The Rainbow Cake

It all started with this little bad boy that Leah from The Secret Life of a Chef’sWife made back in May 2010. You have no idea how impressed I was (and still am) with it. Amazed.

Go through her blog to her most recent post and see the Toblerone cake her dad made, that is the shit right there.

Anyway, then I mentioned on Twitter my intentions of making one and was sent the link to Whisk Kid, which I had read before but forgotten about.

I just knew I had to make it and I had the perfect celebration in mind.

Wednesday celebrated Kitty’s birthday and the fact that she had to sit her CPA exam on her birthday made it suck.  Kitty always goes to lots of effort to bake for her friends in the office on her birthday, and I wanted to make sure that she felt the same love that she allows everyone else to feel!!

I haven’t baked for a long time and was not sure I had it in me.

I went to Safeway armed with my ingredient list, including 10 sticks of butter. Yes, 10.

Then I hit the cake mix aisle and thought to myself, why make this any harder than it needs to be? I’m baking on a Wednesday night after work, not a Saturday. If I can be a bit of a slacker and fake it til I make it, why not?!

Why do all this shit and use 1000000 mixing bowls if I can buy a packet mix? Yes sir. 

So I threw away the recipe from Whisk Kid (you can find it here) and decided to wing it. 

I picked up two of these. Don't ask me their measurements as I have no idea. 

And then my eyes settled upon the feast which is Betty Crock Ready Made Frosting. Oh yes.

I had to buy 3 of these. Just enough to clog your arteries and give you a tooth ache just from breathing it in whilst baking with it. 

3 Greens Vanilla Moist Cake Mixes (all the time whilst laughing about it having no artificial colors or flavors. Like that would make a difference once I put the food dye and frosting in the mix).

Obviously just follow the directions. You will need eggs, milk and butter. 

These four food colorings, plus a blue.

Once I used the pink and the red I realized they were very similar in color and will not use the two of them next time I make it.

I also mixed red and blue to create purple, but it was a bit of a grey purple.

I could only bake 2 cakes at a time, so I halved each batter mix and colored it as I went along.

Once all six were done I left them to cool for about an hour and then set upon slicing off the top of the cakes so that they would be flat.

I could have done a better job of this, but had an irrational fear that my cake would be too small if I did this.

Once you slice the tops off the cakes, it’s time to layer them upon each other with a layer of frosting in between each layer.

It was here that I slightly freaked out thinking how am I going to fill the sides in?! I turned to Andrea on twitter from tell her she’s dreaming and she sorted me out.

I continued to soldier on. Layer, slap some frosting, layer. Rinse and repeat. (No, don’t really rinse – that was a joke.)

During the baking process, The Husband messaged me to let me know he was on his way home and what was for dinner. I had to tell him that I was baking, there would be no dinner.

He wasn’t happy, and picked up some Subway on the way home. He did get to sample to cut off bits of cake and that made him a little bit happier, but I have been told to brush up my skills on cooking dinner.

Okay. All my layers are on. Some of them appear to be wider than others, creating a slight lean, but nothing that frosting cannot fix.

I did a crumb icing layer thing first, slapped it in the fridge, washed my hair, used my new Parlux (excellent. More on that later) and then used up the other 1.5 tubs of frosting for the outer coat.

Everything really can be solved with frosting.

You need to use a lot so that the outside is completely white, and the recipient has no idea what they are about to discover when cutting!!

After frosting it completely I pressed my spatula all over it and quickly removed it to give it Meringue-esque peaks and then used a little bit of frosting around the bottom of the cake in a cute little pattern.

Then I tried to get it into my cake carrier.

Do you think it fit? Of course not. It was too tall.

I had to put it in and glad wrap the top and hope for the best but when I left the house this morning it was raining, I had this damn cake which weighed a tonne, I couldn’t hold my umbrella and my handbag in one hand so decided to catch a cab rather than hope for the best on the tram. Who knows how that would have ended up. I can predict that it would not have ended well though.

I let Kitty cut it and when I wanted to film her doing so she got scared that there was going to be something scary on the inside.

I wont lie, I was holding my breath and hoping for the best that it would turn out as hoped for as I had hyped it up so much around the office!!

 Victory is mine. 

Happy Birthday Kitty. 

It turned out perfectly!! So much better than I thought it would thankfully.

Not to mention the fact that it was still moist, even though I expected it to be dry.  

So that is my way of doing the rainbow cake.

When I have more time, and more room in the kitchen, I will make it from scratch and report back.

Maybe one day I will move on from my ‘Aspiring Domestic Goddess’ status but I don’t see that being any time soon, despite the ridiculous name of this blog.

CHINA Bar

Last night The Husband picked me up from work and as we were driving home I mentioned that I was making vegetable omelett’s for dinner, which prompted him to say, perhaps too quickly, “Let’s go out for dinner!”.

On Monday when I told him the same thing, he said he was already on his way home with pizza.

Perhaps I need to take the hint, he doesn’t want me to cook him an omelett for dinner.

Either way, with all of the eating out we have been doing lately and the reduction of my boxing classes, I am becoming a little heffa.

We decided to go to the new China Bar which opened recently on the corner of Exhibition and Little Bourke Street.

From the minute that we walked in, the service was impeccable.

I had my Parlux hairdryer in a box as it was delivered to work (over night shipping, yes please!) and as they had originally put us at a table kind of near the entrance, where lots of traffic goes past, they moved us to a nice booth so that my parcel would be more secure.

It was explained to us that the Asian style food was downstairs and the Western food was upstairs. I couldn’t help but exclaim “TWO levels of food?! OH MY GOSH!!” haha.

The décor is gorgeous, and I love the coloured glowing lamps on each table.

Can you see the third object in our marriage on the table?

Usually with buffet places the seafood and food in general is not that fresh but it was ridiculously fresh at China Bar!

As soon as something was taken, the staff would top it up and keep everything full.

As you probably know, I love seafood. Love love love.  This was heaven for a girl like me with a seemingly bottomless pit for a stomach.

I didn’t touch the mussels though as I don’t like this type, and I need my mums special vinaigrette to eat them anyway.

As soon as the shell bowl on the table had food in it the waitresses would appear from nowhere to change it for a fresh one. 

Hello Swan.

Hello Husband in the background. 

The hot food area was amazing also. EVERYTHING WAS AMAZING!!! 

Hello. Dumpling Heaven. Ding Ding Ding!!!

I am annoyed now that I only stuck to the foods that I already know I like, but next time (and you better believe that there will be a next time) I am going to sample one of everything, even if it kills me. 

I ventured upstairs but it was just roast and steak stuff. Nothing that excited me. 

Moscato. I feel like I wasted valuable stomach space on alcohol. Why oh why?! 

Taken from upstairs. 

Fruit. FRUIT? No No do not waste stomach space on fruit. Or rice. 

Dessert Time. 

The Husband did not even notice the Chocolate Fountain but you better believe that he got excited when he did see it.

I don’t know how many times we remarked to each other “I LOVE this place!!!!”.

There was also a big thingamagummy full of ice cream. Mmmm. 

As you can see by the state of my appearance, I didn’t know we were going out to dinner otherwise I would have put my face on and brushed my hair.

No excuses for the terrible outfit though. 

Nice and Blurry. I'm getting used to The Husband taking blurry shots around food. He is in such a rush to eat that he just snaps and moves. 

The Manager came around and offered us fresh, piping hot, Chocolate Soufflé but there was no way in hell that I could finish it.

By this stage I was leaning back against the booth, rubbing my belly and slowly inching the elastic on my tights down further and further until they were nearly falling off.  I just didn’t need the added pressure on my belly.

I had 6 plates, but The Husband had about 10 and his plates were piled high, unlike mine. I don’t know where they put it all.

The Husband suggested we get a cab home. I kid you not, we live so close that there was no hope in hell of any cabbie accepting the fare. We slowly walked/rolled home and then went into a food coma on the couch surrounded by our buddies like The Office, Nurse Jackie & Californication.  

All this for the bargain price of $59 each (plus drinks of course). So cheap, so delicious! Hell yes. 

And because I have a crap outfit on in the above photos I took it upon myself to show you what I wore to work on Monday.

I got this Portmans dress for about $80 on sale, bargain. I love the color and the chain but it is very short and the fabric a bit bulky. The lining also rustles as I move so I may cut it out.

Fair to say that Abbey Lee Kershaw wore it better, but next time we come up against each other, I have faith that I will win. 

Until we meet again.