Ace of Cakes I am Not...Adventures in Rainbow Cake

This Week I decided to try my hand at cake decorating.  Now, I think I'm pretty good at making things taste good, but Martha Stewart I am not  & my buddy Chef Duff not a chance - I can make it tasty, but pretty not so much. So of course for my first attempt of making a pretty cake I had to go all out. 
I started with this rainbow cake recipe from Martha Stewart (note do NOT try the frosting recipe it is awful! I ended up scraping it off the cake & tossing it).  I substituted Almond Extract for Vanilla in the cake, but other than that followed Martha's lead on the cake.  I used about 1 1/2 cups of batter for each layer & used 8 inch pans instead of 9 inch ones. The pans headed to the oven.

For the Frosting I used my mother-in-law's amazing frosting, since Martha led me astray.  

The Best Frosting Ever

1 Cup Butter

1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

4 Cups Sifted Confectioner's Sugar (Must be Sifted!)

2 TBS Milk

After layering it was time for a trim & crumb coating

Next it was time to try my hand at Fondant; not only had I never made the stuff, I'd never even used it before. My sister gave me the following recipe which she says is the best she's ever tried, it's found on allrecipes.com. My sister makes some pretty darn cute cakes, so I figured she'd know a good one. Amazingly the fondant actually tastes good! Again I subbed Almond for Vanilla, but other than that I didn't deviate. It was actually edible in comparison to most fondants I've tasted. 

Here are my colors after what felt like hours of kneading and gallons of coloring. {Notes 1. You must use Gel Coloring, liquid will not work. 2. it's really hard to get "true" colors & it takes a lot of time & color}

Finally it was time for the assembly, I have to admit I was a bit intimidated & had to text a good friend who makes beautiful cakes for some tips. {Thanks Heather!} After getting some tips I got to work. Once I got started it was pretty fun & by that time I was so tired I wasn't so hard on myself for the cracks and gaps...

 Jen's 30th Birthday Rainbow Brite Cake!

 I know it's far from perfect, but I have to say for a first attempt I was pretty happy with the results. 

Besides, how can you not smile when you see this? It was so fun to see Jen's little girl's face when she cut into the cake & there was another rainbow! 

I give the Rainbow Cake Recipe 5 stars. The Fondant 4 Stars (it still cracked a lot as you can see in the photos, but that's likely user error).  And my Mother-in-Law's frosting 5 Stars!  If you've got a lovely girl in your life whose 3 or 30 she'll love this cake.  Enjoy!