mixer which was perfect, but it could be done by hand, just give it a really good mix. 

While its mixing I greased and lined my three round cake tins. 

They are standard size - I think about 20cm tins.

I seperated the mixture equally between three bowls to colour each batch then put them into the cake tins which I had lined properly - cut out circles of baking paper, greased the base and laid the circles. Then cut strips, greased the sides of the tins and laid the paper around the sides. This made the cakes presentation that much better and no need for evening up the cakes or trimming them as they came out already so beautiful. Lining the tins this way was tedious and took the most time of the whole process! BUT it was worth it.

I made the red, yellow and blue cakes first as there was no colour mixing and I baked two cakes on the top rack and one below. My cakes took about 30 - 35 minutes. They browned slightly and I could tell they were ready with a skewer test and they had shrunk slightly from the sides - you know what I mean

I left them in the tins to cool on a rack before taking them out. Dont rush to take them out, or they could crumble and split. Tread carefully

To mix the other three I added small amount of darkest colour and touch more of the lighter. So for orange - a smidge of red and a dash of yellow and mix. Green - smidge of blue and dash of yellow. Purple is a little tricky smidge of blue and dash of red and see how it goes.

I baked the cakes the night before and stored them seperated by baking paper in airtight cake tins.
The next morning I mixed the icing - put a smidge on the base of my cake tray and laid the purple cake first, then a thin layer of icing then next cake till all cakes are on and finished with a fine layer on the red cake then put it into the fridge for about an hour before putting the final layer of icing over the complete cake. This step helps the final layer go in place easier.

I still cant believe it all worked so well and tasted delicious.