Jamie's Stomach: dessert

Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Unicorned Rainbow Cake: A Photo Essay

A few weeks ago, in my house, The Best Cake Ever was made. Notice that "it was made," not "I made it," since I hate baking. I just found the cake and then forced my roommate and friend to make it instead.
Also, I stole the idea from Omnomicon, but we changed the recipe a lot, so that instead of using diet soda and no-sugar pudding mix, we used full-fat, full-sugar EVERYTHING. Now that credit has been given where credit is due, let's move on to appreciating the extreme beauty and ridiculousness of the Unicorned Rainbow Cake.

This cake is not something to be casually whipped up. You will have to separate and mix many bowls of colored batter. You will have to use vaguely mathematical calculations to ensure your layers are layered correctly. But it's totally worth it. I don't know why bakeries don't make all of their cakes look like this, since everybody seems to love them.*

Actually, we made two completely separate cakes with reverse-corresponding color layers, and then put one cake on top of the other.

As if the cake itself isn't enough, we then proceeded to decorate its exterior with a unicorn. A glittery unicorn. Oh yes. The design was sketched out beforehand, and then applied with a steady hand and a damp paintbrush. I again must give full props here to D and J, who made this artistic fantasy a reality.

So now we're at the party, and obviously Dave and Marci are impressed with the outside of the cake. They see the unicorn and the glitter and the frosting and start fawning already. Little do they know what treasures lie in store beneath the layer of frosting! And actually, neither did we, since after we baked all the layers of colored batter, we couldn't really cut into the finished product. The moment of revelation was upon us, and lo, it was awesome. Check it!

After hours of labor, we were left with the glittery, desecrated remains of the unicorn. RIP, Best Cake Ever Made. You will be missed.

*Upon further thought, I have realized that a large part of the reason people do love this cake so much is its novelty, so perhaps it's better that bakeries aren't pumping them out en masse.