A cheerful piece of pastry art is the Rainbow Cake. It came to us from the United States, and is a rainbow-colored layers of chiffon biscuit, bonded together with cream of cream cheese. Beautiful, juicy, but fat and heavy enough for the stomach.
And the abundance of artificial dyes is alarming, since the appearance suggests that sweetness is most popular among children. How to lighten this dish without losing its effect?
Subject of conversation
This dessert attracted keen interest in itself a couple of years ago, when the Rainbow cake began to appear everywhere on the Internet. The recipe, the photo followed, was striking in its appearance. It was as if he had left the table of the Mad Hatter from the fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland." Based on the components and the overall design, it can be concluded that the Rainbow Cake was born thanks to American pastry chefs, as they are famous for their love of chiffon biscuits in combination with cheese cream. And all this to the accompaniment of food colors (it is worth recalling the legendary cake "Red Velvet").
Options
In the classic version, Rainbow Cake consists of seven cake layers, painted in all colors of the rainbow and assembled in the corresponding sequence. The whole structure is fastened with a rich cream based on cream cheese, powdered sugar and butter.
In the presence of food coloring and healthy human laziness, the Rainbow abstract cake appeared.
It is a whole biscuit, which is collected from 7 parts of colored dough according to the principle of the well-known
cake "Zebra". The finished biscuit is cut into the desired number of layers, and already in this form is layered with cream.
If you have time and imagination, you can arrange the layers of biscuit in the form of a cone or in a checkerboard pattern.
Basic recipe
In order to indicate the field of activity, you must specify the basic recipe by which you can bake a cake "Rainbow":
- egg whites - 6 pcs.;
- egg yolks - 3 pcs.;
- sugar - 120 grams;
- sugar in proteins - 40 grams;
- salt - a pinch;
- refined vegetable oil - 100 ml;
- flour - 200 grams;
- baking powder - 2 tsp;
- milk (warm) - 135 ml;
- vanillin - a pinch;
- curd cheese - 700 grams;
- icing sugar - 250 grams;
- butter - 230 grams;
- vanillin - a pinch.
All products must be at room temperature.
Sift flour three times with baking powder. Add sugar (120 grams) and salt. In a separate bowl, mix all liquid ingredients except egg whites. Beat until foam. Combine the flour mass with the egg, mix thoroughly. Beat egg whites with the remaining sugar until solid peaks. Thanks to this, the Rainbow cake will gain additional airiness. Next, a quarter of the whipped proteins should be mixed into the dough until smooth. After that add the remaining proteins.
Divide the dough into 7 parts, carefully mix in each dye corresponding to a certain color of the rainbow. Pour colored dough into individual molds with a diameter of ~ 24 cm.
Bake at 180 degrees until cooked, which can be checked with a toothpick.
For the cream, put the curd cheese, vanillin, icing sugar and butter in a bowl. Beat for 5 minutes until smooth and airy.
Collecting the Rainbow cake, the recipe of which we have provided, is simple - layered cream cakes, laying them out in accordance with the sequence of colors in the rainbow. Leave the sides open.
Where did the paint come from?
Of course, the cake is beautiful, but a considerable amount of food coloring in combination with a heavy cream is alarming, especially if it is intended for a children's holiday. How to please the kids without harming their health? Of course, you could use dyes of natural origin, but they are inherent to fade or even change color during heat treatment, which cannot be avoided when baking cakes. Nevertheless, a solution was found, and now you can please your family and friends by making a Rainbow cake with natural colors. The recipe is more complicated than the classic one, so the manufacture should be divided into two stages.
Rainbow layers
For their preparation, you will need two lists of products, of which cakes and color impregnation for them will be compiled separately.
Korzhi:
- flour - 600 grams;
- baking powder - 6 teaspoons;
- sugar - 350 grams;
- salt - 1.5 teaspoons;
- eggs - 6 pcs.;
- egg whites - 2 pcs.;
- butter - 350 grams;
- blackberry juice - 75 ml;
- blueberry juice - 75 ml;
- spinach juice - 75 ml;
- carrot juice - 75 ml;
- beet juice - 75 ml;
- a mixture of 2 egg yolks and 50 ml of milk.
The products are designed for a shape with a diameter of 24-26 cm.
In a large bowl, mix butter, 150 grams of sugar, flour and salt with baking powder. Grind into crumbs.
Separately, mix eggs and proteins with 200 grams of sugar, put in a water bath and warm until sugar dissolves. The mass should become so hot that it is not possible to hold a finger in it for a long time. This measure is needed to stabilize the eggs, making the Rainbow cake airy. Remove eggs from heat and beat for 5 minutes until stable, lush mass.
Divide the butter and flour and egg masses into 6 parts. For greater accuracy, it is better to do this using a kitchen scale.
Now collect the cakes:
- mix part of the flour mixture with the juice of one kind (or milk-yolk mixture for yellow cake);
- mix thoroughly until smooth;
- add the egg part, mix gently, keeping the dough airy;
- put it in a mold and bake at a temperature of 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes until cooked.
Impregnation:
- red berry puree - 150 grams;
- mashed orange + finely grated zest - 150 grams;
- lemon puree + finely grated zest - 75 grams;
- Kiwi puree - 150 grams;
- blueberry juice + a pinch of soda - 75 grams;
- blackberry puree - 150 grams;
- water - 330 grams;
- gelatin - 25 grams.
When you see a Rainbow cake (photo or live), it is always striking in its brightness. To achieve this without harm to health, you must adhere to the recommendations below.
Add 75 grams of water to blueberry juice and lemon puree. Soak gelatin in 180 grams of liquid. As soon as it swells, heat the mass until the gelatin is completely dissolved, avoiding boiling. Chill.
Pour the gelatin mass evenly over the containers with fruit puree. The cake must be collected in the form.
Each cake should be filled with jelly and refrigerated until solidified.
But what about the cream?
The cheese mass, which holds its shape perfectly, makes the Rainbow cake very bold (recipe, see photo in the article).
How to achieve the same decorative qualities and ease the taste? The options are below:
- Swiss meringue. Whisk 8 proteins with 300 grams of sugar in a water bath until solid peaks. Thanks to the heat treatment, the proteins will not be raw and will not leak.
- Butter cream. Beat 1 liter of cream, add icing sugar to taste.
- Creamy curd cream. Replace 1/3 of the cream with soft pasty curd.