British-style Rainbow Cake

I saw a picture of the famous Rainbow Cake online, and wanted to make it for Small's birthday. Looking up the recipe, I was unhappy to discover that it required something called white cake mix. It really is blindingly white, and I imagine you could do something similar with a classic angel cake mix (egg whites only). I decided instead to use the Hummingbird bakery cupcake batter which is very pale, multiplied by two. I didn't want to make a huge cake as the party was a small group of friends I was taking to the skating rink. But you could multiply by four, enough to create a slim layer for each colour: red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, indigo, violet.

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  240g plain flour
• 280g caster sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 240ml whole milk
• 2 eggs
• splash of vanilla extract

I use a Magimix, and blend sugar, butter, salt and flour until breadcrumb texture, although you can rub in like pastry with your fingers. Then mix eggs, milk and vanilla, and pour in through the feed tube until you  have a smooth batter. Don't overmix.

I bought gel colours red, yellow and blue, and blended them to create the different colours of the rainbow. ie red with yellow for orange, yellow with blue for green, blue with a touch of yellow for turquoise, blue with a touch of red for indigo, and with more red (and using less colour) for violet.

I divided the mixture into eight little bowls and coloured each one. Then I poured the batter carefully into two separate sandwich tins lined with baking parchment. The first four in the one, the second in the other. I baked them at 180C for about 20 minutes until they sprang back when gently pressed in the middle.

Meanwhile, I had melted a bar of white chocolate, and beaten it with icing sugar and unsalted butter until pale and fluffy. When the cake was cold, I sandwiched it with apricot jam, and coated it in the icing. Using a large tube of Smarties, I made a rainbow on top, and finished it with 10 candles, and sparklers in the shape of 1 and 0.

Great pleasure all round.

Chocolate Roulade

My no 2 son is 10, and is the only one of my three children genuinely interested in food and cooking. This is gloriously inspiring, as he wants to taste new things, try new combinations and make complicated things himself. We are really enjoying Australian Junior Masterchef at the moment, and he is desperate to take part.
Yesterday as it is half term, we had time to do something quite elaborate.
A flourless roulade quite a tough call even for experienced cooks, but before we knew where we were, he was separating eggs and wielding the electric beaters.

Here is the recipe. I made some chestnut jam for him by cooking one of those rather tasteless tins of whole chestnuts with sugar and vanilla. But he did the rest.

For the roulade:
Heat the oven to 180 C Gas Mark 4. Line a swiss roll tin with baking paper.

150g plain dark chocolate
3 tbspn hot water or coffee
5 eggs
100g sugar
Caster sugar to finish

Pour the hot coffee or water over the broken up chocolate and microwave for about 40 secs to melt. Stir until smooth. Separate the eggs, and beat the yolks with the sugar until thick and pale yellow. In another bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff and glossy.

Add the egg mixture to the chocolate, and beat, then fold the egg whites in carefully trying not to knock out the air. Pour the mixture into the tin, and tap gently on the surface to flatten. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, pressing the centre with your finger to check it is cooked. It should bounce gently back.

Take out of the oven, and leave to cool in the tin. then turn out gently onto a piece of baking paper that you have strewn with either caster sugar or icing sugar. Peel off the baking paper from the tin and trim any harder edges with a sharp knife.

We beat some of the chestnut jam into cream until thick and used that for a filling, but you could just use plain cream, or all a layer of raspberries.

Spread your filling over the roulade and begin carefully to roll up, using the paper to help you. Then wrap the paper right round the roulade firmly and put it in the fridge to set properly. To serve, slice and lay on a plate. We did a bit of sprinkling with cocoa and icing sugar, but a raspberry coulis would be nice too.

Junior Masterchef here he comes!