Rainbow cakes

Some of you may not know that Dale and I are throwing a joint 40th birthday party next weekend with a 70s theme.  We spent Saturday afternoon at the thrift store scoring authentically ridiculous outfits and have encouraged our guests to do the same.  We're providing tie-dyed headbands and fake mustaches.  We have transformed the basement into a nightclub scene, with an actual disco ball and multicolored lights, and are primed for loud music and stiff drinks.  I am eagerly assembling multiple fondue pots.  We're expecting about 25 adults and 15 kids.  We had the brilliant idea to have staff at this party: a couple of super teenagers (Robert and a friend of his) will help the kids have a good time, so that their parents can enjoy themselves that much more.

One of the easy things to do in advance is make cake.  Cake freezes beautifully; I think freezing actually improves the texture.  On the day of the party, you frost the frozen cake, which is really forgiving - no crumbs or breakage - and then let it sit out for a couple hours (while you enjoy the party).  Easy.  For this event I have decided on smiley-face cakes with a tie-dyed interior.  Aaron helped me.  Here he is licking the bowl that once contained plain cake batter; as you can see, we've divided the batter into six bowls and colored them vividly.  Gel or paste food coloring is a must for this - not that weak-tea stuff you get at the grocery store.  A food scale is helpful for dividing the batter evenly.

I went with three eight-inch cakes.  To assemble, first dole out one-third of the red batter into each (buttered, lined) cake pan.  Right on top of that, the orange - it will smoosh the red outward on its own - no need to mess with it.  And so on for all six colors.  Symmetry is not important but if you can make the blobs somewhat concentric, each wedge of cake will have some of each color.  

Mixing is not going to help anything.  (Fellow geeks:  As your slicing will be in the r-hat direction, mixing in the theta-hat direction is irrelevant.  If you could mix in the z, it might do something cool, but then again it might just blend the layers into muddy brownness.  Better to just leave it.)

Cooked cakes (and one grilled cheese sandwich).  These have now been wrapped in plastic and are patiently waiting in the upright freezer for their big day.  

I will probably make at least another three of these (we are having 40 people, after all) and some brownies, too, like my mother used to make, with a secret ingredient.  (Sorry, it's wheat germ.  And it's excellent.)