After a bit of a gap where I’ve had a bit of a kitchen, no kitchen at all (washing my dishes in a bucket in the garden – not recommended!) I’m now happy to say that I finally have some proper counters and not just a hob propped up on a few strips of plywood. It’s not finished, but it’s still glorious.

We were due to have assorted parties this year, but both Covid and building delays have stood firmly in the way so far. Not to be defeated, I took it as a sign from the universe when Boy Wonder’s birthday fell on Cake Week – even if we had to steal my MIL’s kitchen to host the actual party for him.

I vaguely planned in advance for this one, and my freebie month of amazon prime came at just the right time for me to order these delightfully cheaty Wilton “easy layers” cake tins. Only got a slight eyeroll from himself as more baking paraphernalia arrived into the house. Gold star there.

I will say I was slightly terrified that I’d made an awful mistake in ordering the 6 inch pans, but they worked perfectly. The 8 inch ones would have been absolutely massive, which is fine if you’re baking for a huge party, but not so much when it’s afternoon tea for toddlers. The cake easily made 14 generous servings, by the time it was iced and decorated.

The awesome Kim-Joy released her first book last year, Baking with Kim-Joy, and I got a copy for Christmas. I’ve been leafing through it in a sort of “this is awesome but I’m a bit intimidated” way for a while, so it was time to break it out. Should have done that months ago. Her style of writing is easy and friendly and so reassuring that I’m already thinking about which recipe is next!

As Boy Wonder had requested a rainbow cake with great enthusiasm (and again, and again, and again) I broke out the food colouring and about a kilo of butter.

The every colour cake recipe worked really well, and I used a teeny scone cutter to take out the centre sections. I wanted this to be a bit of an illusion. Slightly yummy mummy ombre on the outside, crazy party in the middle.

Despite baking for years, most of my cakes are either naked or very rustic in their icing. This was my first proper crumbcoat, and ombre, and smooth finish, and ganache drip, and hidden centre. Go big or go home, right?

Ta dah!

I ended up making the entire thing the night before, once he’d gone to bed. I didn’t take photos as I went as it was 11pm by the time I finished and my back was bloomin’ killing me.

The big reveal!

Most of the time these hidden centre cakes are filled with 20 packs of sprinkles which looks cool, but would result in a room of adults politely scraping sprinkles off their cake and leaving them on their plates. Dolly mix was, in hindsight, the wrong choice, as it didn’t tumble out like I wanted. Too grippy. Next time I make this, I’ll use mini smarties for the filling. Perfect size and the shiny surface will help them spill out.

The cake itself was delicious and very rich due to that almost-kilo of butter. My malteasers also melted a bit in the car on the way over, so don’t look as pretty as they might have.

To go along with this there were rice krispie buns, sausage rolls and other treats, but the savouries mostly got scoffed before I got my camera out. Good complaint, I guess!