Arriving on a Jet Plane

 

So for those that don’t already know, my mom and my grandma are here visiting.  My girls have been SO excited for them to arrive.  I don’t know if they were more excited about Grandma being here, or about going to the airport to pick Grandma up.  Still not sure.  But, here’s a few pictures of them waiting for Grandma and Nanny to arrive. 

 

 

Here’s Jordyn & Chloe.  Waiting for Grandma

Mikaila, waiting ever so patiently

Cheese!

The cousins.  From L to R – Mikaila, Chloe, & Jordyn

The little ones spotted Grandma!!

Rainbow Connection ...

So for a LONG time I've been wanting to make a Rainbow Cake.  Not the traditional stacked, each layer is a different color, cake.  I just wanted it all different colors in the classic two round stacked cake style.  Did that make sense?!

So yesterday, I finally made it.  It was SUPER fun to make, but it was  VERY time consuming!!  I'm going to share my journey in words and pictures.  Too bad I don't have a "taste me now" option .. right?!  So .. I suppose we'll start at the beginning.  With the ingredients.

Ingredients

• 2 boxes Betty Crocker (or whatever brand you prefer) WHITE cake mix.
• 2 cans (24 ounces) Sprite
• Better Crocker gel food coloring (I added the picture, because I, personally had never used this before, and wasn't sure what I was looking for)
• 7 bowls (One for the initial mix, and 6 others for the different colors)
• 6 different spoons
• PAM cooking spray
• Wax Paper
• 2 cans frosting of your choice.  If you're going to color I would recommended a frosting that's white so it will take the color better.

Now.  On to the preparation.  

You'll want to preheat your oven according to the box of cake mix.  I did 2, 8-inch round dark pans.  I sprayed the bottom of my pans with PAM, and then placed a round of wax paper in the bottom of the pan, then sprayed with PAM again.  Knowing what I know now, I should have dusted the bottoms & sides of the pan with flour.  Or even better would have been to cover the pans with cake release.  Now I know, and I'll use either of those methods when I make the cake again. 

So.  Take your two boxes of cake mix, and dump them into a large mixing bowl.  Next, slowly add your soda.  I say slowly, because the soda will fizz up when it hits the cake mix.  If you go too fast, you'll have a sticky mess to clean up. 

Once you have the cake and soda completely mixed together, you'll need to separate the mix into 6 smaller bowls.  1 1/2 cups of mix into each bowl.  I wish I'd had more clear glass bowls.  You'll see why in a minute.

Once you've got the batter all separated, you'll want to start coloring it.  I chose the classic colors of the rainbow.  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, & Purple.  ROY G BIV, just without the IV and added a P.  

I can't tell you exactly how much of the gel coloring I used for each color, because I didn't measure it.  It just depends on how bright you want your colors.  If you want them SUPER bright, I suggest buying 2 boxes of the coloring.  Since there's only 4 colors in the box, you have to mix for the green, orange, and purple.  

Once your colors are mixed, if you chose the same colors I did, you'll have something that looks like this.

Now you're ready to start adding the colors to your cake pans.  Depending on what colors you start with (I chose the red, orange, and yellow) you'll put 1 cup of 3 different colors into your first pan, and 1 cup of the remaining 3 colors into your second pan.

Now, take the remaining 3 colors that you used as a base in pan #2 (in my case green, blue, and purple) and add them to the first pan.  

And do the same thing with the remaining 3 colors that you used as the base in pan #1, and add them to the second pan.

Now you're ready to start baking!!  You'll bake according to the instructions on your box, but you'll have to add a bit more time since the batter is a bit more dense then a normal cake batter.  I believe my instructions were to cook for 36 minutes.  I ended up adding about 8 more minutes for a total cook time of 44 minutes. 

Don't freak out if you're watching the progress while it's baking.  It's going to puff up a LOT.  I was worried I was going to have a rainbow mess to clean up inside the oven, but I didn't.  Thank goodness. 

Cake 1 - just out of the oven

Cake 2 - just out of the oven

It's VERY important to let the cakes cool COMPLETELY before you attempt to take them out of the pans and frost them.  This is one step that I always seem to skip.  As badly as I wanted to take them out right away, I had to let them cool.  If I had taken them out right away, they would have broken to little bitty pieces .. and that would have been a disaster.

So once they're completely cooled, you're ready to remove and frost them.  My youngest daughter picked the color of the frosting, (my older daughter was in school .. so there was no fighting over the colors) and she chose yellow.   So I used the remaining yellow I had from the gel colors, to color my frosting.

Here's another "I-wish-I-had-known" tip.  I placed strips of wax paper under the edges of my cake so that i wouldn't get frosting all over the cake plate.  Well, this cake is VERY moist and sticky on the bottom.  The wax paper strips did their job of keeping the frosting off the cake plate, but I wasn't able to easily remove them from under the cake without ripping the cake in half.  I'll have to think of something else for the next one.

Now comes the fun part!!  Cutting into the cake.  This was the part I'd been looking forward to ALL day long.   The effect is utterly amazing, especially if you have little ones.  They get so excited when they see all the colors!

Neat huh!!  

Enjoy .. but most of all HAVE FUN!!  

Until Next Time ... 

~A

Did you know ...

Did you??

I've learned a lot in the last few weeks.

Take your ears for example.  Did you know that a small pain in your ear can turn into the worst ear infection that you've ever had?  Example.  When you get that first twinge of pain, trust your gut.  It's probably an ear infection. Don't wait until the morning to 'see if it's better'.  Trust your instinct, and go to the urgent care.  If I had done just that, mine probably wouldn't have gotten so bad.

I'm one of the lucky ones, that gets an over abundance of ear infections rather than getting them as a child.   I remember getting tubes in one of my ears as a kid, but I don't remember the reason why.  I don't, however, remember getting ear infections.  I now FULLY understand the pain that children go through when they get them.  It truly is debilitating.

On to another 'did you know' topic.

Did you know that flies are annoying?  I'm sure this isn't new news to anyone.  Let me just say this.  I've learned more in the last few days about flies then I ever cared to know.

For some strange reason, our home is being taken over by these pests.  Cluster flies to be exact.  Never heard of Cluster Flies?!  I hadn't either.  Thanks to google, I've been well educated.

I had always heard that flies, and I assumed this was flies in general, were dormant during the winter months.  Apparently, the winter months, are when cluster flies come out.  It's kind of neat, if you're into that kind of stuff, they way it happens.  But it's more of a PITA when they're in your house.

These flies are obviously enjoying our company MUCH more than we're enjoying theirs.  I have nothing against the creatures.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I have nothing against the creatures when they're NOT inside my house.  That would be more of a true statement.

Now it's all about getting myself well, and ridding my house of flies.  Any suggestions you have that might help get rid of them, would be GREATLY appreciated.  We are using a spray .. but it smells. Badly.  Gives me a headache.

Though at this point, I'd rather have a headache because the flies are dying than to have a headache because the flies are alive in my house.

Until next time ...
~A