Create. Inspire. Connect.: Chloe's Rainbow Party

Just wrapped up celebrating Chloe's 3rd birthday. As per usual, my idea of a 'simple' party got hijacked by my creative impulses and as my husband pointed out I made everything by hand. Call it nesting, or call me crazy. I enjoyed the creative process and most importantly Chloe had a fabulous time!

I started with a simple invitation: Paper from the Hob Lob and a cut out cloud glued on with details for the party.

The cake was the main thing I wanted to give time/energy toward. I started about 1 week before by baking the (3 at a time) 6 layers to make up the Rainbow.

I used a .96 cent box of white cake from Hy-Vee, split it 3 ways, added food coloring. I did red, orange, yellow one night and green, blue, and purple another night

I am a big believer in lining cake pans with parchment and spraying them too. Because each layer was so thin I baked them for 22 minutes.

I cooled and wrapped them in saran wrap, a freezer bag and called it good until I would frost them the day of the party. The night before, I put the cakes in the refrigerator.

Buttercream icing: http://pinterest.com/pin/35465915786200481/

I followed the technique for making a fondant style cake with a paper towel.

It worked pretty well. I did do a crumb coating, which I will always do again! I found that smoothing the icing with a metal spatula dipped in hot water gave it the fondant look I was shooting for (my icing may have been a bit thick)