More Rainbow Party

The Decor

The Table-Ware

The Center Piece

The Table Art

The Rainbow Jello

The Rainbow Treats

The Stripe Pudding

And The Rainbow Cake!

Make a Wish until Next Year


Thanks everyone for viewing this party, It was really fun to do, these are my final photos of it that I just got, from my good friend Andrea who took them.  Thanks for all who came, helped out, and supported me.  Love you all!

Rainbow Mini Cupcakes

Since I was so proud of myself for making a cake from scratch I decided to make another cake off of Whisk Kids.  So I used one of her Chocolate cake recipes that had a Dark Chocolate Ganache in it, because I love dark Chocolate!  It ended up making mini cakes, for my first time, and they were more like Mini Brownies but it was still good, just a little heavy. The cake was meant to be used as a carmel cake and I skipped that part and just did the cake, my mistake.  Her link is at the bottom of the page if your interested in what the cake really was. This is the part I used though...

Super Chocolate Cake
3/4 c (177ml) heavy cream
1 c (160 g) dark chocolate chips (I used 52%)
2 c (250 g) flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
3/4 c (177 g)butter, cubed and at room temp
1 c (142 g)firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs + 2 yolks, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C) then grease and line two 6 inch pans.

Heat cream until steaming, then pour over chocolate. Allow to set for 5 minutes, then whisk gently to combine. Allow to cool to room temp (put it in the fridge/freezer for a bit, if you like).

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then add both yolks plus the vanilla. Then, alternating between wet and dry (beginning with wet), add the flour and cream mixtures in 2 additions each. Be sure to scrape down the bowl!

Divide batter into the two prepared pans and bake 35-40 min.


So this was originally meant to be on a Chocolate Carmel Cake, but I didn't bother with the Carmel, which probably made this a lot more moist,  Oh well, you live and learn.  Still love her cakes and her How Tos and plan to try out many more on her website!


Since I wasnt making a Chocolate Carmel Cake I went with my go-to Buttercream frosting for each individual cupcake and changed the colors on every six cup cakes.  It was slightly tedious to do, but loved how they turned out, minus the purple, that looks like a navy blue (sigh) what can you do.  So heres my own recipe that I've tweaked a million times, however, I notice when most people make it, it doesnt turn out the way I make it.  So i'm sorry if its not great.  I find that a lot of recipes turn out by look, feel, and constancy so I hope it works out for you!

Rachels Butter Cream Frosting


What you need:


- 1 Cup Butter
- 1 1/2 T of Madagascar Vanilla
- Pinch of Salt
- 4 T Heavy Cream
- 4 Cups Powder Sugar


In a mixer add room temperature butter to mixer and blend until smooth.  Wipe down the sides of the bowl and add vanilla until mixed with butter.  Add salt and 2 cups of powder sugar blending on low just enough to incorporate the butter.  Next, add 2 T. of Heavy cream and blend IF its having a hard time incorporating, if not, add the rest of the powdered sugar and all the Heavy Cream.  This sounds crazy I know, and its also why its tricky.  Let the frosting come together and then put the mixer on high and whip it until it becomes nice and fluffy. The trick is you dont want to over mix it because otherwise it because hard and gross or curdles.  I like to swipe my finger in and check the consistency to see how spreadable it is.  If it feels like a hard butter you have whipped it too much, think of it as a fluffy buttery texture.  It should be a nice fluffy frosting thats easy to pipe and spread, and not hard.  If its too hard, try adding some milk and powder sugar and see if you can soften it up a bit.  This is only for frosting cakes/cupcakes.  If you are using it for a decorative frosting, use milk or water instead.  I've been making frostings since I was 18 and have played with this recipe a lot.  I found that the Cream adds this amazing flavor and consistency to the frosting.  Hope it works out!

Chocolate Carmel Cake by Whisk Kid
http://whisk-kid.blogspot.com/2009/08/hot-mess.html

Rainbow Jello and Pudding Recipe

Rainbow Jello

This is a childhood favorite recipe that my Mother would make on special occasions.  Being from Utah, everyone always assumes that we love Jello, I mean, when the Winter Olympics were here they made collectable green jello pins with the Olympic symbol on them.  That being said, I can't stand Jello, I never make it and if I do eat it, its only to be polite, unless its made Rainbow style!  I always thought growing up that I only liked it because it was beautiful, and im drawn to pretty things.  However, once my Mother told me what was actually in it, it all came together quickly for me...

What you need...

6 packages of different colored Jello (I followed the layers of the cake so it would match so I did purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red.)
6 Cups of Vanilla Ice Cream (now you know why I loved it, go figure!)
6 Cups of Hot Water.
1 container of Cool Whip

Simple really, all you do is follow the instructions on the back of the box, but instead of adding a cup of cold water, you add a cup of ice cream.   Heres what I changed though, since I wanted the colors to be intense, and it muddied out the purple a lot, I added 1/2 cup of ice cream and a 1/2 cup of ice.  That way the color was slightly more intense.  The reason why this is so useful when making Rainbow Jello is that it help's it set up faster, and it tastes a lot better.  When your doing six layers of Jello it gets slightly tedious waiting to make the next layer.  But if you want the colors to stay intense, just do 1 cup of hot water and 1 cup of ice.  Make sure you put in a glass bowl, and let each layer set up before you add the next.  Then right before you serve it put on the cool whip.  I pipped mine in the cups so it would look better, but you can always just put a dollop on it, or spread it out and make it look like fluffy clouds!

Jello Pudding Cups

This is a recipe my Mom made up while I was brain storming with her about this party.  We made them in Parfait cups so it took a lot of Pudding, so depending on what size of glass your using is how much pudding you will need. In the end it ended up being too much for one person, but everyone loved it so I highly suggest trying it.

What you need: 
2 Boxes of Cheese Cake Pudding
2 Boxes of Vanilla Pudding
2 Boxes of Pistachio Pudding
Gallon of 2% Milk
Box of Oreos
1/2 C. Cream Cheese (room temperature)
1. C Heavy Whip Cream (room temperature)
2 T. Powder Sugar
1 T. Madagascar Vanilla

For the pudding, just follow the directions on the back of the box, make all the puddings in separate containers.  I added food coloring to one of them to make it orange, but you can add any color you want to it. I just liked the combination of the soft orange, green, cream, and black together.  I was going to add a little orange zest to the Vanilla pudding since it ended up being the orange layer, but I ran out of time.  I think it would taste really good though and freshen the dish up.

Next, take all the Oreos, this is the tedious part by the way, and separate all the cream from the cookies, toss them in a blender a few at a time, and blend them crumbs.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist, which is why the little nick on the Rainbow cake drives me nuts, but if you dont want to do this step, you can crush up the oreos and put them in, but I cant stand having chunks of Oreos, so i spent FOREVER blending them to a nice fine powder.  Place aside in a bowl and wait to assemble.

Last is the topping.  Place the whipping cream in your kitchen aide and set on high until it forms soft peaks, add in 2 T. Powdered Sugar, and 1 T. Vanilla and whip until blended.  Next, add in the Cream Cheese and whip until blended together.  The cream cheese adds a great flavor to it, and makes it stiffer so it can be pipped.  You can also die it a color if you want more color on it, but i liked it white.  Add the  whipped topping into a pipping bag and get ready to assemble your dish.

Start with any layer of pudding you want, then add a Tablespoon of Oreo, then the next flavor, then a Tablespoon of Oreo.  Repeat steps until you get to the top.  As you can see in my picture, I ran out of oreo, if that happens just layer your layers on top... I ran out of time otherwise i would have made up more!  At the end pipe a little whipped topping on the top and your ready to go!  If your not going to serve them right away, refrigerate them until its time for the party!

These are two of the simplest recipes I have ever made, and yet the both tasted amazing, and really added to the color scheme!

Cupcake Topiary

My Mom saw this Topiary Cupcake Tree on Good Morning Utah and thought that this would be cute to do for my Birthday.  So we took sorta what they did and made our own version of it.  To find everything  we went to IKEA to get the pot, Orson Gygi to get all the black and white cupcake holders (But I know you can find them on-line as well), and Roberts craft store to pick up the rest of the supplies.  It was really simple to make and only took about 45 minutes...

So what you will need:

-3-5 packages regular cupcake holders in a variety of patterns and or colors. (Depends on the size of the topiary.)
-2-3 packages of mini cupcake holders in matching designs.
-1 package of floral pins
-Variety of buttons, they sell them in packages at the craft store.
-Foam topiary tree
-White ribbon
-Decorative pot or bucket
-clay pot and rice

Step one- take your clay pot and place it in your decorative bucket and fill it with some rice.  I did this to add height and to stabiles it a little.  Depending on your pot you might not need to do this step. If not just place the topiary in your pot.

Step two-take a ribbon of your choice, I picked white since my theme was black and white and wrap it tightly around the top of the topiary, once finished cut off end and use a floral pin to keep it in place.  Depending on the look your going for you can also paint the rod to cover it.  I just was playing around as I went, and didn't think about it until after i had started my flowers... i'm new at the whole crafting part of blogging, so its a little weird stopping to take pictures every step you take... so bare with me!

Step three- this is the hardest part of the entire project, and honestly, its not hard.  So you start with two of the regular cupcake wrappers. and you turn one of them inside out and then put them together.  This way both sides of the flower has a pattern on it.  Next i folded another regular cupcake wrapper in half, then i scrunched up with my fingers the smaller ones, placed them in the middle of the "flower" and then put the button on top.  Lastly I took two floral pins and placed them through the button holes and put them on the topiary.  Each flower can be different, so have fun with this part and be creative.  The main point is to just make sure you fill every spot so theres no green showing in the end.  At the top, I only used the mini cupcake wrappers so I only layered it with three.

After you finish covering the entire tree its done!  See simple, easy, but makes a statement!  With the left over cupcake wrappers, we strung them on lights and just pushed them through to make little lanterns, and then of course i made cupcakes with some of them as well.  My friend Andrea made a cute garland with them for one of the parties she has done as well (http://itsthelife.typepad.com/my_weblog/holiday-stuff/).  So if you have left over cupcake wrappers, dont stress it and get creative.  If the main focal point of your table is a cupcake topiary, then try incorporating cupcake wrappers else where.  Hope you have fun making this project!

Rainbow Cake

The Rainbow cake that I made was a recipe my friend Tracy sent me from Whisk Kids.  I looked at a lot of other recipes, but she was on Martha Stewart making this exact cake, so with the on-line tutorial and her instructions this cake was a breeze to make.  Heres the recipe...


Super Epic Rainbow Cake
I'm adding a disclaimer here: THERE IS A LOT OF FROSTING/BUTTER IN THIS CAKE. I used a lot because I wanted the cake to be very striking visually. It is intentional. Put in less if you want. Also, I'm not forcing you to eat this entire cake by yourself, so - seriously - quit freaking out about the butter. 

Watch me make this cake with Ms. Stewart on The Martha Stewart Show!

Printable Recipe

White Cake (but not really)
I made things difficult on myself and altered a coconut cake recipe for this. I don't know why I didn't just make a white cake from a white cake recipe, but.... I didn't. Here's the source if you're looking to make a coconut cake. It looks divine, but my friends don't like coconut :( 
2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp
2 1/3 c (466 g) sugar
5 egg whites, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 c (375 g) flour
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 1/2 c (355 g) milk, warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple GEL food coloring. Liquid will not be vibrant enough!

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Oil and line how ever many 9” cake pans you have (I have three and I just reused them). 

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites (I cracked them all into one bowl) and add them a little at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.

Divide the batter amongst 6 bowls (I did it by weight. Weigh your mixing bowl before you begin adding ingredients and then subtract the weight of the bowl from the final measurement after the batter is completed. Divide that number by six and add that weight of batter to each bowl), and then whisk a fair amount of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Keep in mind that the color of the unbaked batter will be the color of the baked batter. Pour into the pans and bake for 15 minutes each. 

When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes. Then flip, cover, and stash them in the fridge to cool quickly. 

Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(Someday I will make a post, besides my pancakes or mint macarons, that doesn’t involve this recipe!)
I made this recipe twice today because I underestimated the amount of buttercream I would need/ I would recommend that you do the same because you would need a HUGE bowl to make this much buttercream at one time! Please click here for a step-by-step guide to making Swiss Meringue Buttercream and troubleshooting tips! 

To fill and crumb coat:
9 egg whites
1 ¾ c (350 g) sugar
4 sticks (532 g) of butter, room temp
2 tsp lemon extract

To frost:
5 egg whites
1 c (200 g) sugar
2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp
1 tsp lemon extract

Cook the egg whites and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved (test by rubbing some between your fingers. If it's completely smooth, it's done). Pour into another bowl (a stand mixer is preferable) and whip on high speed until room temp. Then, on a medium-slow speed, add the butter, waiting until each piece is completely incorporated before adding the next. After all the butter has been added, turn the mixer back to high speed and whip until it has come together, about five minutes. Add the extract, beat briefly and then use.

If the buttercream seems soupy after all of the butter is added and does not come together after whipping, refrigerate for 5 to 7 minutes and continue whipping until it becomes fluffy and workable.

Assembly
Stack the layers in your preferred order and fill and frost as you would any other cake. 

Once frosted, the cake can be left on the counter without any problems, but feel free to refrigerate it. Just be sure that the cake is at room temperature when serving or the frosting will be hard.


Good luck! The cake was delicious and so fun to make!

Art and Color Birthday

Ever since I was a little girl, I've been obsessed with my Birthday party.  My Mother used to say that the week after Christmas I typically would chime right in about what my next Birthday party theme would be.  Guess deep down inside I was born to be an Event Planner... which hopefully I'll get back into sometime soon.  The funny thing about me, is that I actually hate the party, I dont like being the focus of attention, I just like throwing them.  So for the past ten years, since I have graduated High School, I have luckily avoided parties and gone on vacation every year for my Birthday instead.

As I was thinking about this months main blog post, I thought about how I should throw myself a small party about everything I love, or mostly what I love...  So the theme became Art and Color.  Why you might ask, well ever since I was little I've been obsessed with color.  I always loved changing out my room, to different themes and colors, and changing things up.  Art on the other hand has been a passion of mine since Jr. High. It has become a focus in my life, and lead me to an Interior Design degree and study abroad's in Europe where the emphasis was Art. Now that I'm a blogger, i tend to look at other peoples blogs and was disappointed that im not the only one who wants to throw a colored party, EVERYONE is throwing one, but thats the best part about creativity, everyone comes up with different ideas.   So I put my creativity to work and came up with this...

I wanted to start with the room totally void of color, but classy.  So it started off completely black and white. The room turned out better then I had hoped.

(Most pictures taken were by Tracy, a great friend of mine who is a wonderful photographer and helped me out with all my crazy ideas for this party along with many others, me, and my little sister!)

After that, I wanted to show how COLOR can take something from soft and elegant and bring out a fun, exciting element to the party.  Creating an entirely different feel and theme to the party.

The center piece was something my Mother saw on Good Day Utah, and we just kinda took the idea and came up with this... (I'll post a how to later on in the month.)

For our "art" project, I wanted to have something interactive and fun for adults.  So I bought a black and white fabric from IKEA, went to Roberts and got some Sharpie Paint Markers, and told everyone to go to town.  We each colored our own sections while we ate and talked.  Later this month ill show the finished product with hopefully a cute boarder sewed around the edge.

The food... well let's be honest, who hasn't seen that rainbow cake around and wanted to try it out!  So yeah, the food theme took off from that Cake when Tracy sent it to my facebook.  So I went to Whisk Kids blog and made her cake.  I figured since she was on Martha Stewart and all I might as well give it a shot.  For those of you who dont know me, i'm a good cook, and a better baker.  But i NEVER bake cakes from scratch... I just add to a cake mix and make the frostings and fillings.  So this intimadted me a lot, but i'm happy to say, with the awesome instructions that Wisk Kid puts into her blog the cake turned out amazing!  The rest of the food was based off of that idea with dark chocolate mini cupcakes, layered pudding cups, rainbow jello, chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry milk shakes, and of course a few healthy threats to make us not feel so horrible about the calories we all just consumed!   (Recipies posted next week!)

The evening turned out wonderful with great company, good food, and a successful party.  Thanks for all who came and supported me!

Happy Birthday to me today!