Taste a Rainbow

 

The rainbow cake has been very popular of late. I've come across various types of desserts with splashes of rainbow. I was quite hesitant to try due to the colorings involved. However, my god-daughter was intrigued by it when I showed her the pictures. Hence, when she requested for a Black Forest Cake for her 11th birthday, I decided to create the cake for her with a twist. Instead of using the conventional chocolate sponge cake, I decided to bake the sponge cake with a splash of rainbow hues.

Here's how the sponge cakes look like:

Taste a Rainbow Cake

Cross-section of the cake

Below is the recipe I adapted and modified from Nasi Lemak Lover

6 egg yolks

30g caster sugar

75g canola oil

90ml milk 

135g cake flour

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

6 egg whites

1 tsp lemon juice

90g caster sugar

Wilton gel coloring: Teal, Violet, No-taste Red, Golden Yellow, Kelly Green

For decoration:

Topping Pride Non-dairy Whipping Cream (200ml)

Pink Chocolate Curls

Blueberry Jam

Maraschino Cherries

Method:

  

1. Prepare 6x 7" aluminium trays, no baking spray required.

2. Separate the cold eggs from fridge (easier to separate this way) into two clean mixing bowls. Set aside to return to room temperature.

3. Add sugar to egg yolks, immediately lightly whisk the egg yolks and sugar till light.

4. Add in vanilla extract and canola oil, mix well. Then add in milk, stirring well to combine the mixture.

5. Sift in cake flour, stir till well combined.

6. Whisk egg whites and lemon juice till foamy. Then gradually add in sugar in batches and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.

7. Take 1/3 of meringue and use a hand whisk to mix well with egg yolk batter.

8. Fold in 1/3 of meringue and use a silicone spatula, gently fold with egg yolk batter till slightly combined. Fold in the balance meringue in another 2 intervals and gently fold till well combined.

9. Weigh the total weight of the batter. Total weight obtained was 685g, hence I used about 100g per tray with some remaining batter placed into cupcake liners. Then color them using the colour gels, you can start with 1-2 drops and test as you go along, depending on how deep you wish to achieve the rainbow hues.

10. Bake at 140C for 6mins at low rack, then increase to 170C for another 6mins, depending on your oven since the sponge layers are quite thin.

10. Once baked, keep the sponge cakes in cake caddy to retain the moisture of the sponge cakes.

11. Once the sponge cakes have cooled completely, I applied blueberry jam on alternate layers of the sponge cakes folloed by whipping cream whilst other alternate layers are applied with whipping cream only. ( You may wish to spray sugar solution to the sponge cakes to keep the cakes moist too)

12. Frost the whole cake and top with Maraschino Cherries, blueberry jam and chocolate curls for the final finishing touch.

 The balance of the 85g batter was used to create the following rainbow swirl cupcakes.

Rainbow Swirl Cupcakes

Verdict by guests:

Sponge cake was soft and the overall taste with blueberry jam goes well the whipping cream, not too sweet. I will definitely use this sponge cake recipe again as a base for future bakes.