Tag Archives: birthday cake

Rainbow Cake Roll

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Ruthanne

Fun rainbow-colored cake swirled with rich buttercream- a perfect St. Patrick’s Day treat!

~~I had so much fun making this cake~~ this cake was torture.

I love cake rolls like crazy, but I could not find a recipe that tasted good AND didn’t crack terribly when rolled up. I tried 4 recipes and finally settled on plain old cake mix again– it still cracked, but tasted soooo yummy and it was definitely the easiest.

I hesitated to post this, as it is essentially a recipe experiment *fail*, but then I thought it would be a good chance to ask all of YOU if you have a fail-safe vanilla cake roll recipe…? I love the technique and the colors- I just need a good recipe.

For now, we will go with the cake mix version~

Things to keep in mind if you want to try this recipe:

1. Use my buttercream recipe. When it is refrigerated it gets nice and hard, cementing your happy little cracked roll together and holding it together even at room temperature.

2. Set aside several hours and take your time.

3. Use color gels. You will not get the vibrant colors with liquid color.

Honestly, people loved this cake. Once it is cut you can barely tell it cracked. I made this one for my friend Dawn’s birthday and it was such a fun and cheery cake. She only likes white cake with vanilla frosting…this is a great way to spice up that combination with color!

Here we go:

INGREDIENTS:

1 boxed white cake mix (with oil, water and eggs according to box)
Gel icing colors (I use Wilton Brand gels)
2 sticks (8 oz) butter
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
3. t. clear vanilla flavoring
Cool Whip Topping and sprinkles for garnish.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees
Make boxed cake mix, but add just a little less oil and water. My Pillsbury mix called for 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of oil. I used 3/4 c. water and 1/4 c. oil instead. I used the same # of eggs (3)
Scoop about 3/4 c. of mix into 6 or 7 small bowls and color as desired.

Cover the bottom of a standard jellyroll pan (mine is about 12″ by 17″, and about 1″ deep) with waxed paper- allowing the paper to extend just a bit over each end.
Lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Spoon each color of batter into a small ziptop bag and gently pipe colors into pan in stripes. Just settle in and take your time here. This is a labor of love. Use paper towel to wipe up drips and remember that you are piping a THIN layer of cake– you don’t want to make it so thick you run out before you get to the end of the pan. Patience is the key…believe me, I’ve done this 4 times now with different cake recipes and it just takes time.

(It also involves a lot of dishes…pretty, colorful, messy dishes.)

Bake your cake at 350F degrees for 12-15 minutes– check often- you can’t roll a crunchy over-baked cake!
Remove from oven and place a clean towel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar over the roll. Tip the pan over onto the towel and peel away the wax paper.
Gently roll cake up in towel from one short end to the other.

Refrigerate for one hour.
While cake is cooling, make buttercream icing.
Put softened butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat on high until light and fluffy.
When cake is cooled, gently unroll (here is where the cracking happens…be gentle and patient)
VERY carefully, spread buttercream over entire surface of the cake and re-roll. I had cracks that went the entire length of the cake and still just gently rolled it together, letting the buttercream hold it together.

Gently place on a plate and refrigerate until buttercream hardens.
Once cake roll has hardened it can be easily moved and cut. Top it with whipped cream and sprinkles– that helps to hide some of the cracks 😉

Not perfect, but so much fun!

My thoughts: I feel a little guilty publishing this on a site called EASYbaked, but I couldn’t resist. I would make it again- it just makes me smile. I hope a few of you brave souls will attempt this and enjoy it as much as I did! Please– if you have a good vanilla cake roll recipe I’d love to hear about it. You can link to your recipe if it is on a blog, or post the recipe in the comments or in-box message me on the Easybaked Facebook page. I’m excited to find a way to make this cake “perfect” 🙂

Happy Birthday Dawn!

Other happy rainbow desserts you might like for St. Patricks Day:

29 Comments

Posted in Cakes and tagged baking, birthday cake, buttercream frosting, buttercream recipe, cake, cake roll, colorful ideas, dessert, food, fun cake, fun dessert, Rainbow, rainbow cake, rainbow cake roll, St. Patricks Day, vanilla cake, vanilla frosting. Bookmark the permalink.

Polka Dot Cake!!!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Ruthanne

It just makes you smile, doesn’t it? I don’t think I can adequately express how happy this cake makes me.

I made this cake for my friend Nikki’s birthday and it made her happy too…

I simply can’t take credit for the idea behind this cake, that credit goes to an adorable blog called “Once Upon a Pedestal”. I can’t even take credit for finding the idea… that goes to my wonderful Pinterest addicted friend Laura. I can tell you this: it is NOT hard to make. It does take some time, but it is very easy to put together, and the “wow” factor? Incredible!

The 1st question everyone asks is “How did you get the polka dots INSIDE the cake?” They are cake balls. To make this recipe, you will need one piece of special equipment: a cake pop/ doughnut hole maker. I feel like I walked by those like 100 times over the holidays in various stores and every time I thought, “I wonder why you would ever buy one of those?” Now I know! Here’s the one I got: Bella Sensio Cake Pop Maker

There are several brands and varieties- I’m sure they all work great- I would look for one that does 12 at once, just as a time saver! The good news? Once you make this cake, your friends will all want to borrow your cake pop maker and you won’t have to store it anywhere!

Are you ready to see how this is done? Here we go: (printable recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

2 boxed white cake mixes (plus the oil, water and eggs to make them according to the package)
You favorite frosting (I used my buttercream recipe, doubled, which you can get by clicking here)
Sprinkles or candy to decorate the cake.

DIRECTIONS:

Plug in/turn on your cake pop maker to warm it up.
Make one of the cakes according to package directions.
Divide batter evenly into smaller bowls based on the number of colors you want to use (I did 4)
Color the batter using color gels (I love the Wilton brand in particular because it gives such a vivid color)
Following the directions for your particular cake pop maker, make cake balls using each of the colors.

(with mine I sprayed it with Pam, used a small (2 tsp) cookie scoop, rapidly scooped batter in and immediately closed the lid. My directions said 4-5 minutes and they all were burnt to a crisp– about 2 minutes worked perfectly for me. I just set them out on a plate to cool then…be prepared to experiment a little with this– you will have some extra pops at the end, so its ok if you mess some up!)

While cake balls are cooling, preheat oven to 350F, and make the second cake mix according to package.
Spray 3 – 6″ round pans with non-stick spray and set a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of each one (to keep your layers pretty!)
Spread a thin layer of batter in the bottom of each pan, place cake balls on top in any pattern you choose and divide remaining batter over the top of the balls so they are completely covered.

Ready to bake!

Bake layers at 350F degrees for about 30 minutes. You can use the toothpick test (I recommend it!) but be careful to hit cake and not cake balls….you can kind of tell where they are- they bump up just a bit.
When cooked all the way through, tip over on a cake rack to cool completely.
Trim, if needed, to flatten layers and use frosting to stack all three layers and cover the entire cake with frosting.
Decorate as desired.

My thoughts: I’m not a cake decorator, and my buttercream is a whipped frosting that is OH so yummy, but not very good for a smooth cake surface….it still makes me smile…bumps and all. You can decorate your cake however you like. I used Wilton Jumbo Confetti Sprinkles on this one. I really hope you give this cake a try– if you have any questions about the process just ask!! — or check out “Once Upon a Pedestal”, as her pictures were very helpful. She also uses a different type of cake pop pan than I did. I hope this recipe idea made you smile on this cold winter morning– enjoy!!!!! ~r

Other Easybaked cake recipes you might enjoy: (click on the photo to see the recipe)

249 Comments

Posted in Cakes and tagged baking, birthday cake, brightly colored cake, buttercream frosting, buttercream recipe, cake, cake balls, cake mix, cake pop maker, cake pops, cakes for little girls, dessert, food, fun cake idea, kids cake, layered cake, party idea, pattern inside a cake, Polka dot cake, polka dots, recipe, sensio, Unique cake, vivid color, white cake. Bookmark the permalink.

Tie-Dye Cake with Blue Raspberry Frosting

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Ruthanne

Swirls of colors plus a blue raspberry frosting make everyone smile when they see this cake!

This recipe is dedicated to my nephew Marshal, who informed me a few weeks ago that today, October 10, 2012 is an important day: it marks the 2 year anniversary of the release of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” TV show.

Confused? I was! Apparently this show, targeted toward young girls, has gained a cult following among teenage boys– they call themselves “Bronies”…I guess Bro+ponies= Bronies. Um…yeah. Learned all of that on Wikipedia… SO Marshal was telling me that he and his friends wanted to make a rainbow cake (for the pony “Rainbow Dash”, of course) to celebrate the day. The thought of making 6 layers of cake in different colors sounded exhausting, so instead I made 6 colors and just dumped them on top of each other in the same pan. I love how it turned out!

Here’s how it was made:

INGREDIENTS: (printer friendly recipe)

One boxed white cake mix, plus eggs, water and oil to make it according to the box.
Icing colors in Purple, Blue, Green, Red, Orange and Yellow.
One stick (4 oz.) salted butter at room temp.
One stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter at room temp.
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons raspberry flavoring

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Make cake mix according to box (or make your own favorite white cake recipe!)
Grease 2- 9 inch cake pans and place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of each.
Evenly divide batter into 6 bowls (about 1 cup of batter in each)
Add icing color gels to color each bowl of batter.
Pour 1/2 of the purple batter in the center of one pan.
Pour 1/2 of the blue batter into the center of the purple batter (adding the blue will push the purple toward the edges).
Continue to pour 1/2 of each color batter into the center using green, yellow, orange and red in that order.
In second pan do the same but in the reverse order, starting with the red 1st.
Bake at 350 according to package (mine took about 25 minutes)
Remove from oven and cool. Tip over onto a wire cake rack to finish cooling.
Make frosting by adding butters, powdered sugar, raspberry flavor and a little blue icing gel color together and beating on high until light and fluffy.
Level off the tops of each cake layer and place one layer, cut side up on a serving plate. Frost the top of this layer.
Place the second layer, cut side down on top and frost entire cake.
Sprinkle with rainbow sugar or decorate as desired.

ENJOY!!!

My thoughts: Although this cake was created with Marshal’s celebration in mind, it would be such a fun and colorful addition to any party!!! Lets hear it for tie-dye rainbow cake!!!!! Thanks for the idea Marshal!!!