Rainbow Cake part 1

I got cracking this weekend on my mum's birthday cake for next weekend.  I won't have time to make it next weekend so I've made the sponges today which I've frozen, then I will decorate it on Friday night.

Recipe for the sponge:

12 oz self raising flour

12oz caster sugar

12oz soft margarine (I always use flora light, it does wonders)

6 large eggs (the size is important)

1 tsp vanilla extract (not essence, extract is expensive but a bottle lasts ages)

6 food colours (don't go near the liquid ones, paste colours are best - try Sugarflair) - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple

You will also need at least one 8" tin but two is ideal.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees or 150 degrees for a fan oven.

Make sure you weigh your empty bowl before you start and make a note of it.  

Throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mix with an electric hand mixer, or whizz it all up in a food processor or stand mixer.

Once everything is mixed in, weigh your bowl again. Subtract the empty bowl weight from the weight it is now, and divide the remainder by 6, (mine came out to 227.5g). This means that each cake you have will have about 220g (allowing for some stuck to the bowl) of mix in it.

Portion the mix out into 6 bowls and add a small amount of colour to each bowl.  You can always add more so start with a little bit. 

Line the tins with a circle of baking parchment and grease well. 

Pour one mix into each tin, and bake for approx 20 mins until a skewer comes out clean.  If you have two tins bake them next to each other on the same shelf, do not put one under the other as will affect the bake.

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool and remove the grease proof paper circle.

In order to freezer, wait until the cakes are completely cool, then wrap in grease proof paper, wrap well in several layers of cling film, and a final layer of foil. 

To defrost, leave in all the packaging at room temperature.

That's all for now, I will post info and pics of part 2 next weekend.