Looking back I can see that the photos are certainly better now, the recipes are more improvised and Scotty's design of the Chew Town logo and matching photo tabs have made a huge difference to the overall look at feel. There are a few things I'd like to add to the blog to refine it - but with a hectic work life, the blog is going to have to be content with a once or twice a week post schedule.

To celebrate my bloggy milestone, I wanted to make something special... and while looking for inspiration I realised that this past year I have never made a cake for the blog. Sure, I have made a few flavours of tasty cupcakes but never a cake. So today I made sure I rectified my cake oversight with the most celebratory and fun cake I could think of... a Rainbow Cake!

Using a tried and tested buttercake recipe, I made a double batch and divided it into five equal portions where I then added different colours and baked them individually in a single springform pan (I only had one so it meant five separate bakes). The individual layers turned out brilliantly moist and springy and put together with a tasty fluffy meringue frosting topped with 100s and 1000s it was a hit!

Scotty and I could only manage a piece each so I'll definitely be sharing this around at work tomorrow.

RAINBOW CAKE WITH FLUFFY MERINGUE FROSTING   
 
Ingredients:
CAKES
250g butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup buttermilk
Blue, green, yellow, orange and red food colourings

FROSTING
8 eggwhites
4 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100s and 1000s to decorate

CAKE - Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in flour and milk until combined. Divide mixture into 5 equal portions and colour each portion with food colouring as follows - blue, green, yellow, orange, red. Using a few 20cm springform pans (or one pan 5 times) bake each portion separately for 15 minutes until cake portion is light and springy.

FROSTING - Place eggwhites, vanilla, sugar and 1/4 cup cold water in a large heatproof bowl. Which to combine. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Using an electric hand mixer, beat eggwhite mixture for 15 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Remove bowl from heat. Beat until cooled.

To assemble the cake, place the blue cake on the plate and spread with 1/2 cup frosting. Top with the green cake and repeat with remaining frosting and yellow, orange and red cakes using 1/2 cup frosting for each layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and side of cake. Sprinkle with 100s and 1000s and serve.