04.28.10 - rainbow cake and OWLS!

I'll start with rainbow cakes for today. I made one last night for my roommate's 22nd birthday, and it was a pretty big hit! It was (almost) completely sugar free, only required 4 ingredients, and I got to wear an apron. Pretty successful night in my book. Oh, and did I mention that everyone liked the taste of it too? An added bonus to how baller it looked. Here are a few pics of the process:

First I made the batter. It's just two boxes of vanilla cake mix and 24 oz of sprite zero. And that's it! Then you divide the batter into six bowls (or however many colors you want to make) and add food coloring dye to said bowls.

Next, add a scoop of each color into the pan, layering the colors as you go. This is where I made a mistake; I didn't use enough batter on each layer. I ended up going through the rainbow like 1 1/2 to 2 times.. Next time, I'll only go through the rainbow once and just be sure to use more batter for each layer.

<--- Halfway done!

So after I finished scooping all the batter into the cake pans, they were ready to bake. It took a lot longer to bake than I thought it would. They looked done on the top, but the insides were still really gooshy. I think it's because I used the sprite, which made the batter more liquidy and less held together.








Don't they look done already (after a mere 14 min)? Oh no, it most definitely is still liquid inside!      --->

After checking the cakes (repeatedly) with a knife (because I don't have toothpicks at this house), they were finally done! You guessed it, they stayed in the oven the full 25 minutes. I guess I should trust Betty Crocker more than I trust myself..

This was by far the hardest step for me. I don't like waiting on things to cool! I always try to get cookies off the pan before they're ready, and that tendency absolutely carries over to my cake baking. I let them cool for about 15 minutes of not-so-patiently waiting. They probably could have used another 15 (at least) but I already had people at my house and these suckers needed to be frosted! They came out of the pan surprisingly well. Unfortunately, they stuck to the plate I put them on (upside down) and the tops peeled off as I was transferring them to the platter.. *sighhh*

The hotness of the cakes (temperature, I mean) was not conducive to frosting (with homemade COMPLETELY sugar free frosting). It melted and dripped like crazy. All was well, because apparently boys don't care if their cake is drippy looking. They were all content to dip their cake in the bowl of leftover frosting. (The girls didn't say anything either, so I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought.) After singing Happy Birthday to Kadie, she blew out her 22 candles (which conveniently spelled out "KD") and we let them have cake!

<--- the finished product!

You can see how there are too many layers here, BUT it was still a rainbow, and it was still delish :)

And now, the highlight of my day:

As many of you know, I have a thing for owls. No, I'm not a Chi O. No, I'm not a Kappa. No, I'm not in any other sorority that has an owl as their symbol. I just love them. I was shopping in San Antonio last summer and found this really expensive necklace ($6 at Forever 21). Joel saw that I liked it and bought it for me! I wear it all the time.

And then on The Bachelor, Ali wore the same necklace! Incredible, I know.

<-- yes, that's my necklace!










So I'm creeping on blogs of people I don't know like I always do at work, and LOOK AT WHAT I FOUND! Yes, people - a blog solely dedicated to OWLS! I know, I was pretty excited too. I can't wait to check it out and see what I'm missing in the world of owls!