Back-to-School Rainbow Cake Party and the Pajama Program

A little switch up from the usual Weekend Photos in Review to celebrate Rainbow Cake goodness!

How is it possible that we are already celebrating with our Back-to-School Rainbow Cake Party?  It seems like just yesterday we were kicking off the summer with our End-of-School party!  But it wasn’t.  Reality sets in.  It’s back to the books.  But not without a little multi-colored madness to set us off on the right path first.

This time, I decided to do something a little different.  When the invitations went out a few weeks ago, I asked guests to bring a pair of brand new kids’ pajamas, so we could pack up a box and ship them off to the Pajama Program.  It’s a New York-based program that we support regularly, and I thought it would be a nice tie-in for our little party.  “Danger season” is coming up, and with the temperatures starting to drop, warm toasty pajamas are needed now more than ever.

As the kids came over, we put all the pajamas in a box and I passed out coloring pages for them all to work on.  As an aside, this web site is a great spot to find coloring pages — the wonderfully detailed pictures take up the whole page and they print without advertising and extra junk on it.  I thought including coloring pages in the pajama box as a little something extra for the kids on the receiving end would be a nice small gesture.

The menu tonight was simple.  Fresh fruit.  Vegetable chips and dip.  Honest Kids juice (love them!) and, of course, Rainbow Cake.  This go ’round, I did the traditional six layer cake and then I also did a 9×13 cake pan as well.  Although I loved the cupcakes I made back in June, I didn’t love the time they took.  Too fiddly.  This longer sized dish worked out beautifully.  I just put one layer of batter on top of the other and baked it.  It looks a little more tie-dyed than rainbow-like, but that’s ok.

We only have the rainbow cake twice a year, but it never fails to make me smile when I first cut into it.  So many gorgeous colors popping out from the inside.  Even the crumbs are pretty!  And now, the Rainbow Cake is retired until next June… and the kids (both!) get ready to start school next week.  One more week of freedom before reality (and routine) set in, and we’re going to eek out every bit of fun that we can from this last week of summer.