Rainbow cake in a can

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The day is almost here. My baby is turning ONE! I can’t believe how quickly his babyhood has gone. I feel like he barely had a babyhood! (is that even a real word?) He started crawling at 5 months, and took his first steps a few days before turning 8 months. He’s now a little monster who gangs up with Emma and terrorizes the house. He knows 10-15 words, and about 10 signs. He’s too smart and able for his age! How did time go so quickly? It seems like just yesterday that I was holding a colicky newborn trying to figure out why on earth he was so pissed off.

I decided to do a little cake smash with Charlie this past week. He loved it! He wasn’t a big fan of the cake, but he gobbled up the frosting.

I’ve been sitting on this idea for a cake for a while. For Emma’s 2^nd birthday I made this rainbow cake. Not long after that I discovered Pinterest and saw the idea for making cakes in tin cans. It didn’t take long to put two and two together! It was much simpler than the original rainbow cake that I made. Since you’re doing each layer a different color, that means you need to bake each one separate. That can get kind of time consuming when you only have 2 cake pans, and 6 layers to bake. This cut down on a lot of that time since you can easily grab 6 different cans.

To start, prepare your cake mix. I used half of a white box mix, since I was only making 1 mini cake. (After baking I cut each layer horizontally, so really I could have gotten 2 mini cakes from it). It really depends on how large the cans are and how many layers and colors you’re making as to how far you can make your batter stretch. I divided mine into 7 bowls, because I was planning on doing 7 colors. I ended up tossing out the pink because the dye I used was much darker than I realized, and I ended up with something that looked too similar to the red.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Divide the batter into as many bowls as you’ll need. I used 7, since I was making 7 colors.

Prepare your tin cans. Make sure you wash them well! I rinsed mine (bean and tomato cans) and I could still taste the tomatoey-ness in the cake. So it might be a good idea to wash it with soap, even if it looks clean. Peel off the paper wrapper.

For my cans, I stuck the lid in the bottom. I figured this would make the bottom removable, which would give me a better chance at getting the darned cake out (similar to how a cheesecake pan works, but with two bottoms). It worked like a charm! Don’t forget to spray the heck out of the can, too. I gave mine a good dousing with Pam.

Color each bowl of batter the colors you want. I chose to do 7 layers for the rainbow, but you could easily do whatever colors you want to match your party. Be CREATIVE!

Pour the batter in each can, place them on a cookie sheet, and stick it in your preheated oven.

The baking time is going to depend on a lot of things. How large of a can you used, how much batter is in it, and each individual oven bakes differently. So keep a close eye on it! I set my timer for 10 minutes to begin with, and checked it every 5-7 minutes after that. I think it took about 25 minutes to make through. Test it by sticking a tooth pick or clean knife into the center. If it comes out clean, it’s done.

Immediately after the cakes came out of the oven, I flipped mine and let gravity do it’s work. A few of them fell on their own; the others needed a little tap. Let the cake layers cool, and then slice them or use them accordingly.

To stack my layers, I ended up needing to use tooth picks. The cake wanted to wobble all over the place! I made sure to keep a close eye on Charlie as he dove into the cake, I didn’t want him hurting himself on one. Keep that in mind if you end up stacking yours tall and using tooth picks to keep it in place. You don’t want your unsuspecting guests getting stabbed!

So this was my first time baking a cake in a tin can. I love the way it worked out, and I love how diverse you can make the cake. I think next time I might go a little thinner on the layers, and maybe use tuna cans (and WASH them really well!). I have visions of a pink cake for Emma’s birthday. A different shade of pink for each layer.

Tags: baby, birthday, cake, cake smash, rainbow, Rainbow cake