CAKETOPIA!

I doubt it will be any surprise to you, our dear readers, to hear that I, Sarah Elizabeth, have...


a cake problem.



This is in small problem. We're not talking "Oh, I like a bit of cake on my birthday!" We're talking "HolycrapImakelikeacakeaweeksothatIcanhavecakeeverydayandsometimesmorethanonceaday."



Yeah. That bad.



I know it's a foolish endeavor to try and cure myself of this cake fever, and so I've been challenging myself to only make *friggin awesome cakes*. I feel like I've done pretty well so far. I usually make them from scratch (angel food with buttercream and raspberries for a friend's birthday), but sometimes I cheat (boxed cake with rainbow chip icing/chocolate for my own birthday!) However, Pinterest has really upped the ante, showing me pictures of AMAZING things to do with cakes.


Including this baby:





It's rainbow. Cake. In a jar.

Holy crap.


And so I must have it.




Five bowls of batter later, and I was on a roll.

The directions call for "neon" food coloring, but while I was shopping I saw that said food coloring was $4, almost as much as the 12 pack of reusable glass jars, and I gave a big "Oh no you di'int" in the middle of the grocery store. Also, the colors weren't that "neon", just ugly. Anyway!



Mine were messy, but looked like delightful rainbow pudding at this point (and were just as tasty.) I'm sure some of you are having *slight* concerns about my methods here... foreshadowing!

I popped these babies in the oven and took a peek a little while after to see if they needed to be turned (our oven bakes SUPER unevenly.) And I saw this:



You many think "Oh, lovely, puffy rainbow cakes!"

But at this point I was thinking "OH HOLY CRAP I FORGOT THAT CAKE RISES." You know how when you make cupcakes, you only fill them 1/2- 3/4 full? Well, the same rule holds for cakes made in jars...



Cake failure, in all the colors of the rainbow.

Now, I'm not going to lie, as much as I was disappointed in my cake failure, I was really looking forward to EATING ALL THOSE CAKE SCRAPS. After a bit of surgery (scraping the sides, and scooping out a little off the top), they were ready for icing!

Lesson:

Fill 1/2 full. Yes, you may want to see all the colors before they're baked, and you may think the purple layer isn't thick enough now, but just wait. Really.

I look forward to RAINBOW CAKES EPISODE 2, coming soon to a kitchen near you. Tonight however, is homemade chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting, for a double-birthday!!