Welcome to this week's 'Eat Like a K-pop Star.' It's the weekly series where we showcase a delicious Korean specialty or something we've seen a K-pop star chowing down on lately and show you how to get or create some food of your own.
Rainbow recently celebrated with about the most appropriate dessert they could have - a delectable looking rainbow cake.
If you've ever been anywhere near Pinterest before, you've probably seen a variation of a rainbow cake. You may have thought it was something that only accomplished bakers could produce, but it's not quite as complicated as it looks. It's actually more about how much time you have than how many baking skills you've got. It's a little more tedious to whip up than your typical dessert, but the end result is a chatter-worthy showstopper.
Whether you've got a Rainbow party coming up or just want to add a little color to dessert time, here's how to whip up a multicolored layer cake:
Let's start with the basics: the cake. If you don't have much time, go ahead and get three cake box mixes from your local grocery store. One box cake mix usually makes a single two-layer cake, and since your rainbow cake will have six layers (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple), you'll need three cake box mixes.
If you want to go the extra mile and make a cake from scratch, both Batter and Dough and Divas Can Cook have two classic vanilla cake recipes. Batter and Dough's is a dense, super flavorful cake that holds up well with the frosting you'll add later on. The version from Divas Can Cook is a little lighter and a very easy recipe to follow.
No matter if you're going the box route or the from scratch route, prepare the cake batter according to instructions until the very end, when you'll divide the mix evenly into six bowls and mix in the food dye.
The food dye is probably the most important part of this gorgeous cake, so do it right: use concentrated food coloring, often referred to as gel or paste food coloring and dyes. If you try to use the normal liquid food dye that you can find in any supermarket, you're going to have to use a whole lot of it to achieve the rich colors that you need in this cake. You'll need so much, in fact, that your cake will end up with the not-so-nice taste of food coloring instead of the delicious cake flavor that you spent time trying to get. Sugarflair and Americolor have two of the most popular and well-reviewed food dyes on the market. You might have to order them online or go to a specialty food store to pick them up, but you won't regret it. It's the extra step that prevents this cake from being a disaster.
Allright. You've divided up your layers and dyed them, now bake according to instructions from the box or your recipe. Once they're cooled completely, assembly can begin.
Start with the frosting. Here again, if you're short on time, there's some great prepared frosting already for sale out there. Or, maybe you want to do a homemade buttercream, rich cream cheese frosting, or whipped lemon icing. Whichever one you choose, keep the frosting layers thin and light. Remember: this is a six-layer cake, and there will be frosting between every layer. If you're too much of a frosting fiend, it will completely overpower those six rainbow layers of cake.
Baking doesn't allow for much room for error; it's more of a science. But if you're the creative type, decorating this cake is your time to shine.
Some bakers prefer to go the surprise route - covering the layers in a simple white coating, allowing everyone to be shocked at the vibrant rainbow underneath such a demure layer cake. If you're feeling like a color explosion, you could cover the outside in rainbow sprinkles or arrange it with frosted rainbow flowers.
Or, you could go for the look that Rainbow had with their cake. It's light on the frosting and heavy on the color, perfectly displaying the women's namesake and the cause for celebration. Eat up!
