Nicole by OPI in Shell Me the Truth + MAC x Hello Kitty in Something About Pink + Sharpie
Edit: I want to give credit to the girl who explained how to do these but she doesn’t have a blog that I know of, but thank you Jetpacks!
Did you know I’ve never made a layer cake before? It’s true. Cupcakes, jar cakes, cake doughnuts and once many years ago, a sheet cake shaped like a bat with hot pink icing (unfortunately no pictures of this exist), but never a layer cake.
I decided it was time to remedy this and I also decided it was time that I, as a rainbow enthusiast, try my hand at that internet classic: RAINBOW CAKE. I know, what better way to make my first layer cake a success than by making it six layers?
Since I didn’t know whether my attempt would be a disaster or not I decided to use a boxed cake mix so that if I had to toss the whole thing in the trash I wouldn’t have wasted a ton of ingredients and time. I used Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic White, but feel free to use your own favorite white cake (what kind of cake is “white” anyway? Or “yellow” for that matter. When I was growing up cake came in two varieties: chocolate and vanilla). Preheat your oven & mix the batter according to the box instructions or your own recipe.
Once you cake batter is mixed up you need to separate it into six smaller bowls for tinting. To colour the batter I used Wilton Icing Color– it’s super concentrated and gives really bright colours, although I’ve also heard of people having good luck using regular food coloring in neon shades. The icing colour is a pastey gel, so to get it into the batter without staining the crap out of my hands I “poured” it; the colour would sort of ooze out really slowly and I’d scrape the emerging pea-sized blob into the batter with a toothpick. To mix the colours in I used forks.
Anyway I used four colours: Red-Red, Golden Yellow, Royal Blue and Petal Pink, and mixed them thusly:
for the red layer, two Red-Red
for the orange layer, one Red-Red + one Golden Yellow
for the yellow layer, two Golden Yellow
for the green layer, one Golden Yellow + one Royal Blue
for the blue layer, two Royal Blue
for the purple layer, one Royal Blue + one Petal Pink
The purple layer didn’t turn out as I wanted; it was much too dark. I should have used two blobs of pink and just a dab of blue.
Bake the layers in 8″ cake pans. I have three so I made the layers in two batches. To make sure the layers wouldn’t stick (since they were very thin and would have torn very easily) I sprayed the pans with non-stick spray AND floured them. I poured the batter in and spread it with a silicone spatula to cover the bottom of the pan- it was only about a half and inch thick but that’s fine. I baked them on the middle rack at 325°F for fifteen minutes, rotating after ten, and they came out perfectly. After they cooled for ten minutes I turned them out onto a floured surface and let them cool upside-down while I washed the pans and made the second batch of layers.
Even though I used cake mix, I wanted to make my own frosting; I don’t really like the canned stuff. I used this recipe from Martha Stewart, substituting lemon juice for the vanilla. I think I used seven cups of icing sugar, and had exactly enough frosting to cover my six-layer cake.
Once all the layers cooled I assembled the whole thing, from red to purple. Since I’d never made a layer cake before I’d obviously also never frosted one so I didn’t do a bang up job, and my layers also weren’t totally flat and I didn’t want to top them (cut the curved part off) because they were already so thin, so it was fairly dome-shaped. All in all, however, I think it turned out pretty well for my first attempt!
I can’t make anything without putting bunting on it, SUE ME. Of course, with rainbow cake it’s what’s inside that counts:
PERFECTO. As a bonus this cake was also really delicious- the cake itself isn’t sweet, which is a nice offset to the INTENSE OUT OF CONTROL SWEETNESS of the frosting. All in all I think this was a big success!
Claire didn’t throw up last night! It’s a miracle you guys. On Thursday and Friday night I shut her out of the bedroom so I could sleep without her barfing all over the sheets, but last night I didn’t and she only woke me up with her usual making biscuits on my head and NOT the ominous herk-herk-herk pre-barf noise.
I don’t even know. It was really hard to get her out of there too. Also, Taylor’s playoff beard is basically OUT OF CONTROL.
Symphony’s dessert on Friday night: cinnamon sticks, sugar frosting, chocolate ice cream, s’mores sprinkles. I KNOW. She had a nutritional dinner of pizza though, so it’s okay.
Me & my friend Harley. He belongs to my upstairs neighbor and he and Georgie are in love.
My main weekend accomplishment (although I also have some pretty sweet nails to show you guys tomorrow). More on this later…
Remember my diabetic cat? Of course you do. Well, now she’s my diabetic cat with unexplained uncontrollable night vomiting. It’s time for another round of expensive tests, meds and special food! SEE YA, ALL MY MONEY.
Argh. Well, at least my nail polish hasn’t chipped.
She has some mysterious infection or allergic reaction that’s causing her to puke all night (this has been going on since last Friday), PLUS her diabetes is as bad as ever. My poor old cat is sicker than ever and I feel helpless and defeated and like all the time and money and MONEY I’ve spent trying to get her healthy has been a huge heaping waste. The vet called and left a message about the test results and I couldn’t call him back for over half an hour because I couldn’t stop crying, partly because I felt bad for Claire, partly because I felt guilty for letting her get so sick (although in my defense she isn’t acting sick at all, I mean other than the barf), and partly because I felt (still feel) guilty knowing that if this gets much more expensive I won’t be able to afford to do it anymore. Luckily the current plan of action just involves switching her food and adjusting her insulin dosage, with no more account-draining blood test for a month.
Yesterday was a holiday, so today is my Monday!
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away! + Winwax blue-green glitter
Last week I snapped half my nails off to little nubs and had to cut them all super short, boo. Anyway this manicure is pretty meh, I didn’t feel like fighting with the glitter because I knew it would take forever to dry/get wrecked in a minute so I kind of just gave up. I swear my next set of nails will be more interesting!
So remember when I was sick on Saturday and Sunday? And it was raining and miserable out anyway? Well, Monday it was sunny (well, half sunny) and I was feeling better! Of course, my house was a disaster so I spent the morning cleaning, and came up with this great plan to clean out and rearrange three closets. I may have mentioned before how my cleaning often turns into mess-making and then shopping, but luckily this time I chose to go shopping first.
Ostensibly I was looking for shoe shelves, but instead I bought some ramekins and a new doormat. I used to have a cool one with a raven on it but my neighbor’s dog pooped on it, and then my dog stepped in the poop and smooshed it in, and it’s not like I can just throw a doormat in the wash. Anyway.
Isn’t it so pretty?? They had a few different ones but I liked the pomegranates on this one. I think they’re pomegranates. I guess they could be some kind of red figs. Also, it was twelve dollars. TWELVE. I can’t argue with that.
Sym was with me and she used her girl powers to sniff out some Tokidoki Unicornos.
Hers are on the left; mine are on the right.
I bought her some new sunglasses, which she wore with her super-fresh pink/grey/black ensemble.
Fashion.
I bought myself some flowers, $10 for 30. And they match my desk perfectly.
They are like the daffodils of tulips. Did you know tulips are my favorite flower? IT’S TRUE. Well, it’s true today.
For dessert we had chocolate ice cream with s’mores sprinkles. Yes, you heard me right. S’MORES SPRINKLES. What will they invent next???
I never did get around to cleaning out the closets, but oh well. There’s always next weekend!
It’s that time! First of all I just want to thank everyone who entered my glitter garland giveaway, I love you girls so much, you keep me young.
I know lots of people like to use some number randomizing website to pick giveaway winners, but I went the old-fashioned route.
Little bits of paper! I saw this as an opportunity to burn through some of the giant stack of hotel stationery cluttering up my desk drawers.
What is more random than kids, anyway?
“What does that say? George… Anne?” (note: this image has been doctored but ONLY to remove a toilet from the background LOL)
YES, GEORGEANNE! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Okay so OF CORSE I got sick on the long weekend. OF COURSE. The worst part is I got sick from Taylor, not the daycare kids. Clearly offices are bigger germ havens than a house full of literally snot-nosed kids.
Luckily after that gorgeous, sunny Friday (which I am SO GLAD I took off, btw) the weather has been pretty crummy so I don’t feel guilty about spending the whole rest of the weekend on the couch watching tv and making friendship bracelets.
Yeah. I mean, I did do some other things; Taylor and I tried to go see Bridesmaids but it was sold out, and I walked my dog a bunch of times and we went to Starbucks when a skunk trapped us outside, but mostly we just watched shows, like half the first season of Deadwood and the entire third season of Parks & Rec, which I watched with Sym last night after Taylor went to bed. THE ENTIRE THIRD SEASON IN ONE SITTING. It was pretty glorious.
Anyway now I have to tidy my squalorous apartment; it’s weird how doing nothing makes such a mess.
Also, don’t forget today is the last day to enter to win a glitter garland! You have until 11pm PST to enter.
Long weekends are sooooo much better than regular weekends, and when you take a vacation day to make it a four day weekend it’s basically the best thing ever. Here are some of the things I did on Friday and Saturday
Beach!
Froyo!
Dog Bathing!
Dinner!
grilled barbecue chicken + corn on the cob + spinach salad + beer = the perfect meal
Photobooth Silliness!!
Apples to Apples!
French Toast Kebabs!
Cut bread into 1″ squares, mix into your favorite french toast egg/milk mixture- ours had cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Using a slotted spoon, scoop squares into skillet or griddle pan and cook. It’s best to do them in small batches and keep them warm in the oven- just heat it to 200-250°F and put a rimmed baking pan in it to hold your squares. I also put our berries (straw, rasp and blue) in the oven after I’d washed and in the case of the strawberries cut them, so they’d be warm. Once your squares are all cooked, thread them onto skewers, alternating with the berries (or fruit of your choice). Serve with powdered sugar and maple syrup.
Friendship Bracelets!
Thanks to Mimi, daughter of Design Mom, for the tutorial! I used to make these in middle school but I’d forgotten how, and her instructions were clear even to Sym, who is easily frustrated by new things.
Shopping for Raincoats & Fudge!
raincoat from Roots; fudge from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
I also want to take a second to remind everyone who hasn’t yet to enter my awesome glitter garland giveaway. I was really worried no one would enter and I’d look dumb, so I’m very overwhelmed and grateful for the response! Thanks to everyone who has entered so far!
Hey internet! idk if you’ve been keeping up with my etsy, but I’ve started making some pretty fantastic glittery message bunting/garland/signs/what-have-you. It’s fun to make and pretty to look at and I’m going to share the “look at” part with you FOR FREE.
That’s right, I’m giving away a custom glitter garland to one lucky reader. You could get a name, a message, swear words, anything goes! I could also make shapes like hearts and stars and maybe even unicorns. MAYBE EVEN UNICORNS YOU GUYS. You also have your choice of nine excellent glitter colours.
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post saying what you’d want your sign to say- to keep this within reason let’s keep it to messages of twelve letters/shapes or less. For additional entries you can tweet or blog about it and then leave a second/third comment providing me with a link to your tweet or post. Here’s a fun sample text you can use:
I entered to win a custom glitter garland from @taniewanie from http://unicornpara.de aka the best blog giveaway of the year!
(For blog posts I would leave out the @taniewanie and just say Tanie instead.) This giveaway is open to everyone IN THE WORLD, so non-North Americans don’t feel left out. Entries will be accepted until 11pm PST on Monday, May 23rd and the winner will be announced Tuesday morning. And remember, if you don’t win or want a longer message, you can always order custom glitter garland here.
I wish I had a picture of a “Good Luck!” glitter garland to close this post but I haven’t made one yet. So I’ll just say it. GOOD LUCK!!