Donna's Rainbow Cake

Source: Donna Hay Magazine. Issue 41. October/November 2008.

8 eggs
220g caster sugar
200g self-rising flour, sifted
100g butter, melted
2 Tbs cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 tsp pink food colouring
strawberries, to serve

Cream Cheese frosting
100g butter, softened
500g cream cheese
320g icing sugar mixture (I just use icing sugar, and I add lemon juice)

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My adjustments

Vanilla layer
3 eggs
about less than 1/4 cup caster sugar (not fancy too sugary cakes)
about 60g self-rising flour
about 30g-32g melted butter
vanilla essence

Raspberry layer
3 eggs
about less than 1/4 cup caster sugar (not fancy too sugary cakes)
about 60g self-rising flour
about 30g-32g melted butter
homemade raspberry paste (about 2 tsp) (made from pureed raspberry cooked with cornflour until thick)

Chocolate layer
3 eggs
about less than 1/4 cup caster sugar (not fancy too sugary cakes)
about 60g self-rising flour (replace 2 Tbs of flour with cocoa powder)
about 30g-32g melted butter
vanilla essence

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Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare the triplet cake tins, lined with baking paper. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale, thick and tripled in volume. Fold in the flour and butter (and the essence, or paste) gently. Pour into the tins, level. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until springy to the touch.

Meanwhile, make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until pale and creamy, about 6-8 minutes (mine is about 5 minutes). Beat in the icing sugar until light and fluffy, about 6-8 minutes more. (At this stage, I squeezed in fresh lemon juice, just to taste).

When the cake is cooled, put the chocolate layer on the serving plate. Spread with 1/4 of the frosting, topped with the raspberry layer, spread again with the same amount of frosting, topped with the vanilla layer. Spread with the remaining frosting and cover all the sides of the cake with it. I arranged the homegrown strawberries and raspberries on top. The slightly tartness of raspberries make a good combination of the richness of cream cheese frosting. Serves 10 (actually, it is depending on the thickness of the slices, really. This cake is quite rich, so thin slices with sliced berries will be just right for us).