Rainbows and Birthdays

I've been planning  Kolbe's birthday cake for months now, even before I signed up for the cake decorating class.   I saw this fun rainbow cake idea a few months ago and I have been waiting for a chance to make it.  

I made 2 cake mixes and divided them into separate bowls.

 I mixed the food coloring GEL into each bowl.  To get vibrant colors you have to use the gel not just the food coloring that comes in the little plastic bottles, if you use those the color will be really dull and since the cake has a yellow tint from the egg yokes it will be harder to get the color right.

 Can you see the rainbow idea coming together? I made the cakes a few days ago and put them in the freezer.  If you plan on making a cake a few days before the event the freezer is the best place to store the cake, the fridge actually dries the cake out.  I took the cakes out of the freezer last night and let the thaw out over night.

 Kolbe loves cream cheese frosting (the homemade kind, it rocks!) The cream cheese frosting was a little thick to do the crumb coat, a crumb coat is a thin coat you apply first and then let it set so that when you ice the rest of the cake you don't get any crumbs coming through, and lets just say they make icing a cake look like CAKE on the TV shows- it's so not fair!  

 Tada! 

The final cake, and I love that the surprise is hidden in the cake!  I wanted the outside to look simple and unassuming so that when I cut into the cake there was a wow factor.

 The cake after the first few pieces were cut out.  I took the cake to Kolbe's work (which is a 30 minute drive on 4 different freeways, I thought for sure the cake would end up on the floor!) and he shared it with his whole team. 

Almost gone! The cake was gone within 5 minutes of me getting there. 

I also made some cupcakes cause I didn't think the cake would go far enough for all the people he works with.  I made a chocolate ganache with a yellow cake mix.  The ganache was pretty easy and I like the shiny texture it makes, definitely going to try the ganache again.

The cake was a huge success and I stayed and hung out with Kolbe at work for the rest of the afternoon.  I think he had a pretty awesome 35th birthday!