Rainbow Cake and Cake Balls

I saw this cake idea on a friend's blog and was cocky enough to think I could make it without glancing at the directions. Boy, am I glad I didn't try that! The original recipe comes from MckMama. Mine didn't exactly end up looking like hers. Oh well! It was still yummy.

I loved the cake idea and decided to save the recipe for a future birthday of one of my children. Justin said I should make it for Michelle's birthday and I simply couldn't resist the challenge. Not sure if it's correctly themed for an adult woman but I thought Michelle might like it anyways. So, I began. Excited?

Be warned: this recipe is not for the faint hearted.

Ingredients

• 2 boxes white cake mix
• 1 box food coloring
• 4 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 TB vanilla
• 5-6 cups powdered sugar

Mix up one box of cake mix and divide it into three equal portions. It comes out to a little over 1 cup of batter in each bowl. Dye each one of the first three colors (purple, blue and green). Bake in greased and FLOURED round cake pans for about 16 minutes each. Repeat for remaining three colors (yellow, orange, red).

Meanwhile, make the frosting by mixing cream cheese and butter; add vanilla. Add sugar to taste.

After the cakes are completely cooled, remove from pans, level the tops with a large bread knife, and assemble cake starting with purple, then blue, green, yellow, orange and finally red, spreading 1/2 - 1 cup of frosting on top of each. It is recommended to freeze the cake after every two layers, because it is easier to work with when it is stiff, not wobbly.

At this point, I would freeze it again and then frost it with the rest of the frosting.

If you have left over frosting, dye it any color you want, put it in a zip lock bag, cut the tip off of the bag, and decorate!

Cake Balls

(original recipe from Bakerella)

Ingredients

• 1 cake mix (I used the scraps from the cake above)
• 1 can of cream cheese frosting (I made my own from an 8oz package of cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter and 1.5 cups powdered sugar)
• melting chocolate (I bought 9oz mini dove bars and it was sufficient)

If you did this with a regular recipe, you'd make the cake according to package directions, then crumble in a large bowl. Since I used my scraps, I used several small bowls.

With a spoon or your fingers, mix crumbled cake with cream cheese frosting.

Roll into balls and freeze or refrigerate for several hours.

Melt chocolate, dip and roll each ball in chocolate with a spoon. Place on wax paper to dry/harden. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Walah!