Vegan Birthday Cake

I must admit, this cake doesn't even exist anymore. It was made and eaten last weekend, but I'm just now getting to the post! Laziness, I know.



This sloppily frosted, slightly off kilter cake has a very bright surprise inside of it. You see, I made this for my boyfriend's birthday, and he requested a rainbow cake. And while there's rainbow sprinkles on top, the real rainbow feature is hidden until you cut the first slice. Take a look:



Yeah! Legit six-layer rainbow cake! Unfortunately, the weight of the layers ended up squishing down the bottom layers, and each day it sat on the cake stand, the purple, blue, and green layers would get a little flatter. Still delicious though! I flavored some of the layers with fruit zest to match their colors (such as lemon zest for the yellow, lime zest for the green, etc.) but some of the layers just had a vanilla flavor. And while I'm usually against using food dyes, I made an exception this time.



Just look at how happy he is!

And this cake is not just for a grown man's birthday cake! It would also be great for a kids' party or an LGBTQ event! Recipe below.

Ingredients:

For each layer of cake:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegan butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp plus 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or any other extract)
1/2 cup almond milk

various zests and/or flavorings
various dyes

For the frosting:
3 sticks vegan butter
2 pounds confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp almond milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Sift dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

In a medium sized bowl, mix sugar and butter until smooth. Add apple cider vinegar and vanilla. Stir until smooth.

Add flour mixture and almond milk, and stir until combined. Add any zests/flavorings/dyes. Pour into a well greased 8-inch cake pan and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in the cake pan for about 15 minutes. Then flip over and let the cake fall out of the pan onto a cooling rack. If this doesn't happen easily, smack the bottom of the pan while it's upside down with the heel of your hand a few times. If the cake still doesn't come out, return it to its upright position and let it cool a little longer. Chances are it just needs to solidify a little more before it will come out.

Repeat all of these steps until you get the right number of layers for your desired cake.

To make the frosting, beat together butter, almond milk and powdered sugar until it takes on a frosting-like consistency.

Once all the layers of cake have cooled, place the first one onto a cake stand or serving platter. Frost the top of this layer, then stack another cake layer on top. Continue frosting and stacking until all your layers are assembled. Then frost the sides of the cake, adorn with sprinkles, and then enjoy!