Somewhere over the rainbow!

I love my 1-2-3-4 cake. It tastes and smells divine. It does not crumble easily. It remains moist for days. Plus the recipe is easy to remember. Easy as 1-2-3.

But I recently tried this recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe and was blown away. It is delicious! It is tender and tasty. It freezes beautifully and slices neatly into thin layers.

It is also a CAKE MIX!!! You make the mix ahead and can pop it into the freezer to use whenever the baking fever hits you.

And so, this is what I made with 2 lots of the mix….

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups granulated sugar
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour plus 1 tbsp
3 tbsps corn flour
1/2 cup milk powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
200g butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
Process sugar, flours, milk powder, baking powder, and salt in a food processor for 15 seconds to combine. Add butter and vanilla and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Freeze the dry mixture in a ziploc bag for up to 2 months or use immediately.

To make the cake, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8″ pans.

With an electric mixer, beat the prepared cake mix, 1 1/4 cups water I used 1 cup yoghurt and 2 large eggs until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan(s) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 25-27 minutes for two 8-inch layer cakes. Cool the cake(s) in pan(s) for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cool completely.

Radhika’s notes:

One recipe makes approximately 7 1/2 cups of cake mix. Two lots give you 15 cups. I baked each layer with 2 1/4 cups of cake mix.

I used gel based food colours to add a deep colour to the batter and baked two pans simultaneously.

The colours I used were purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

My other change was to use yoghurt/buttermilk instead of water.

Once my cakes had chilled in the fridge for a day I sandwiched them together with butter cream and blueberry compote. But feel free to use any jam or curd or preserve.

Put the layers together in the order: Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and finally red.

Generously frost the cake with blue tinted butter cream

Add the rainbow topper and some swirly clouds.

Watch the delight when friends cut into this tall and simple looking cake and find the rainbow surprise inside!