Pot of Gold

Lil sis turns 27 today!  She recently moved back to Virginia after a few years far, far away (actually, it was only to New York, but it felt very far away).  What does big sis do when she's excited to have lil sis nearby for her first birthday in a while?  Bake her a cake, naturally!

If you know Jenna, you know she is into colorful, glittery things.  Seeing as I didn't have the time/patience to create edible glitter (sorry, Jen), I did whip up this AWESOME rainbow cake!!  As it turns out, rainbow cake inspiration is everywhere!

tie-dye cake

Cool Whip & pudding icing

I'm so excited by how great this cake turned out.  I used 2 boxes of White Cake mix and followed the instructions on the back of the box.  Then, I split the batter into 7 bowls and had a party with the food coloring - a different color in each bowl.  Next, portion 1/2 of each bowl into each cake pan (I went down the line in the first pan and then filled the 2nd pan in reverse order).  Bake for about an hour (according to the cake mix box) - I kept sending up little prayers that the cakes would stop growing, lest the inside of my oven look like a Lucky Charms nuclear meltdown.  Allow the cakes to cool and then put one cake on top of the other, sandwiching mini chocolate chips and Cool Whip/vanilla pudding icing (I can never resist sneaking a little chocolate inside baked goods).  The pudding icing was low-cal and delicious, but next time I'll use more than 1 container of Cool Whip.  I encountered issues when I tried to go back and even out icing after it had been on the cake for a minute or two...the pudding started to...well...become pudding.  Stubborn icing didn't want to spread and as a result, we have pretty multi-colored sprinkles adorning the gaps on the top.

Sure, Jenna's birthday means the day is all about her, but can I please get a "What What?!" for this incredible cake??

All that's missing is a scoop (or 2) of ice cream!