Rainbow week, Day 3: Our epic rainbow cake fail!
As part of our rainbow week we thought we would attempt a spot of baking. I have never professed to be the best baker, we won’t mention the year that forty eight cupcakes went in the bin on the night before Eva’s second birthday, nor the last minute dash to Tesco for a cake, but the children enjoy it and that’s all that matters!
After a quick search on Pinterest I came across the most gorgeous little rainbow cakes and, perhaps foolishly, asked myself, how hard can they be?
Ingredients
110g/4oz butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
110g/4oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g/4oz self-raising flour
For the buttercream icing
140g/5oz butter, softened
280g/10oz icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
A few drops blue food colouring
Rainbow belt sweets to decorate
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Get your little brother to do this bit, whilst wearing his pyjamas, because every Master Chef needs a skivvy.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, splattering the table, the walls and each other. Beat in the eggs a little at a time and stir in the vanilla extract. Make sure that as much egg shell as possible lands in the bowl and then instantly launch into a rage at your sister for doing exactly the same.
3. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, or a wooden one, because you realise you only have a ladle, adding a little milk until the mixture is of a dropping consistency. Test this consistency by spilling it onto the table whenever possible, whilst eating as much raw cake ingredients as possible. Do not fear salmonella!
4. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full. Or just until they are completely covered in cake mixture. Pull funny faces at every photo opportunity while eating even more raw cake mix and then moaning that you have tummy ache.
5. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Lick the bowl as you wait while asking, “Are they ready yet?” as many times as possible, on repeat.
6. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Discover you don’t actually have a wire rack and leave to stand in the cake tins, while obsessing over soggy bottoms.
For the buttercream icing
1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Forget the fact that icing sugar explodes like a cloud of smoke when vigorously beaten. Scrub furiously at your leather dining chairs.
2. Add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of the milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Test consistency at all times, with your tongue.
3. Add the food colouring and mix until well combined. Realise that you have made way too much buttercream icing, to hell with e-numbers, and use the whole damn tube.
4. Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe the icing using a spiralling motion onto the cup cakes in a large swirl. Demonstrate this for your children, while dipping your cardigan in said icing. Discover that piping is actually way harder than it looks and hand it over to the experts.
5. Curse yourself for forgetting to buy the marshmallows, tell the girls that it’s a sunny day and therefore not a cloud in the sky, and try to get the rainbows to stand up in the icing alone.
6. Admit defeat and berate yourself for even trying. Concoct a plan to tell other people that the children baked them, completely unsupervised, and quickly eat the evidence!
7. Tackle the mountain of washing up, clean the kitchen, mop the floor and get two very grubby Master Chefs into the bath. Stay awake ’til midnight because the kids are bouncing off the walls. Swear never to bake again.
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These look amazing good job. I love baking with the kids and our sometimes go wrong but they have so much fun that it doesn’t matter.
That’s true, they had so much fun! xx
Oh my word what a beautiful gorgeous post! The photos are just gorgeous and some so comical, And what beautiful results?! Well done! You should see if you could get a late entry to the GBBO final tonight!! #BloggerClubUK
Thank you! Haha they would have won it I’m sure!! xx
I LOVE YOUR PHOTOS! So funny. These cakes are a great idea, so pretty! #bloggerclubuk
Ah thank you! xx
Oh it looks great! And I wouldn’t call it a “fail” just look at those lovely photos! It’s clear that they all enjoyed it. I’d call it “epic”! 🙂
Dean of Little Steps recently posted…‘Better than Mary Poppins!’
Ahh you’re so kind. The girls thought they were amazing! xx
I love the photos of your children and they certainly don’t look like a fail to me! Yum and the kids had fun too
Mellissa Williams recently posted…Unusual Ways in Which Jewellery is Said to Help and Heal Us
Ah thank you! xx
Aw, lovely post – and I bet they tasted awesome, even if the rainbows were a bit unsteady! 😉 I never learn with Pinterest; I always think that *next time* it’ll definitely look exactly like the photo! x
Jess Powell (Babi a Fi) recently posted…Gwent Police John Does
Unsteady is a lovely way of putting it! I never learn with pinterest either! xx
My nan has just baked with the gremlin for this reason…I am shite! Howeverm I love the pics of the girls and I actually think the cakes look great!! Amazing cause as well. Thanks for sharing with #bestandworst x
Sarah Howe @runjumpscrap recently posted…Best and Worst Week #71
Haha me too! As you can see! At least they were edible, that’s all that matters! xx
You crack me up! They look like Frazzles on the top but do you know what – good for you for trying in the first place and they look like they had fun! x
Katy (What Katy Said) recently posted…My Mind & Body: Six Weeks Postpartum
Hahah they really did. The icing was so wet and the sweets so soggy, but the kids had fun so yes…there is that! xx
I love this!!! Your description of the steps is hilarious! They look…..Like the children made them! ?
Louise Pink Pear Bear recently posted…Blackberry and apple crumble cupcakes.
Hahah true, I guess that’s the whole point really. Although I couldn’t have done any better! xx
They honestly don’t look too bad!!! I have also pinned this so this has advised me to give it a wide bearth! I am beginning to love those Pinterest fail posts more than the original pins! Bet the girls loved them though!
Jemma recently posted…Thoughts on being Two and a Half {Ordinary Moments}
Hahah I should never have attempted them. They do look fab though, done properly! xx
I have so many ideas of things I want to try on Pinterest, I just know that they won’t turn out right though and look better in my head than reality. I so tell people that my kids have baked on their own whenever I bake as I am shocking at it x
Newcastle Family Life recently posted…Other Bloggers Family Lives Featuring A Slice Of My Life Wales
Haha yes, pinterest always sets me right up for a fall! xx
Your kids are so cute. I will bookmark this post so I try the recipe over Christmas.
Ahh thank you! xx
omg they look so yummy and nice! and it looks like the kids had a great time! I hope the cleaning wasn’t too hard tho xx
That’s what the dish washer is for I suppose! xx
Hubby keeps nagging me to bake but this is why I don’t do it!
Kara recently posted…Skylanders Academy and all new Skylanders Imaginators
Hahah surprise him…and then tell him he has to eat it all regardless of how bad it is! xx
So I always have to read your writing twice because I get so distracted by how similar your girls look. I have identicals and your girls look more similar than mine do.
Actually ALL od your kids look like multiples!
Amazing really.
#fridayfrolics
kristin mccarthy recently posted…LittleMissMatched: A Clothing Company That WANTS My Girls To Color Their Clothing!
Haha that’s so funny! They do look the double of eachother, I can never work out if Megan is big or Eva is small but they are in the same size clothes and even the same size shoes! I’m sure in a year or so the three youngest will be like triplets! xx
Ahh at last a baking post that I can relate to. That pinterest is a curse. To be fair they still look amazing though and much better than something my two would have produced. Thanks for linking to #FridayFrolics
Emma recently posted…Is 2016 The Year Of The Feminist?
Ahh thank you. I was quite impressed to be honest, I did expect much worse!! xx
Hahahaa lol, quickly eat the evidence or claim the children made it unsurpervised lol.
Anosa recently posted…Five Things #1
Hehe, always! xx
I loved this. Mainly because it always happens to me! This week we tried making mini pumpkins. All you have to do is draw a face on a satsuma. How hard can it be? Well we tried markers, felt tips, biros and gel pens. None of them worked. Pinterest is dead to me!
Haha I can only imagine! Who are these robots on pinterest producing these creations?? It’s a conspiracy, it must be! xx
A for effort girls!!! Look at them, little scamps. Your photos are adorable as always, looks like they had so much fun doing this. #BrillBlogPosts
Mess and Merlot recently posted…She Loves Herself – This Mum’s Life
Ahh thank you lovely! xx
They look like they had lots of fun making them. There is nothing better than eating the cake mix though, thats still may favourite part…. I think your efforts looked brilliant. A lovely way to celebrate your rainbow.
#BloggerClubUK
Oh mine too!! And thank you. xx
I’ll be honest I don’t have the patience to bake this haha, but it looks like you and your girls had an amazing time! Meggys face is priceless she seems like such a character hahah, the photos are amazing I’m so glad you included these it really adds to the story/recipe : ). Thanks for sharing with #StayClassyMama!
Haha nor me most of the time, but then the children enjoy it so much I forget just how stressful it is…and then I remember!! xx
Love the pics of your girls, captures perfectly what baking with kids is like! The cakes look fab and I bet they tasted good.
Jan recently posted…Classic Nursery Rhymes Review
The girls said they tasted amazing! I passed up on the offer! xx
Ha! Well done for attempting a spot of fancy baking – I wouldn’t even try! Everything that I bake ends up looking hideous, but that hardly matters if it tastes good. It looks like your kids had a great time making the cupcakes regardless of their appearance, so that counts as success! #FridayFrolics
Squirmy Popple recently posted…Why Halloween can be a bad time to be female
Haha yes, that’s the main thing. They had fun and I nearly went insane…!! xx
You’re way too hard on yourself and these look great, plus the kids had fun making them so definitely not an epic fail 🙂 have you seen my post about my recent paw patrol cake attempt? Two collapsed cakes later was definately a fail! Still we try. Loved reading, very entertaining (and I really want some of those fizzy rainbows now too haha) xx #bestandworst
Very true! I haven’t seen the paw patrol post but I shall go and hunt it down, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad!! xx
These look better than the Pinterest ones – the expressions on the girls’ faces are priceless. Thanks for linking to #sharewithme
Mummy Fever recently posted…All things Christmas
Ahh thank you! The girls said they tasted amazing too! xx
They look fabulous and your children look so happy making them and we’re obviously having such a good time.
Thank you, they love baking! xx
Excellent read, thank you.
Haha – love it! My baking ‘instructional’ post was very similar and I didn’t even attempt real baking – we failed to make chocolate crispy cakes without disaster here! I think the buns looked very cute!
Thanks so much for joining us on #FridayFrolics. Apologies for my lateness – I have had moving chaos to contend with.
Silly Mummy recently posted…Friday Frolics – 4th November 2016
Haha chocolate crispy cakes are about my limit!! No apologies needed, hope the move went okay! xx
Brilliant. Love the instructions with the built in comedy. #MMBC
Helena recently posted…Review: InfaCare Night-time Baby Bath
Thank you! The kids liked them, that’s the main thing? xx