Can An Amateur Baker Make This Fancy Rainbow Checkerboard Cake?
Last week, I became mesmerized by this video of Elise, from the blog My Cupcake Addiction, making an incredible looking Rainbow Checkerboard Cake. I must have watched it five or six times.
The cake appears smooth and white on the outside but when you cut into it, you are surprised with a vibrant checkerboard pattern of six different colors.
I love cake, and my first reaction was to get hungry. But then I was intrigued. How easy is it to make this cake? Elise made it look like a cakewalk (pun intended) and even claims in her intro to the video, that it ‘is probably the greatest birthday cake ever, and is surprisingly easy to make.”
Ok then. Challenge accepted.
I began by assembling the fairly lengthy list of things I would need to recreate this masterpiece. There were a couple of things I didn’t have, like six inch cake pans, which I had to actually order online before the baking could commence. (Thank heavens for Amazon). Luckily, Elise recommended using pre-made cake mix, so that took at least some of the complexity out of the process.
What you need:
Ingredients
Two boxes of cake mix (White or vanilla)
Six Eggs
Water
Vegetable Oil
Six different variations of food coloring (or you can mix from the primary colors)
Three tubs of frosting (I used Cream Cheese but Butter Cream works too)
Equipment
Shallow 6” cake pans (preferably six but I used 3)
Mixing bowls
Six small bowls for mixing food coloring
Spoons
6 Ziploc bags
Serrated knife
Offset spatula
Two circle cookie cutters (1 x 3 ¾” and 1 x 1 7/8”)
I initially only had one box of cake mix and had to run to the store for a second. This means doubling up on the additional ingredients listed on the box (Eggs, oil and water).
But once I had everything laid out in front of me, and the video up full screen on my iPad I felt a lot more confident. After pre heating the oven to 350 degrees, you start by mixing up the cake batter. This is by far the easiest part. I don’t have a fancy food processor so I threw all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and got going with my whisk and some good old elbow grease. It mixes up really quickly into a smooth fairly runny batter.
This is where the process starts to get messy.
You then have to split the batter evenly between six small bowls so you can mix in the different food coloring. I used a large soup ladle so I could transfer larger amounts at one time but you still end up with splatters of cake batter all over the place. On the counter, down the sides of the bowls….you will certainly need some kitchen towel on hand for mop-ups.
Once it’s all split up you start the coloring process. And, maybe I’m just a sloppy baker but this was messy too.
I had purchased a pack of four different primary food colorings. This meant that two of my other colors (I chose orange and purple) would have to be mixed from the primary ones. One thing I never realized is quite how darn hard it is to accurately mix food coloring into cake batter and end up the color you were expecting.
It took about 15 minutes of trial and error and I still was not happy with either the blue or the purple colors of my batter. I was expecting both colors to be more vibrant and the more coloring I added the worse it got. I also ended up with food coloring all over my hands.
Also the mixing process itself is a logistical nightmare. Doing one bowl at a time you then have to clean the spoon between each bowl of color to make sure you don’t taint the following bowl with the wrong color. It’s either that, or use six spoons. With my aversion to doing dishes, the in between washes seemed like the better choice at the time – all be it a little time consuming.
After the six colors are all mixed up I was actually really chuffed with the results. It looked very impressive and colorful. So with my fingers freshly tie-dyed, I proceeded to the next step – transferring the colored cake batter into their individual Ziploc bags ready for piping into the cake pans.
Ok, this is where things went from messy to catastrophic. Spooning colored cake batter into zip lock bags is harder than it looks. And I got it everywhere. Then yet again you have to wash your spoon in between each color. Honestly, I would skip this part completely. Once I piped the batter from the Ziplocs into the cake pans I was confused as to why that step was necessary. The batter evens itself out in the pan fairly easily so the need for piping just seems like a messy and complicated step. Plus you leave a ton of batter behind on the inside of the bag, which seems a little wasteful. But maybe it was just because I was a hot mess covered in food coloring and cake batter by this point.
I did my baking in two batches, as I only had three cake pans but once the first lot was in the oven (for 12-14 mins) I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. After two rounds of baking, I ended up with six very colorful mini cakes and by this point I was bouncing off the walls with excitement and self-pride. This was new territory for me.
As Elise suggested, I left the cakes to cool then placed them in the freezer (wrapped loosely in tin foil) for about an hour. Time enough for me to drink a glass of wine and sit on the couch for a bit.
And now the fun really starts. The cakes came out the freezer and I carefully sliced off the brown bits and uneven sides until they were all the same size. Then, using the cookie cutters cut them into the three different rings for each color. This was so fun to do and exciting to see all the different colored shapes laid out in front of me. By this point you can really see the cake coming together.
Using the offset spatula I then started to spread frosting between the rings and sticking them all together. They actually slide inside each other fairly easily and a little smooshing with the palm of your hand helps even them out. In the end you have six awesome looking colored bulls eyes on the table. This process is also a little messy and I got frosting on my fingers (and in my hair somehow) but it was so fun to do, I didn’t care.
Then you use more frosting to stick all the layers together. By the time I was done, stacking the rings I had used up pretty much all of my frosting and only had enough left to get the base of the cake covered. After a brief dash to the store (again!) I managed to get the rest of the cake completely covered in icing. Elise, who is clearly amazing at cake making, is much, much better at this stage of the process compared to me. I couldn’t for the life of me get a completely smooth surface and after about 15 minutes of trying I gave up. But aside from being slightly slanted, the cake looked really good. Like surprisingly good.
The moment of truth was finally here. Did my cake actually look like a checkerboard on the inside? I was so nervous I felt sick. After equipping my husband with a camera I slowly started to cut the cake.
Pulling out the slice, I felt like I had just crossed the finish line of a marathon. The cake looked amazing and, like a complete child, I squealed with excitement. It actually worked!!!
Despite being messy, the process is really easy to follow and Elise’s instructions are concise and well explained. Having the video on hand so you can watch her techniques is also really helpful.
When baking, it seems that you have to be ready for every eventuality. Whether that be the need for more frosting, using lots of kitchen towel, or leaving the cakes in the oven just a little bit longer.
This cake really is achievable. Even by the amateur baker – and I am testament to that! It even tasted good. Now if I could only get this frosting out of my hair.
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