Rainbow Layer Birthday Cake

I have been a little busy the last couple of weeks planning for my son's 2nd birthday party. We held it this past weekend at a local kindergarten. The theme was The Wiggles- basically bright colours, and an excuse for my little one to get dressed up. I didn't want anything to hard or fussy, so decided to go for a simple but effective layer cake in the Wiggles colours. 

The cake itself is a very simple cake, adapted from this Martha Stewart recipe. Essentially you make one cake batter, divide in four or more equal portions and then add your food colouring to make the different coloured layers. We used gel colours as they give a brighter end result. I have to give all credit to my very talented sister as she found the recipe and made the whole thing. I helped mix the colours! 

Cakes out of the oven, ready to be layered and iced. The cakes are a bit darker once they are baked.

I don't really know that much about icing cakes, but I do know that when you are trying to get a smooth finish, you need to do a crumb-layer. This basically just roughly covers the whole cake before you add your decorative icing layer. 

The icing we used is just a plain buttercream icing. Very easy to make an sticks well to this type of cake. It has a nice slight sheen to it as well for a bit of interest. I kind of like the more rustic effect, rather than perfectly perfect!

The top of the cake has a swirled effect. All ready and iced and ready for candles and party time!

My little guy dressed up as Captain Feathersword from The Wiggles. That fluffy thing that looks like a feather duster is actually the Feathersword! This whole outfit (minus the sword which I bought from trade me) can be bought from the Wiggles online shop here. It's a super cute onesie which I'm hoping to use again before he grows out of it!

Originally I'd planned to use edible icing to sit on top of the cake, but I found these candles in our local supermarket and I thought they would look cute and colourful so went for these instead. 

I picked up a whole cupcake set from a store called "Pete's Emporium" for $8. I can't really explain what kind of store this is. It's part party supplies, part craft and haberdashery and part junk! Chances are, if you are looking for something (literally anything) you will find it there!

Someone loved the cupcakes so much that they ate the icing off of one of each of the different colours! And ate nothing else!

And here is the gorgeous cake cut open! I was a little nervous that maybe it wouldn't turn out okay! But look at the beautiful colours! And so bright! Great success!

Left over birthday cake is so delicious!