St. Pattys Day Cake

I woke up this morning with a to-do list a mile long.

Baking a St. Pattys Day Cake was NOT on my list.

Yet here I am, sharing anyway.

I think I need a baking intervention.

I can just see it!  My family and freinds will assemble in my kitchen... "Amanda, step away from the baking soda.  Good girl.  Drop that room temperature butter!  No, you do not need to blend it until its fluffy... No, no, just step back from the sifter... close the recipe book...good, good... we're making progress."

Anywho.

I had grand designs of green fondant shamrocks all over this little cake.  That seemed like a lot of work.  So I just used a little royal icing and make a shape somewhat resembling a shamrock.

 

Not bad for seven minutes of hard icing labor.

But here is the fun part!!  I have been wanting to do this graduating color scheme for a while now... and finally made it happen today!

I like it but I would do it differently next time... start out with less coloring on the first layer, maybe even start with white?  And definitely do a less...uh... green color.  Something about green cake just doesnt inspire hunger in me!

So its back to the drawing board for me... are you making anything fun for St. Patty's Day?

***************

Before anyone says, how did you do that?  Here is a QUICK run down.

I separated my batter into 7 bowls (1/2 cup per bowl)

Then added one drop food coloring to the first bowl, two to the second, three to the third, and so on.

(in the future I would start out with MUCH less coloring)

Had the kids help me mix the colors, then baked each bowl separate in a 6 inch. round pan. (yes, I know there are more then seven drops in the last bowl, I was not being very precise)

Took them out of the oven, cooled, then stacked from darkest to lightest and then covered in frosting.

Next time, I will do it a bit different and might even do a decent tutorial. :)

Comments

[Renee]

My Kelsey & Jilly would LOVE that cake, green is their favorite color :) Its very pretty Amanda, excellent job as always :)

[Tyler]

WOW!! Thats all I can say!! You are amazing girl... I wish I was your kiddo and got to be the taster of all your baking expieraments ;) Have a wonderful night!

[Sherilee]

Oh my! Green is my favorite color and I've been thinking of doing a cake like this ever since I did a rainbow cake for my son's birthday last year. I'm not really a St. Patrick's Day celebrant, but maybe just a green cake welcoming spring?! Thanks for the post!

[DeAnn]

I really think you are so creative and talented. I have high hopes to make the rainbow cake for my daughter's birthday in May. But I'm curious, is the flavor or density of the cake changed in the layers that are so dark? This is not an accusation, I really have no idea if it would be. Thanks!

[Jennifer]

Very pretty! I love how you incorporate "decorating" into every part of the cake! :)

[Kate]

Oh I really like this! Love the shamrocks!

I'm Irish, so naturally I'd love this cake! Erin go bragh!

[Lisa]

Yes! This is very cool. I feel Irish just looking at it. Beautiful work, as always, Amanda.

Lisa

[Joy Ellis]

Green is my favorite color, so I love it!! That is so cool!

[Liz]

Oh my word! Who knew there were so many shade of green possibilities for cake!!

[Alissa]

I'm with you, the dark green layers aren't hugely appetizing...but in shades of pink and red, this cake would be divine!!! Or even shades of white through yellow, like a daffodil to welcome spring!

[LisaC]

I remember when I was 8 or 9 my mother made homemade bread for St. Patrick's day that was green. I thought it was so cool...until she packed it in my lunch and all the kids thought it was weird. Now it reminds me of green eggs and ham lol.

I have a hard time turning down cake though heehee.

[Amy]

Wow, very cute!!! I like the green, but I do see what you mean about the bottom layer being dark and VERY green :-) A rainbow cake would work out well with the St. Patrick's Day theme too - maybe with a pot of gold on top?? LOL, I don't know!

I LOL at the baking intervention - especially "drop that room temperature butter!" At 9:30 PM with 3 dozen cookies cooling and needing to be decorated before I go to bed, I could use an intervention too!

[faithy]

This is very interesting! I love seeing the different shades of green! Love it!

[AngieN24]

I love green and I love your cake. I'm trying to decide what to do for a cake and how to play around with decorating for St. Patty's day. I like your shamrocks! I also like Amy's idea of the rainbow cake and the pot of gold, very cute!

[Grapefruit]

It's really pretty.
But if you don't like the darker green - start with the shade that is 4th from the bottom and then fade into paler shades as you go up. Ending with white even!

[Brittanie]

I think my family is planning an intervention too. 7 dozen Snickerdoodles for no particlar reason really woke them up today! I love your baking project so much more than my cookies though! I was so surprised to see the inside layers. It the perfect idea for my green-loving Dad's birthday in a week! As always, you're a wonderful inspiration!

[Lara Schneider]

amazing!

[Londa]

You are too creative! The food coloring companies should pay you for your ingenious use of their product! Beautiful cake!!!

[Ann]

That is slick!!! I've done a rainbow cake and thought about a red/white/blue cake for fourth of July, but I LOVE the graduated cake! Too cool! Think about a red to pink one for Valentine's! How fun would that be?

[Julie]

LOVE it! It looks much bigger than 6" in the pic....and GREAT to know it only takes 1/2 cup to make a 6" layer, lol. You've inspired a rainbow of ideas ;)

[Alicia]

Wow! How do you get all these wonderful ideas??

The cake looks so yummy!

[Lauren]

So cute! Love the shades of green!

[Liz@HoosierHomemade]

Wow! That is awesome! I stumbled your post for you :)
~Liz

[bridget {bake at 350}]

*sigh*

[Paula]

More than the Irish Eyes are smiling at this :) Who cares if nothing gets scratched off your "to do" list...let's eat cake!

[Barb]

VERY IMPRESSIVE, Amanda. Do me a favor and email me what stumbled your post means, and the other things that go with that. MY asking the question ought to tell you how far behind I am on this journal stuff. I barely started posting again, haven't had a lot of time to learn new things.
Thanks for checking out my Spiritual journal, honey. My other
one is http://barb-letschat.blogspot.com

[Amanda Rettke]

Stumble Upon is a site that can drive more traffic to your blog. If you look at the very end of my posts, there is a little sideways V that says, Share This You just click that and then click on Stumble Upon to add my blog (or whomever you are stumbling) to their lineup. :)

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1383896427]

Love the cake Manda! But, ok...am I the ONLY one a little disappointed to not see a shamrock inside of that thing?!? I thoguht for sure....

;-)

[Anne]

Love it!! I wish I had the energy to be that creative with my desserts :)

[MommyTopics.com]

I think you might have layered-cake-itis. I hope it's contagious... it's just lovely. I'm worried however that my lack of counter space and lack of patience are the perfect vaccine against it. sigh.

[Michelle Andrews]

You continue to amaze and inspire me. Every time I come to your blog to visit I say, "I HAVE to make that!" I can't keep up!!! This is a great idea (for any color), and I cannot wait to try it. Thank you again.

[Amalia Standard]

I can not stop laughing about your need for baking intervention.... I had to read your post to my husband.....he often tells me I have a baking addiction.....literally.....I sometimes have so many things to do....and I just feel like I HAVE to bake instead.....it's a feel good thing!!!! Can't.Stop.Baking! HA! I LOVE the cake...amazing!

[Tricia]

I *love* it!! I would eat this green cake anyday! (:

If you don't want to do such dark colors, maybe go with a medium shade and white and alternate white, green, white, green?
I love it the way it is, though, personally!
~Tricia

[Gini]

I love this. It never occured to me to do something like this. I do like the color green. I would skip the really dark green ones. White with a teeny tiny green would be good. Just keep the greens light and airy looking. But otherwise the cake looks amazing and I know everybody would enjoy it.

[Sue]

I LOVE your cake! Gorgeous!!! I made a green checkerboard cake, but should have made a deeper green!

[Michelle]

Girl, this is gonna be the life of my potluck next week! Now if I could only figure out how to draw a shamrock, all would be good! I may have to make 2 cakes though. One for home and one for work.

[Alicia]

This is really a cute cake.

[Stephanie]

Wow that is a lot of green! I really like the idea of graduated colors. I would probably start with white or just barely colored (maybe take a tablespoon or 2 of colored batter and mix with uncolored batter?).

I just made a s'mores pie using Guiness, although that was just a coincidence. Maybe I'll make something green this weekend...

[Lisa]

Love your newest creations!! I can't believe this cake is only six inches. I have a question for ya though. You know how when you bake a cake it gets a little dome on it that you have to level? Does that happen when you bake such a small cake? I would think if it did, after you leveled it, it would be almost gone. I can't believe how sharp the top edges of your cake always are. Impressive. Would love to know your secrets. I have one of those handy cake levelers that you posted a while back.

[Gala]

Maybe green isn't the most appetizing but it definitely looks great! The options of colors are just endless, maybe pink? Or even purple into red...or orange into yellow! Oh I'm getting all excited about this!

[Alexandra Zeevy]

Wow, this cake just looks fantastic! I did make a rainbown cake sometime ago, but this is just a whole other level. Beautiful!

[Diane {createdbydiane.blogspot.com}]

Love it!
Thank all I have to say.

[grace]

oh amanda--i love the gradual color change! you're so clever, but what's more, you can actually execute these ingenious ideas and seem to do so perfectly! you're a rock star, the end. :)

[mindy]

I LOVE IT!! What a fun thing to do.. I am plotting sugar cookies (again) because they didn't last long enough and I didn't get as many as I think I should have. :)

[shelly (cookies and cups)]

I love this! That is one tall cake!

[golom]

kdnmfp'kawent

[C Dresden]

Very inspirational. I agree it might have been more impressive had you started lighter, almost white at the top. Also, you could finish with black, probably by mixing some red in with lots of green.

Next time, I'd also suggest trimming the mound off the top of each layer, so everything is equal and flat. It's okay if the layers are all really thin, like a German torte.

[Andrew]

Obvious solution: mint+white chocolate. As you go up in layers, change the ratio of mint and chocolate. All mint at the bottom, all white chocolate at the top.

...mint is green, right? I was thinking Andes mints when I wrote tihs.

[kelly]

Lovely! Now I just need 6 more 6" cake pans. ;)

[Amys blah, blah, blogging]

Cute! I think white at the very top would be a fun idea. I like the idea of graduating colors, very fun!