A Pretty Party for A Pretty Baby (and one for her daddy too)

We had a lovely summer around here. A couple of trips to the beach... a road trip back to New York to visit family... some nice quiet at-home time... To round out our summer, we celebrated a couple of birthdays. Mr. H's and The Bug-a-Bug's first birthday to be exact. It seems over the years, what with blogging and the rise of Pinterest, making a big to-do over the first birthday has become quite popular. Were we closer to family, or had more friends in the area, I might have bought into the over-planned, detail-orientated, themed first birthday, but thankfully, I didn't. Instead, we had a couple of friends over for a barbecue lunch, followed by cake and presents. That being said, I didn't want this milestone to pass without making it special, even if it was in small ways. 

Over the months, I've been pinning many, many party ideas for the Bug's birthday. I knew I wouldn't make any of the ideas a reality, but it was fun to imagine. While tossing around possible "themes", I kept returning to the simple and easy to pull together rainbow colors party. Now, I've seen some rainbow party ideas on Pinterest, and, in my opinion, some of them can be over the top and in your face with the rainbows. I wanted to just take the colors and be inspired by them.

One of my summer projects was making a rainbow felt birthday banner for The Bug. I wanted something that we could reuse every year, and that she could take with her as a memento of her childhood when that day finally comes. I ordered some vintage fabric scraps and some bright colored felt from Etsy shop, Swell Goods, and it all came together after that. I considered also making The Bug a felt birthday crown in the Montessori style, but a lacking a sewing machine and he time to hand sew one, I chose not to.

The internet has been chock full of brightly colored rainbow and Tye-dyed baked goods. I liked them, but I wasn't thrilled over the idea of using food dye. Then I came across this how-to that uses natural food to dye cake batter, resulting in a beautiful pastel and soft colored cake. The cake recipe was simple enough, but the dyes tripped me up a little because I don't actually own a juicer. I was able to make do without a juicer for all of the colors, except for the green, spinach dyed layer. I ended up using the water from microwaving frozen spinach. It wasn't nearly as bright as I was hoping, but I was so happy with the results of the other layers that it didn't even phase me. I layered my cake with whipped cream and topped it off with some rainbow sprinkles. I found a really pretty striped #1 candle at a local party store that complimented the layers of the cake nicely. Since seeing my cake, everyone has been asking how it tasted. Believe it or not, it tastes just like regular white cake!

To round out my rainbow non-theme party, we used The Bug's plates we bought from Ikea, used some brightly colored tissue paper for wrapping gifts, hung the birthday banner, and dressed The Bug in a brightly colored dress from Old Navy that she already had in her closet.

Rainbow Cake with Homemade, All-Natural Dyes

Adapted from a recipe by Kelsey Hilts
(Note: The original recipe used 5 1/2" cake pans, I adapted it to use regular 8" pans)
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INGREDIENTS:
Natural Dyes:
– 2-3 Tbsp beet juice
– 2 Tbsp carrot juice
– 2 egg yolks + 2 Tbsp milk
– 2 Tbsp spinach water
– 2+ Tbsp blueberry juice
– 2+ Tbsp blackberry juice

White Cake {Courtesy of Cooking Light}:
– 3 1/2 cups flour
– 2 tsp baking powder
– 1/2 tsp baking soda
– 1 3/4 cups sugar
– 1/4 cup butter
– 1 1/2 Tbsp oil
– 2 egg whites
– 1 2/3 cups milk, divided
– 1/2 cup plain, fat-free yogurt
– 2 1/2 tsp vanilla

Whipped Cream Frosting:
– 2 cups heavy cream
– 1/4 cup powdered sugar
– 1/8 tsp salt
– 1 tsp vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS:
Natural Dyes:
Red: Juice beets in a juicer or use the liquid in canned beets.
Orange: Juice carrots in a juicer or buy carrot juice.
Yellow: (you’ll use an egg yolks for this)
Green: Juice spinach in a juicer.
Blue: Microwave roughly 1/4 cup frozen blueberries in 30 second intervals until they start to burst, straining out 1+ Tbsp of blueberry juice.
Purple: Microwave roughly 1/4 cup frozen blackberries in 30 second intervals until they start to burst, straining out 1+ Tbsp of blackberry juice.

White Cake {Courtesy of Cooking Light}:
1. Cream the butter, oil and sugar. Add the egg whites and beat well. Add the vanilla, 1 cup milk and yogurt alternately with the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
2. Pour six portions of cake batter into separate bowls. Mix the natural dye into each bowl.
3. Pour each colored batter into a greased and floured cake pans.
5. Bake the cakes for 10 minutes or until the top of the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let the cakes cool for five minutes in the pan and then gently slide a knife around the edges and invert the cakes on a wire rack to cool completely.

Whipped Cream Frosting:
1. Beat the cream, sugar and salt at medium speed until stiff peaks form.
2. Fold in the vanilla extract.

Rainbow Cake:
1. Assemble the cake once the layers have completely cooled.
2. Place the purple layer on the serving cake platter.
3. Spread a couple of spoonfuls of whipped cream over the top of the layer, smoothing it until it is even.
4. Place the blue layer on top and repeat the process until the red layer is on top.
5. Then spread the whipped cream frosting on top for a finishing coat, either spreading it smooth with a knife or spatula or pulling it into soft peaks using a knife or the back of a spoon.

(Note: Mr. H's cake, pictured top left, was a German Chocolate Cake with a Caramel Pecan Frosting. Follow the links for the recipes.)