Making a Rainbow Birthday Cake

Paul has frequently said that his favorite flavor is artificial. I'm never quite sure if he's joking, but for his birthday I wasn't taking any chances.

Last weekend I made him a rainbow cake. 

It wasn't difficult, but it was very, very time consuming. Two hours is too long to spend on a cake.

It did look impressive though. And I'm not saying I wouldn't make it again - just not for a long time.

The gist --

Make the cake batter (I found a one-bowl from-scratch recipe, but I believe two boxes of cake mix will do) and split it into six bowls. Color each bowl of batter red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Bake each color separately in a 9-inch pan. Then let the pans cool to the touch and carefully put the layer on a wire rack to cool the rest of the way. Layer the colors with frosting in between, and then frost the tops and side. Voila. 

My first two layers broke apart, probably because I didn't butter and flour the pan enough, or I tried to lift it from the pan when it was still too warm. But the mistake wasn't at all noticeable in the final product. Here's the recipe I used., although Paul requested cinnamon frosting rather than cream cheese.

The frosting was the only thing Paul knew of the dessert before I cut into it. Luckily it was as delicious as it was surprising, and oh, so artificial.