Sprinkles Cake

I made this cake for my nephew's birthday since I have been obsessed with tinting lately and figured a cake laden with sprinkles was sure to be a hit.

I used my basic vanilla-bean white cake recipe and tinted six layers the various colors of the rainbow (bottom - up) red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

Frosted this using my vanilla-bean buttercream.  This used over half a 9.5 c. tub, which is what I store the frosting in IN my freezer for simplicity purposes.  Then whenever I am inspired to make a cake, I just pull a tub out the evening before or morning of.

The tricky part with this cake is encrusting it with the Sprinkles.  I used two 7.5 oz.jars Wilton Sprinkles.  Two, because it simply makes it go faster - you will technically still have one when you are done.  So the next time, you just need to go out and buy one jar.

I placed the very chilled cake into an upside down cake carrier and began by pouring the sprinkles over the top to get the top covered.  Then to do the sides, I held my hand very close the cake and poured sprinkled into the crevice and lightly tapped them into the frosting - moving down the side of the cake.  Once the two jars had been emptied, I removed the cake and poured the excess back into the jar and repeated until I had the entire circumference of the cake done.

Lastly, I am fortunate enough to have six 9" round cake pans - you can easily bake these in two's as I imagine most people have two 9" cakes pans in their home.  When the cakes have cooled, re-prep your cake pan, add two more colored batters and bake them off.



CAKE RECIPE
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
2 cup cake flour
food colors desired (see note above)


Prepare 6, 8" round cake pans by spraying them with Bak-klene or butter/flour - preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together - then add eggs one a time until incorporated, followed by the buttermilk.  Add baking powder, soda, salt and vanilla bean paste - stirring to combine.  Add cake flour and mix until batter begins to look creamy.

Divide batter evenly into six bowls.  To each bowl add a tablespoon of each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet) stirring with a fork to mix well.  Scrape into one of the prepared pans - set aside.  In the second bowl, add a larger amount of soft pink color so your next batch is more vibrant, stirring with a fork to incorporate.  Scrape into one of the prepared pans - set aside.  In the third bowl add a tiny amount of the Electric Pink color, adding more if necessary - so it is a level darker than the last, stirring with a fork to combine well.  Scrape into one of the prepared pans - set aside.

Place prepared pans into preheated oven and bake for 18 - 20 minutes, until tester comes out clean.  You may need to move pans around if your oven has hot spots.  Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then invert cakes out onto rack to cool completely.  Wrap with plastic wrap and place into refrigerator to chill fully.  Remove from refrigerator when you are ready to ice layers together and frost the outside.  Chill the frosted cake again before encrusting with sprinkles (see note above for technique).

Here is the finished cake!