The document describes someone's attempt to bake a 6-layer rainbow cake with their friend Marcus. They went shopping for ingredients but some eggs were dropped. The cake batter turned out "pancakey" and did not rise properly. Layers were missing and the icing was too runny. In the end, the cake was deemed a failure and ugly, demonstrating that baking even an ugly cake can be very difficult.

1. IT’S A PIECE OF CAKE TO
BAKE A PRETTY CAKE
MOSTLY, THE AUTHOR WANTED CAKE.

2. Cooking with Children
Cooking with children ages 2 and up can have a variety of
unexpected benefits, besides just being fun and a way
involving your child in a daily life where you may find them
constantly hanging onto the back of your shirt when you’re
making dinner. It teaches them to follow directions and
work together, improves their math and measuring skills,
and teaches them new words in a highly sensory
environment. It’s also an exercise in hygiene and safety,
besides being a learning experience about nutrition.

3. Some Personal Experience
My mother did not teach me to cook (this may be for the
better)! I wanted to help her cook, because children usually
do, but I was at least sixteen before I cooked scrambled
eggs. Once I moved out I had to start cooking, mostly
baking elaborate desserts for parties, on my own. It’s
messy and fun and an activity where you are encouraged to
dig your (clean) hands into the dough. Baking is a
rewarding and relaxing experience and I often bake with
the neighborhood children. They’re excited to create
something useful, something edible, something they can
take back to their homes and say, “I made this! Isn’t it
yummy?”

4. Cooking by the Book
Being absorbed in children’s shows thanks to childcare, I of
course must direct to you Lazy Town’s song “Cooking by
the Book” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYrkQL1bX4A

5. So like I said, I
wanted cake.
But even though I’ve made lots of
other things, I’ve never baked a cake!
How do you get cake? You Google
how to make cake.

6. Let’s bake a 6-layer
rainbow cake!
I cannot see why not.
Thanks, Martha Stewart!

7. Okay, so we’ve got ingredients…
Vegetable shortening
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/3 cups sugar
5 large egg whites, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple gel food coloring
Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(http://www.marthastewart.com/256687/lemony-swiss-meringue-
buttercream)

8. And a recipe…
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush six 9-inch-
round cake pans (or as many 9-inch cake pans as
you have, reusing them as necessary) with
shortening. Line bottom of each cake pan with
parchment paper; brush again and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking
powder and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an
electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment,
cream together butter and sugar. Slowly add egg
whites and mix until well combined. Add vanilla
and mix until fully incorporated. Add flour mixture
and milk in two alternating additions, beginning
with the flour and ending with the milk. Mix until
well combined.
Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls.
Add enough of each color of food coloring to each
bowl, whisking, until desired shade is reached.
Transfer each color to an individual cake pan.
Transfer to oven and bake until a cake tester
inserted into the center of each cake comes out
clean, about 15 minutes (working in batches if
necessary).
Remove cakes from oven and transfer to a wire
rack; let cool for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto a
wire rack; re-invert and let cool completely.
Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make
level. Place four strips of parchment paper around
perimeter of a serving plate or lazy Susan. Place
the purple layer on the cake plate. Spread a scant
1 cup buttercream filling over the first layer with a
small offset spatula so it extends just beyond
edges. Repeat process with blue, green, yellow,
and orange layers.
Place the remaining red layer on top, bottom-side
up. Gently sweep away any loose crumbs with a
pastry brush. Using an offset spatula, cover the
top and sides with a thin layer of frosting (also use
any of the excess frosting visible between the
layers). Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.
Using an offset spatula, cover cake again with
remaining frosting.

9. …and a recipe for the recipe? =(
Ingredients
For the Filling and Crumb Coat
9 large egg whites
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into
small pieces, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure lemon extract
For the Frosting
5 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small
pieces, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
Directions
Make the filling and crumb coat: Cook egg
whites and sugar in a small saucepan over
medium heat, whisking constantly until sugar
is completely dissolved. Transfer to the bowl
of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk
attachment; mix on high speed until mixture
is room temperature. With the mixer on
medium-low, add butter, one piece at a time,
mixing well after each addition.
Remove whisk attachment and switch to
paddle attachment. Increase speed to high
and beat until buttercream comes together,
about 5 minutes; beat in lemon extract.
Make the frosting: In a clean saucepan and
bowl of an electric mixer, repeat process in
step 1.

10. SHOPPING LIST
 Vegetable shortening
 24 eggs
 Whole milk
 Gel food coloring
 6 9” cake pans
 Offset spatula?
Small…and large…?
 What is a pastry brush?
 Lemon extract
 8 sticks unsalted butter
 Parchment paper
 A lazy Susan.
 Some more wire racks.
 A hug.
 Please do not make me
do this.
 This is not funny, Martha
Stewart.
 If I had a small child to
help me this might be
okay.
 But I doubt it.

11. I went shopping.
Marcus carries in my 36 eggs in the
rain. “I brought in your eggs,” he says
proudly, and then drops them all. “I’ll
get you some more eggs,” he says
proudly. I salvage 24 of them, just
enough, but never mentally recover.

12. All right!
Do we have all of our ingredients and
materials? Are we ready? YES WE ARE.

13. Thanatos helps me
bake.
So does my brother!

14. Did you know you
have to do origami to
bake a cake?
Grease cake pan. Line bottom of round
cake pan with square paper. Grease
again. Why?

15. LICK THE MIXERS.
And the bowl. All the bowls. Lick
everything.

16. What is a medium
bowl?
IS IT A BUTTER BOWL?

17. Batter!
THE PRETTIEST BATTER. I just knew
this was going to go perfectly!

18. Okay.
Now it’s a five-layer cake.

19. Right.
I guess it’s a four-layer cake!

20. Lemon meringue
filling!
THIS turned out right.

21. Mix? For five solid
minutes?
MARCUS CAN DO THAT. I’m going to sit
in a chair and wonder why the icing is
not getting any thicker.

22. “Put the green layer
on.”
“It’ll just have a hole in it,” Marcus says.
“Just stick it back together and put it
on! Stick that part…there…” I stick it
here instead. I was never good at
puzzles. “You do not see things the
same way EVERYONE ELSE does,”
Marcus says, baffled. It strikes me as so
funny that I start sobbing with laughter
and as I curl up beside the couch,
Marcus shouts, “COME BACK. WHAT’S
FUNNY?”

23. It’s pajama time.
With 30 minutes left until I can ice the
monstrosity I created…

24. WHY IS MY ICING
DRIPPY?
IS THIS EVEN EDIBLE? “The recipe says
to lightly brush crumbs away.” “I think
this cake has…transcended…the recipe,”
Marcus says.

25. In a fit of spite and
the desire to own my
failures…
I put sugar pearls on it anyway. Marcus
put a ruler to it: “On this side it’s…3 ½”
high.” “ARE YOU IMPLYING IT’S
DIFFERENT HEIGHTS ON ALL SIDES?”
“YES, because on THIS side it’s 2 ½”
high.” “Oh.”

26. I made some
mistakes.
The cake batter didn’t rise high enough,
giving the cakes a pancakey
consistency. The meringue was good
but the icing was clearly too beautiful to
live and had the consistency of water.
As for the missing layers, I threw them
in the trash and went to bed.

27. In conclusion, it is not a piece of
cake to bake a pretty cake.
It is in fact extremely difficult to bake an ugly one.