Rainbow Cake How To!
The recipe at the bottom is accurate, but this made for a really REALLY small cake, and there was not nearly enough frosting, especially considering its lightness.
Okay, on with the ingredients. Thatās all. Notice the lack of fat in here? Mmmmmm . . . chemicals. Though I donāt need to defend my method thanks to the double-dub (WW) aspect, even when I make a ārealā cake I usually use box mix because letās face it: Bettyās been doing it way longer than I have, and has pretty much perfected the art.
PourĀ a can of soda (12 oz)Ā 2-12 oz cans of soda into theĀ cake mixĀ two boxes of cake mix. No eggs, no oil, no water, no sweat.
The action shots werenāt too thrilling. Now we measure it.
Iām going to round toĀ 30 ozĀ 60 oz because I have six colours and isnāt that just too convenient? It worked out toĀ 3/4 cĀ 1.5 c per colour, measurementwise. So I divvied that up and used my gel colours.
(the gel colours, while not as good as pigment dye, are much bolder than the very liquidy food colouring you probably grew up with)
The first colour you drop into the pan, use about 2/3 of the mix for that colour. Otherwise, the top (last) colour will really dominate. I used a heapingĀ 1/4 cĀ 1 cup of each colour.
Drop the colours, one by one, into the middle of the pan, in neat concentric-ish gobs. Remember the cake is going to be sliced in the side there, so mixing it around on top isnāt going to make your slices any more psychedelic (trust me, I did the three-dimensional thinking for you already).
When youāre three colours in, start doing the reverse with the other pan. Since Iām going in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, I got from red to yellow in the first pan, then purple, blue, green in the second. This is so that your two pans are equal if your measurements arenāt exact (and theyāre not likely to be). Now finish up. Follow the boxās baking instructions and do your dishes. Such lovely dishes!
Now for the frosting:Ā 1 boxĀ 2 boxes of fat free sugar free pudding mix, andĀ 8 ozĀ 16 oz (two of the 8 oz tubs pictured) of fat-free whipped topping. Or sugar-free. Or light. Or regular. Theyāre all pretty much the same. But thatās it.
Holy shit, the cakeās done! Toothpick clean and everything! Get that shit out of the oven!!!
The purple top kind of made a little turkey silhouette.
Hereās what this particular cake looked like. See how itās tiny and too rounded and it kind of isnāt all that great? Thatās because I didnāt double the recipe. Itās a mistake Iāll only make once.
Hereās what that really should look like: same process, twice the batter. Sunny Day Rainbow Cake2 boxes white cake mix
24 oz of clear diet soda (2 cans, ginger ale and sprite work well)
gel food colouring
16 oz whipped topping
2 oz instant fat-free sugar-free pudding mix (2 smallish boxes)
The Dieting
Mix the cake mix with the soda according to regular instructions on box. It will be lumpy afterward. Again, you can use any white cake recipe you want, this is just how I do it.
The Rainbowing
Measure the total volume (by my estimate, 64 oz), then divide by 6 and measure into separate bowls. There are 8 oz in a cup, so 64/6 = 10 to 11 oz, or 1 cup + 2 tbsp.
Stir colour into each bowl with its own spoon. For the first colour into the pan, measure out 2/3 to 3/4 of your mix (in this case about 1 c) as close to the middle as you can. Drop in your first three colours, then work on the other pan with the last three colours. So if youāre doing rainbow order, the first pan should have red, then orange, then yellow, and now the purple, blue and green go into the second pan. As a recap, this is so both layers are roughly the same size.
Bake the cake for however long the box tells you to bake it. Check it when the box says to, butĀ usually itāll need an extra 5 or 10 minutes or maybe more because of the density of the soda method. Just keep baking, checking back every 5 minutes or so until a toothpick to the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before moving to a wire rack.
The Frostinging
Meanwhile, make your frosting. Just mix the pudding mix in with the whipped topping for a few minutes. Dye if youāre into that.
Frost your fat-free cake with your fat-free whipped frosting. Eat.