This  is the birthday cake I made for my daughter on the occasion of her 4th birthday. I made the mistake of taking her onto Pinterest with me, to get some ideas for what I thought would be a butterfly-shaped cake with rainbow-coloured icing. We obviously got a little more elaborate than that. This is the post that inspired us: http://blog.hwtm.com/2013/02/playful-rainbow-butterfly-princess-party/

Yes, she convinced me that rainbow layers were the way to go. It wasn’t hard, I was up for the challenge. And heck, it was a long weekend. TONS of time, right? My birthday helper was keen to scoop out and level all our dry ingredients, stir in the colour, and of course lick the bowls (all 6), which made cleanup a snap. I opted for 6 layers instead of 8 – with only 2 cake pans of any given size it would’ve been a bit ridiculous otherwise. You might want to bookmark this page for ideas when my birthday comes around… But back to the cake.

I chose an 8″ cake pan so our layers would be a little thicker, and I’d have enough real estate to level them off. We also tried to go as easy on the colour as the squeeze bottles would allow. Here’s the crumb coat: Next came the polkadots. I picked up some candy dots from Michaels in rainbow colours that happened to match our layers. Lucky! Saved me from messing with 6 colours of icing or melting chocolate. Plus this way, little hands could help. Next came a bit of free styling – a bead border along the base, and a few drop flowers, to attract the butterflies, of course! I used an Italian buttercream, so the texture was nice and smooth. The cake turned out fairly sweet, so it was a good balance, too.

And finally, the butterflies. I piped the borders of each wing with dark chocolate, then filled them in with coloured melting candies, blending with the swirl of a toothpick here and there. Once they were dry, I piped the body, and assembled them by propping one wing up with the attachment pieces of a fancy fondant cutting roller I own but will probably never use for its intended purpose. But now I have used it, so totally not a waste of money, right? Tell my husband, would you?

The butterflies were probably the biggest hit. Thankfully I made one more than there were guests. The chef deserves a little extra reward, no?

I’m somewhat fearful of the expectations I’ve set here for subsequent birthdays, but at the rate my birthday girl is going, she’ll be insisting on making her own cakes before long. Enjoy it while it lasts, right?

This is the photo I’ll cherish the most, though: a very happy little person who was so pleased with both the cake, and her contributions to the process of making it, that she insisted on wearing her rainbow dress in celebration. Happy birthday my not-so-little one!