Itsy Bitsy Foodies

I have been looking for a reason to make another of my rainbow cake with natural dyes.  The Seahawks in the Super Bowl was the perfect opportunity to experiment again with the blue and green layers.  My color choice obviously reveals who I’ll be rooting for but I’ll give you Broncos fans a little hint: you can have your {blue and orange} cake and eat it, too, if you simply use carrot juice instead of spinach juice.  12th Man, make a wish!

*Cake batter details: When making multiple layers of the same color I recommend coloring the batter in large color batches and then measuring it out into the respective prepared cake pans.  This will ensure that all of the same-colored layers remain just that — the same color!  The slightest variation in the amount of dye used can result in a visual difference of color.  Blueberries can seem a little tricky because they sometimes lend the batter a more purple hue.  I have found in my trials, however, that even when the batter looks more purple than blue, they bake up nice and blue (due at least in part to the reaction with the baking soda).  As a trial I experimented with one of the extra layers by adding some spinach juice to the blueberry batter (the spinach juice supposedly acts as baking soda would and helps make the blueberry juice appear more blue).  Though the batter did turn more blue than purple it looked more grayish/murky-blue once it cooked.  So, ultimately I like the clean blue look from just using the blueberry juice.