Bakers come in! - update in OP!

[picksthemusic]

My DD's 10th birthday is coming up and she's obsessed with Rainbow High. She wants her birthday rainbow themed, and I signed up to make a rainbow birthday cake. I'm thinking tie-dye would be easier than a 7-layer cake, so that's what I'm going to do. I've looked up recipes and perused websites and I'll also watch YouTube videos. I'm a pretty good baker, but not a pro by any means. Any tips and help would be appreciated. I already have gel dyes for the batter and frosting (I'm planning Swiss meringue, which I've made several times and am comfortable with it). Recipes (I have a bunch of cookbooks if there is a specific bakery/chef you can recommend I might have it), websites that you trust would be great!


redheadbaker
winecat

I know there are more of you - thank you!

Update:

I ordered a cake from Goldbelly from Duff's bakery. It was supposed to arrive on Friday for her party on Saturday, but it is somehow stuck in Denver, and has been since Thursday. I've gotten no updates from FedEx despite signing up for their tracking system thing, and of course Goldbelly washes its hands of any responsibility once it's shipped. So the only recourse I have now if it doesn't arrive is submitting a claim through FedEx. I'm pissed.

DD's birthday party didn't happen since MIL came down with a cold that needed to be confirmed as covid negative, and so it was cancelled for this weekend. Regardless, we had to make other arrangements for cake for her.

Has anyone had experience making a claim with FedEx? Did they come through? I'm out $80 if we don't get the cake.

[joy]

I actually made a rainbow layer cake! I made six layers and I made them in batches of two over a week or so. I froze the layers until I was ready to assemble. I leveled them, white icing, and use Skittles to make a rainbow on the top of the cake with marshmallows for clouds. It honestly wasn’t hard.

I’m not helpful. Haha.

[sproctopus]

Zöe François has an excellent yellow cake and a white cake recipe that I use often.

[winecat]

I'd use a white cake recipe since I think that the colors would be more true/vibrant. I don't usually make white cake though so I don't have a recipe that I can recommend. Tie dye makes me anxious because I'm afraid that I'm going to over mix it and end up with icky green/brown. Rainbow layers are pretty easy, in my experience. I made a double batch and made thinner layers than normal. Baking and freezing ahead works great.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I am not a baker (but love reading baking threads), and I ruin almost everything I try, but I made a rainbow layer cake twice for my kids. I'm so much not a baker that I used white cake box mix, 2 boxes split into 3 thin layers. The 1st time I didn't level my layers enough and the top layer started splitting and I had to add dowels to keep it on. The 2nd time I leveled them and froze them and it worked much better.

[gastro]

If you plan to use dowels I like to use thick plastic straws (like the ones for boba pearl tea) instead of wooden dowels. They are so easy to cut with scissors even once inserted into the cake

[darby]

Rainbow layers are so much easier, for the reason above that if you’re not careful the colors will blend & muddy. Just make sure to weigh your batter before mixing in colors so you get nice, even layers.

Sorry I don’t have a good recipe to share, when we moved my cookbooks that were in the box for our new place ended up buried somewhere in storage instead.

[picksthemusic]

Okay! I guess I'll do layers, haha. I may need to use this as an excuse to buy more cake pans because we only have a few weird sizes, and the ones I do have that are identical are 9" which are huge. Amazon to the rescue!

[joy]

Sept 9, 2021 15:40:32 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

Okay! I guess I'll do layers, haha. I may need to use this as an excuse to buy more cake pans because we only have a few weird sizes, and the ones I do have that are identical are 9" which are huge. Amazon to the rescue!

Honestly… just buy white cake mix from Betty Crocker and go for it.

[nicolewi]

I did this once and it was super easy and turned out great!!! We had a rainbow party back in 2012 for my DD. I used this guideline for the overall process
www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake
and I just used white cake mix, but I did not do the diet version described here.

You could use homemade white cake or a mix. I have no problem with a mix, especially for a kid's party, but that's up to you!

I believe I used 3 boxes of mix rather than 2? I made 3 layers.

I did the Cool Whip/pudding frosting (not diet) and again, it was actually pretty tasty, but you could use literally any white frosting you wanted. I put rainbow sprinkles all over and tall rainbow-colored candles. I wish I knew how to do photos. Trust me, turned out really cute.

I also made rainbow finger Jell-o, which is not hard but is kind of a pain in the butt. It's really fun when it's finished, though.
houseofnasheats.com/layered-rainbow-jello/

AND we made a rainbow fruit tray, lining up fruits by color.

[Susie]

Not directly applicable to the cake question, but I made rainbow jello jigglers for DD and a friend once.  They were time consuming but not hard.  And very pretty!

glitterandgoulash.com/rainbow-jello-jigglers/

[redheadbaker]

I would do thin layers instead of tie-dye. I like the Cooks Illustrated recipe from this post: www.crumblycookie.net/2008/07/27/white-cake-comparison/

For food coloring, you can't beat gel color for vibrant color. I like Amerigel.

[mala]

This is chocolate with hidden sprinkles inside, rainbow cat outside. I think rainbow frosting ia perfectly acceptable.

imgur.com/a/QBL0zJT

[picksthemusic]

And here we are now contemplating throwing money at it and ordering a Duff Goldman cake from Goldbelly.

Ha!

ETA: She loves Duff and watches Kids Baking Championship all the time and dreams of going on the show and has his cookbook. So it's not super far out of left field.

[luckydog]

The design on this cake is actually super easy. Might be time consuming but you could use a bigger paint brush.
birdonacake.blogspot.com/2012/02/rainbow-tie-dye-cake.html?m=1

[puppylove64]

I did a rainbow cake with each layer a different color. I cut a hole in the center of the cake and filled it with sprinkles. I did a white box cake for simplicity and true colors. It turned out great and wasn’t very difficult

[sonrisa]

I've made my kids rainbow cakes four ways:

one was multiple colors in one round layer. (this mix. very easy. www.walmart.com/ip/DUFF-DECORATING-102870-DUFF-DECORATING-MIX-CAKE-TIE-DYE-18-OZ/35606902. home celebration)

One was rainbow shaped - half a bundt of pound cake, stood on it's side, covered in vanilla buttercream to adhere a rainbow of chocolate drops (trader joes brand) or six-lets from party city. All other rainbow six lets have tasted awful). Rainbow from sides, red from top, purple from bottom. (wizard of oz themed birthday party)

one was made of mini cupcakes in colors, arranged in a rainbow (rainbow themed birthday party)

one was a tall tower, 4" diameter, 6 layers - one in each of the colors. (home celebration, home coloring of white cake batter.)

The 6 layer cake was the most cumbersome. The rainbow shaped cake was the biggest hit.

[twinmomma]

100% not a baker at all. Just chiming in to say that I've bought a box of tie dye cake mix from the grocery store before and it worked great.

[Pilsy]

Sept 9, 2021 17:13:15 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

And here we are now contemplating throwing money at it and ordering a Duff Goldman cake from Goldbelly.

Ha!

ETA: She loves Duff and watches Kids Baking Championship all the time and dreams of going on the show and has his cookbook. So it's not super far out of left field.

Winning idea right here! 

[picksthemusic]

Update in OP.

[arielroux]

So, something similar happened to me with Goldbelly. Honestly, it's happened almost every time I've ordered from them. The shipment is never on time, the tracking is shit and then my order magically shows up just as I'm about to file a claim and everything is in perfect condition, still frozen/chilled, and 100% edible.

I once had a Goldbelly order that FedEx tracking showed as "shipment pending" for literally over a month...Long after I had received the order, eaten it, and forgotten about it. Turns out the restaurant I ordered from didn't use Goldbelly's pre-made shipping label, they used their own, so the shipment info I received wasn't even accurate.

I know this doesn't answer your question, but what I'm getting at is - Do not trust their tracking. Are you able to contact the bakery's customer service for assistance? They might be able to help you.

[winecat]

Sept 20, 2021 15:59:26 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

Update in OP.

Want me to go get it for you?    

I hope you get it soon and it's in good condition.