Photograph byAlex Lau Food Styling by Maggie Ruggiero Prop Styling by Heather Greene

Over the Rainbow Cake

Desserts from Issue 13 - Summer 2018 – The Getaway issue

Few films have managed to reach a similar pinnacle of movie magic as when Dorothy opens the door of her Kansas farmhouse after the tornado’s end and gingerly steps into a world of infinite Technicolor. Our cake, a spin on the Italian rainbow cookie, reflects the enduring marvel of that shift: a stormy swirl of greyscale on the outside, a spectrum of color inside.

serves 8 to 10

CAKE

3 cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
10 oz almond paste, chilled and coarsely grated (we like Odense)
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp almond extract
6 large eggs, at room temperature
gel food colors from your chosen rainbow

FILLING

⅔ cup apricot jam
2 Tbsp coarsely grated unsweetened chocolate

FROSTING

1½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
2¾ cups confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbsp milk
¾ tsp vanilla extract
1½ Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
black gel food color

1

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter only the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans. Line with rounds of parchment then butter the parchment.
2

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. With a mixer, beat in butter until mixture looks sandy. Beat in almond paste until combined and smooth. Add milk and extract, and beat 1 minute, starting on low and increasing to medium. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well between each. Increase speed to medium- high and beat 1 minute longer. Divide batter between 3 bowls and color as desired. Transfer to pans.
3

Bake until cakes are just beginning to pull away from the sides and a tester comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Run a knife along the insides of the pans and cool the layers on racks 15 minutes then invert. Discard parchment. Cool cakes completely.
4

Stir together jam and grated chocolate. Assemble cake, spreading jam between layers. Chill at least 30minutes.
5

Make the frosting: Beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add sugar, milk, vanilla, and a pinch of salt and beat 3 minutes, starting on low speed and increasing to high. Transfer ¾ cup of frosting into a bowl, and whisk cocoa powder and some black food color into it. Mix a third bowl of frosting with a little of the black and some of the white.
6

Make the gray icing: Spread a thin layer of white all over cake to seal crumbs and chill completely. Spread cake with frostings blending blacks and whites and grays for a stormy effect. Chill. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.