#1 Rainbow Cake

Last weekend my sister Tiffany was visiting Santa Barbara from New York. My sister and her husband, Segundo, have two kids, my nephews...Felix is 3 years old and Luca is 1 year old. Luca turned 1 while they were in Santa Barbara. I was so excited to be able to be at his first birthday party and I got to make the cake. YIKES. I was looking for inspiration of Tastespotting and found it! I discovered a great blog called Ovenhaven. She recently blogged about rainbow cupcakes....they are so much fun. Great for a kids birthday. I decided to try her idea on a cake. It worked out.

I just used a box of white cake mix (gross, I know, but kids aren't very picky about their cake)

I also used Ivy's suggestion to throw in a little gelatin into the cake mix. I used about 1 TBSP or so).... AMAZING! I will never make cakes or cupcakes without utilizing this magic ingredient. It made the cake incredibly moist and bouncy. It was awesome. Thanks for the suggestion Ivy!

I separated the cake batter into four bowls and dyed each batter a different color. I poured the first colored batter(green) into the middle of the cake pan , the next color (yellow) I poured into the middle of the pan again, right on top of the other color and repeated this with the blue and yellow batter.

When it came out of the oven, the colors were really muted and dull on the outside of the cake. I carefully shaved off the sides to revel the beautiful bright vibrant colors.

I made this cake to look like a BIG cupcake....but you could frost the whole thing like a cake. The colors would be revealed when the cake is cut. The inside of the cake looked very cool, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the cake after it had been cut :( The colors inside don't layered, instead it looks tie dyed. Ovenhaven's pictures show a great example of what the cake looked like inside.

This cake was made with the intention that Luca would put his hands all over it and dig in, so I made lemon blueberry cupcakes for the adults.

Luca was slightly confused by his cake

But he got the idea with help from Felix
It was a great 1st Birthday Party for LUCA !!!

Pinkberry

Okay, I'll admit it, I have an unnatural obsession with Pinkberry. Have you had Pinkberry? What is a Pinkberry you ask, it's a frozen yogurt chain that is all over new York and Los Angeles. It is very different from frozen yogurt you may have had before It has a very distinct taste, it is very tart and tastes like plain yogurt. It only comes in three flavors, Plain, Green Tea, and Coffee. Then, there are tons of toppings to choose from, berries, kiwi's, mango, granola, chocolate chips, oreo's, it even gets as obscure as Captain Crunch and Fruity Pebbles.

My favorite combos:
-Green Tea with raspberries, mango, and fruity pebbles
(that's right, fruity pebbles...don't knock it till you try it)
-Coffee with coco pebbles.

The sad news is the closest Pinkberry is in West Lake Village in Los Angeles. The good news, that's where Mike's parents live. I have to get my fix every time I'm there.

So what is the point of this mindless homage to my beloved Pinkberry??? I was having a craving for Pinkberry the other night while I was watching Project Runway at home in Santa Barbara, what to do??? Then it hit me, I could make Pinkberry at home. I had recently seen a beautiful blog post from Vanilla Basil, she had made a delicious looking Raspberry & Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. YUM. I decided to feed my Pinkberry addiction and try a yogurt version of Vanilla Basil's ice cream. The result: Spectacular!

Raspberry Cookie's & Cream FRO YO

2 cups organic plain yogurt
2 tbsp milk
1 cup of organic raspberries
4 trader joe's jo jo's or oreo's
2 tbsp organic agave sweetener (or sugar)

Combine raspberries and milk and puree with an immersion blender. Pour puree through a strainer to strain out the seeds. Combine yogurt and raspberry puree and agave. Pour into ice cream maker according to manufactures directions.
Once it's done crumble cookie into frozen yogurt and stir to mix it up. Transfer frozen yogurt into a large tupperware and freeze for 30 minutes.

PS. I failed to mention the best news EVER. A few days ago I found out that Pinkberry is coming to Santa Barbara very soon. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I may have to survive on a strict diet of Pinkberry, I may put all my money into feeding my Pinkberry addiction and go broke. Wish me luck.