[schema type=”recipe” name=”Really Easy Chocolate Rainbow Smarties Cake” author=”Rachel Howard” pubdate=”2013-06-22″ image=”http://www.sundaybaking.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Rainbow-cake-700.jpg” description=”A chocolate cake filled with a Rainbow of Smarties” prepmins=”20″ cookmins=”20″ ]
After 5 years in my job, I have decided to make a huge leap into a totally different role. So to say goodbye to my team I baked them a cake.
I wanted to make something bright and cheerful so I went through my pinterest board of cakes I see and want to bake and this one stood out a mile!
This is one of those cakes that looks amazing but doesn’t require much time or skill so it’s perfect for beginners! Honestly…I baked the cakes in the afternoon, left them to cool while we went to visit my nan in hospital, got home about 8pm, cooked and ate dinner then decorated the cake and I was sat down by 9pm!
[callout title=Ingredients for the cake:]
- 80g unsalted butter – softened
- 280g caster sugar
- 200g plain flour
- 40g cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 240ml whole milk
- 2 large eggs
[/callout]
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 190°C and line 2 8″ round cake tins (I just spray with Dr Oetker Cake release spray)
- Using a hand held electric whisk or a freestanding electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt on a low speed until the ingredients resemble fine breadcrumbs
- Pour the milk into a jug, add the eggs and whisk together
- Pour three quarters of this mixture into the dry ingredients and beat on a low speed to combine
- Raise the speed to medium and continue to mix until smooth and thick
- Pour in the remaining milk mixture and keep mixing on a medium speed until all the ingredients have come together and the batter is smooth
- Pour the batter into the cake tins and bake for 20 minutes
While the cake is cooling make the frosting.
[callout title=Ingredients for the frosting and decoration:]
- 400g icing sugar
- 100g cocoa powder
- 160g unsalted butter – softened
- 50ml whole milk
- 12 tubes of smarties (or 450g)
- 3 packets of cadbury fingers (I used the honeycomb ones as they were on offer!)
[/callout]
Method:
(Before starting, I emptied all the tubes of smarties and put them in piles of each colour to make it easier when it came to placing them on the cake!…I did this while the pasta for dinner was boiling!)
- Whisk the icing sugar with the cocoa powder and butter on a low speed until the mixture is sandy in consistency
- Pour in the milk, still mixing on a low speed, then increase the speed to high and whisk the frosting until soft and fluffy
- When the cakes are cool, spread a layer of frosting between the 2 cakes. Then spread frosting all over the top and sides of the cake
- Place chocolate fingers around the sides of the cake
- Starting from the middle place the smarties on the top. Work your way round in colour batches
- Finish by tying a bow around the cake
I started to get stressed about the smarties not being perfect but as I got further round I realised that it really didn’t matter.
This cake got a lot of attention and everyone loved the way it looked…so much so that they were all afraid to cut it!
So if you want a high impact cake with little effort and skill required you should definitely give this one a go!
I borrowed your Rainbow Smartie Cake design for a colleague’s birthday cake – it really has the wow factor and went down exceedingly well. So, thank you! My rainbow was a little different – you just have to work with the ratio of each colour you get in your particular batch of Smarties tubes.
Youngest son has now requested the same cake for his birthday.
So glad it went well for you. I agree – it definitely has the wow factor!
Is it fan or normal oven at 190?
Hi Angela- this is the temperature for a fan oven. Thanks
i love it so much and thats comming from an 11 year old! Im definitely doign it with my mom
My nearly 4 year old daughter spotted this & has requested it for her party in 2 Weeks. fingers crossed it turns out as great as yours!
That’s brilliant – It’s much easier than it looks I promise! Good luck!
I made this cake for a friend’s birthday and it went down really well! I had to carry it on a train to the venue and I had so many strangers telling me how awesome it looked! Luckily everyone also thought it tasted great so thumbs up on both counts!
Thanks for posting this recipe…definitely a favourite with my lot!
Amazing – thanks for taking the time to let me know how well it went. Did you take a photo? Upload it to my facebook page if you did as I would love to see how everyone else does it!
This is such a clever idea! I don’t like chocolate but even I wanted to make it! Used M+Ms instead as they were on offer, I’ll put a photo on your facebook page 🙂
I made this on Sunday for my brothers 33rd Birthday. It was amazing and tasted fantastic. It looked wonderful. Will defo make it again.
That’s brilliant! It makes me so happy when people tell me they followed my blog to make someone happy with the gift of a cake! Thanks for letting me know how you got on!
Just checking…is it really one tablespoon of baking powder? 🙂
It is for this recipe!
What a fab idea, just made this for my sons 9th birthday tomorrow, looks fantastic! Very enjoyable to decorate, Really please with how it turned out. thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Brilliant – glad you enjoyed it!
I tried it out for my friends b-day cake and she loved it! Thanks and it is very creative
Thank you – I’m so glad she liked it!
This looks fantastic and I want to make it for my son’s 5th birthday party – but roughly how many servings does it make? I have never made cakes for parties before and there are loads of different opinions on how many serves an 8″ cake makes – anyway isn’t the recipe amount the more important factor?
I say it would serve around 12 people. Hope it goes well!
Hi, I going to give the smartie cake, anything other than smarties I could use, some of mine don’t like smarties ;•
Hi
I’m not sure it would give you exactly the same effect, but you could use pretty much any brightly coloured sweet. I hope it goes well!
Ive brought some mini marshmallows, I will let you know how it goes x
Ive made this for my little boys birthday I used m&m’s 🙂
Hi- I’m just wondering if you put this cake in the fridge when finished or leave it out overnight?
Hi – my kitchen is not the warmest so I left it out overnight and it was fine!
This looks fantastic! Would like to give it a try. Just wondering, did you start the smarties from the outside and work your way in, or from the middle and work outwards?
Hi, I worked from the centre outwards. Let me know how you get on! Rachel x
Hi, I’m 13 years old and I was thinking of making this for my bestfriends birthday. It’s not gonna be a party, me and two of her great friends are gonna come and “kidnap” her and bring her to my house and watch a movie. So knowing that we are gonna be four, by how much should I divide the recipe? It would be good if there would be some left for her family (two parents and three kids). I’m really bad at math, so could you help me?
Thanks in advance, your cake is wonderful!
Love, Anna
Hi Anna – what a great idea! As you want it to feed 9 people in total I would make it the same size as I did. This will give you a little bit left over but it will be easier than diving the recipe. When you have made it you should post a photo on the Sunday Baking Facebook page – I would love to see it! Good luck, Rachel
This cake looks amazing! Definitely has the wow factor. I’m going to try it but the smartie decoration is a bit daunting! I’m hoping it’s as easy as you say!
Thank you – you will be surprised at how easy it is!
Rachel you’re a genius, I can’t wait to try this cake for my daughter’s 6th birthday on Wednesday…. it must be fate as I bought a box of 48 tubes of smarties at the wholesalers today!!
Oh she’ll love it! Post a photo on my Facebook page so I can see it!
This cakes looks so so beautiful.
Thanks
Charlotte Potgieter
South Africa
absolutely love your recipe, ive made the smarties one and another variation with wafers and it was a hit both times! the recipe for the frosting is one of the easiest ive ever made
Could I just check that it is just 80g of butter in the cake, just seems a bit low with 200g of flour.
Hi – Yes this is what I used and it seemed to work fine x
Hi, I was thinking of making this cake for my older sisters 21st birthday and I was just wondering do you have to use whole milk or can you use semi-skimmed or skimmed milk? thanks
I’m sorry – it appears my notifications weren’t working! Did you try this? Skimmed milk will be absolutely fine x
I need this cake for Sunday, will it be ok if made friday? Thanks
Hi, I’m what is 2 8″ for the baking pan mean?
Hi – I mean 2 x 8″ cake tins are needed. x
Hi.
Does any one know if this would look as good using a vanilla sponge? Not a huge fan of chocolate cake (not that this is about me) Hee hee.
Any ideas gratefully received – my sons birthday in 3 days eeeek!
I don’t see why not…anything goes when it comes to birthday cakes!
I successfull made this cake only I cooked it all in one tin (9″ / 23cm tin), increasing the cooking time by at least 15min or more minutes. This was to make a single layer cake. Because it was single layer I used “TV snack” choc malt sticks instead of the longer finger biscuits (which meant I didn’t have to cut the longer biscuits down to suit the single layer size). I made the cake for my daughter’s 4th birthday and I needed to stretch it to serve more people so this way I was able to get more individual slices out of the cake. Baking a single layer was perfect for the little kids as they are mostly interested in the topping anyway. It was a HUGE success and impressed kids and adults alike. THANK YOU. I usually cream the sugar with the butter when cooking cakes and frosting so I was really nervous following the recipe but it worked perfectly. PRO TIP: I would definitely recommend sorting the smarties (I bought 2 huge bags) several nights before and storing the sorted colours in zip lock bags – otherwise I think I would have lost my mind doing it under the pressure of pre-party night. I also left the decorated cake on the bench overnight (not in the fridge) – covered with a large tub,. Ive found in the past condensation can form on smarties in the fridge and totally ruin the look. As we had a super hero party theme I added some flying super hero figures on skewers and some silver star bunting. It was loved by all. Thanks once again.
I made this cake for my Dad’s birthday yesterday. Well, I followed your instructions for the cake and icing but I did the decorations a bit different as the rainbow design is not exactly my Dad’s style lol. The cake was beautifully fluffy yet chocolaty and the icing was divine. Plus it was super easy!! I’m always nervous cooking cakes so glad this was not intimidating yet gave great results. My cakes took a bit longer than your recommended 20 mins but I just left them in a bit longer.
I’m going to try a vanilla version of this recipe for my husband because he doesn’t like chocolate.
Hi
Rachael did you use all the frosting on the cake it’s just it seems alot, but now I’ve done it I guess it’s so the fingers dont fall off lol. I was in a rush and had my cakes in the fridge and frosting so could decorate now, with out realising how much time I would need for sponges to come to room temp and frosting I had to microwave, it looked so messy but is hidden now, just hope it looks OK when they cut it and taste OK as I had to put it in for half an hr at gas mark 5 as I have a gas oven. New Baker so learning as I go😊
Hi,
You were right it is very easy. I had a bit of a misunderstanding though since I’m from the states. Here smarties are a sweet treat that are like a little pastel tablets that areSweet and tart. Because the colors are more muted it doesn’t quite have the punch. Also for some reason I ran out of frosting. I can tell though it’s going to tasteAbsolutely delicious.