I was originally introduced to the concept of rainbow cake this summer while sitting in my friend’s kitchen and watching her little sister pull the coolest cake I had ever seen out of the oven. Four months later, on a slow Friday afternoon, I decided it was time to make my own rainbow cake.

I was in desperate need of a study break and figured I could continue my homework while my cake was in the oven. (Similar logic was applied when I decide to get my homework done during the commercial breaks of Grey’s Anatomy). With the help of a few friends we constructed our very own 6-layered colorful and delicious cake in under an hour. The baking process was actually so quick that I was able to study for my test. Easy, tasty and pretty: this cake fits my baking criteria so perfectly that I made it again the next weekend, and (with help) ate the whole thing in 24 hours. This is the perfect procrastination project for those times when you need a break…but you really should be studying.

Zoë McKinnell is a senior at Brown who keeps reading and trying new recipes instead of studying for her many midterms. Oops!

**Recipe**

Rainbow Cake
Serves 12

Ingredients
1 box Pillsbury Yellow cake mix
3 eggs
Cooking oil
Assorted food coloring
1 container vanilla frosting
Rainbow sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350°F and butter two 8″ round cake pans. Prepare the cake batter as directed on the box. Divide the batter into 6 different bowls. Add the appropriate rainbow color to each bowl (red, orange, yellow etc).

Pour all of the red batter into one cake pan. On top of the red, without mixing, pour the orange batter. Let the batter settle for a minute or so and then add the yellow batter on top. Do not worry if the pan looks a little empty, it will expand once in the oven. In the second pan, add the purple, then blue and green batter in the same fashion.

Bake the cakes for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Once cooked, let the cakes cool completely (approximately 1 hour). Arrange the cakes so that the colored layers line up appropriately in a rainbow (ROYGBIV: purple on the bottom and red on the top). Cut off the top of the purple, blue and green cake so that it is flat.

Ice the entire purple layer and place the red, orange and yellow cake on top. Ice the rest of the cake. Decorate with rainbow sprinkles.