mamajoan

As some of you know, I've been making rainbow cakes for the kids' birthdays ever since I discovered the concept online. This will be my fifth year making rainbow cakes for both kids (or, in one case, rainbow cupcakes), so I've got a lot of experience with it by now. It's kind of a lot of work, but always totally worth it. There's invariably at least one kid and/or adult at the party who hasn't seen rainbow cake before, and the ooh's and ahh's are pretty gratifying (yes, I do have an inner attention-whore). Plus, I personally love how cool it looks, as do my kids, of course. I enjoy baking anyway, so to me it's totally worth it to put in the extra effort.

In this post I give the complete instructions for making a rainbow cake, taking into account everything that I've learned from doing it so many times. I must give credit where it's due, and link to the webpage where I originally found the rainbow cake idea, but since I'm a writer I also felt the need to write it up in my own words. And, if you stick it out to the end, there are some pictures. :) Ruthie's rainbow cake came out particularly well this year!

( Click the lj-cut for the full instructions. )

( Or, just click here to skip right to the pictures! :) )

Enjoy! And if you feel moved to make a rainbow cake of your own some time, take a picture of it and let me know. :)

So we're going up to Vermont this weekend. A couple of old family friends have a place up there and have been trying to get us to come up and ride on this train, the Green Mountain Railway, which is an old-fashioned railroad with the old iron engines and goes along what's supposed to be an incredibly scenic route. Isaac is still pretty well obsessed with trains so I think it'll be fun. I was hesitant about Ruthie, because it'll probably be a long-ish ride for her and she'll get bored; but I couldn't really see not bringing her (especially since it would mean ME missing it!) so we're bringing her, and I'll cross my fingers.

(Recent experiences taking the kids - separately - on the Boston subway has really highlighted how different they are in the area of train interest. Isaac sits completely still, almost, and looks out the window the entire time - whether the ride is one stop or ten. Ruthie gets bored and horrendously fidgety after about one stop.)

Anyway, so we'll leave on Saturday, stay the night at Sally's place, go Sunday morning to the Montshire Museum of Science which is supposed to be great, then ride the train, stay another night, and come back Monday. We're on pins and needles waiting for MLB to announce the time of Monday's Red Sox playoff game, because mom has tickets!! We need to know whether we should be rushing back from Vermont (if the game starts at 1 we'll have to leave fairly early)! As of right now they still list the game time as TBA. So frustrating!

Ahem, but I digress.

I think it'll be a fun trip. I hope the drive won't be too bad (about three hours - we plan to go at Ruthie's naptime) and the weather won't be too cold. ;) I think the kids will have a lot of fun. Staying at someone else's house is always fun, and Sally and her husband Bill love to spoil the kids. ;) Plus, you know, just plain something different is nice.

Also, right down the road from the science museum is the King Arthur Flour store, bakery, and baking school! I'm so excited and soooooo hoping that things will work out such that I'll get to spend at least a little time in there. ;) I bet it smells fucking fantastic in there. ;) It looks from their website like they have lots of free samples and stuff, which the kids should like. ;) BTW did I mention that I've been on hiatus from baking bread? My last few loaves came out really bad and I got frustrated. Combining that with the fact that it was too hot to turn on the oven (for a brief period in late August ;) ) and that I've been soooo busy and stressed with the new schools and new job, etc., ...so I decided to take a break and buy bread for a couple of weeks instead of making it. Except, of course, the bread you buy is so inferior. So I might be going back to it soonish.

(On a slightly related but very tangential note ;) I picked up a container of Earth's Best organic/natural/trans-fat-free "buttery spread" recently, and the kids (and I) have been LOVING it. I was really surprised by how good it tastes. The nutritional content, in terms of fat, calories, and so forth, is actually extremely similar to that of Land-O-Lakes margarine, which is what we usually use -- but that stuff has trans fats and this stuff doesn't. Of course, the Earth's Best also costs a lot more. But dang, it's good.)

Anyway, where was I?? OH YEAH, our trip to Vermont. So anyway, uh, we're doing that. Should be fun. w00t.