Au Naturel Rainbow Pancake Cake - Pancakes #3

My pretty, kawaii niece Arianna was going to have her first birthday and I'm in charge of her cake! Haha, as always, the favourite aunt of all my nieces, LOL. I do try to use natural colours and pigments whenever I can and am always excited to experiment.

Once during a tea party at Swee San's, she made a beautiful natural rainbow cake and it made all of us WOW! It was from her creation that I was inspired to try making mine, au naturel.


not enough frosting to cover the sides, hehehehe.


When I decided to make a rainbow cake for Arianna, I dread of the thought of washing the pan again and again and then reheating the oven so many times. It seemed wasteful. And I was also lazy to bake each layer. So, I thought, why not make pancakes. It's a lot easier!

Because I don't have the luxury to complete the cake in one day, I did it 2 days in advance. One day to do the pancakes, one day to frost, 3rd day to celebrate with. It was a big mistake!

My beetroot layer started to turn brown and the pancakes start to turn crumbly. The softness was gone on the day of celebration! So, for those who wants to try this, I do urge you to do with only 30 hours in advance for best results.


still a tinge of redness after 24 hours on the beetroot layer.
If you can see the purple layer, it actually looked purplish, but turned blue the next day.



Natural Rainbow Pancake Cake

Recipe source: Wendyinkk
Inspired by: Swee San
Makes a large 10 inch wide, 5 inch tall cake. Easily feeds 20.

Each layer
1 grade B egg
1 Tbsp oil
50gm buttermilk
50gm cake flour
20gm sugar
¾ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda

Pigment sources + additions
Red layer = 50gm beetroot , raw
Orange layer = 40gm carrots + 10gm beetroot , raw,
Yellow=50gm carrots, raw
Green=40gm pandan juice + ¼ tsp baking power –baking soda
Blue= 8 blackberries (microwaved for 10 secs) + 2 Tbsp water, strained
Purple = 20 blueberries(microwaved for 10 secs) + 2 Tbsp water+ ¼ tsp baking power -baking soda
Indigo= 4 blackberries (microwaved for 10 secs) + 2 Tbsp water, strained+ ¼ tsp baking power – baking soda

For all layers, do them separately
1. Prepare the wet ingredients. Put oil, buttermilk and pigment sources together and blend ( I used an immersion blender). Mix with egg.
2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder) together in a bowl.
3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Combine until a batter is formed, do not overmix.
4. Cook on frying pan on low heat (covered with lid) until surface is cooked
5. Flip over onto cooling rack to cool off.
6. Stack pancakes, separated with non stick baking paper. Keep chilled until time of use.

Assembly
500gm of prepared whipped dairy cream (see here for method)

Spread cream and stack the layers according to sequence. Spread cream over pancake and chill for another 5 hours before serving.

Now, I wanted to show you the beetroot layer right after it was made... but don't know why the picture won't stand upright. Stupid Sony Ericsson, it happens to pictures taken by my phone and TX5 cybershot cam,

It looks pretty and red right??? Urrrrrgh!!!

I hate it when it turns starts turning brown the next day, hate hate hate it!

Hate it even more when it's really brown on the 3rd day!!! Urrrrgh!