White Chocolate Rainbow Cake & A Party

My daughter turns five this coming weekend and I am not only in serious denial, but so sad about the whole thing I just may get physically ill.  You see, if she turns five, then that means kindergarten in the fall and I can’t even fathom the thought of what a wreck I will be then!  If I inexplicably drop off the face of the earth somewhere around the end of August, it is because I am working on a secret formula that somehow allows children to grow-up without really growing up.

I let my daughter choose the menu for her party that was this past weekend and the first request was BBQ Pork-a girl after my own heart!  I am so proud…  I made coleslaw from this recipe and apparently (I don’t like coleslaw) it was outstanding, or so I was told!  Grilled chicken, fried corn, panzanella salad, lemon-thyme orzo, and watermelon rounded out menu.  And it was goooooood.  Recipes this week will be from her menu so get ready for an influx of summer dishes that are perfect for the holiday weekend coming up!  You will be all set for those Memorial Day bbq’s and potluck parties!

But in honor of this birthday (five is a big girl after all!) I made a very special cake for her.  When I turned five I thought I was so old!  I was convinced that people could tell just by looking at me I was a headed to school in the fall!  So I wanted to do something special in honor of my big (sob sob sniff wail gasp sigh) girl.  This is the cake pre-party when I had time to take its picture: This is the cake mid-celebration when I wasn’t manning the camera, children were everywhere underfoot and I was trying to cut the cake and make sure we didn’t run out of forks.  As you can see, the birthday girl was excited to cut into the rainbow! While I am extremely sad to even acknowledge the fact that Evelyn is going to be five in a matter of days, I was thrilled to be able to make her the coolest cake she had ever seen.  A white chocolate rainbow cake covered in fluffy stars of white chocolate buttercream.  There wasn’t even one crumb left for me to photograph!  Thank you to my devoted husband who snapped a few shots in between passing out plates so that I would have something to show for my hard work!  Evelyn requested vanilla ice cream too but that will have to wait for another post!  Thank you a million times over to my cousin who forwarded me this recipe.  I can’t wait to make it again!  Maybe in all ‘boy’ colors?  Red, white and blue?  Hmmmm…

White Chocolate Rainbow Cake

Cake:

4 oz white chocolate, chopped

1/4 c very hot water
1 c butter, softened
2 c sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c cake flour
1 c buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
4 egg whites

Melt the white chocolate in the hot water and set it aside to cool.  Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks 1 at a time.  Add vanilla.  Add cooled, melted chocolate. Sift flour and baking soda together and add to creamed mixture in three installments, alternating with buttermilk, ending with buttermilk. Blend just enough to incorporate ingredients, stirring by hand in the end if you need to.  In a separate bowl, beat egg whites on high until peaks form.  By hand, fold gently into batter.  Streaks are just fine because you will mix more when you add the food coloring.  Divide the batter into 6 bowls evenly, about 1 1/2 c of batter for each color.  Color batter with gel food coloring, mixing it VERY GENTLY so as not to deflate the egg whites!  Grease and flour the pans well.  Bake in 9-in round pans at 350 for about 15-17 min.  Cool 10 minutes in pan and then cool completely on wire rack.

Note: If like me, you don’t have six cake pans to bake them all at once, chill the separate bowls of batter until ready to use and bake them in shifts.

White Chocolate Buttercream

1 c of butter, softened
2 1/2 c powder sugar
6 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled in microwave in 30 second intervals
1T heavy cream

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add melted and cooled white chocolate and cream. Beat on high 3-4 minutes, scrapping sides of bowl.  Add more powdered sugar or cream to achieve the desired consistency.  1 1/2 batches will do the filling and a thin crumb coat and 1additional full batch is perfect for a final coat using a star tip.  Keep frosted cake cool, but not cold.