End-of-School Year Rainbow Cake Party {2013}

Every year, we change the Rainbow Cake Party in some way. Either adding or subtracting different types of food. Changing the guest list. The format. This is our fourth year doing it. The first two years, we did a party to celebrate both the End of School and the Beginning of School. Last year, I changed it to just the End of School, and did the same this year. Last year, the party was crazy. This year, it was crazy, but in a different way. After each one, the kids and I sit down and hash out what we liked, what we’d change, what are must-haves for the following year. Next year, I want to do something completely different.

I just haven’t figured out what.

In the meantime, some pictures?

Instead of doing a rainbow fruit platter, I did rainbow fruit kabobs. A little more time consuming, but way neater and slightly more fun? The only drawback is you will invariably get kids that don’t like every kind of fruit on the stick. And by kids, I mean Nick. And a few of the littles.

The week before, ok it was really the day before, when I was planning the menu, Madeline informed me that the rainbow chocolate covered Oreos are her favorite part of the food spread. So it’s a given that they will forever be on our menu (and for the record, Nick’s favorite part is the fruit, which is all sorts of awesome).

One of my friends offered to help on the day of the party, and being a seasoned hostess, I know better than to turn down any offers of help. And since I mostly didn’t start making anything before 11 pm the night before, the help was greatly appreciated.

I found these rainbow puff decorations at a party store a month or two ago. And then I promptly stashed them somewhere where I wouldn’t see them again until the morning of the party.

Yeah, that was a close one.

Using this tutorial as a guideline, this year I also added a handmade rainbow tablecloth, which I loved. All sorts of happiness right there. Just one suggestion? When they say to use a drop cloth, they pretty much mean it. Because I may or may not have been scrubbing paint off my floor and rug after painting this tablecloth.

And now that I’ve washed the tablecloth, I’m pleased to report that it withstood the washing machine test, and will forever be used at future rainbow cake parties.

So it was totally worth a little bit of furious scrubbing on my hands and knees.

It just brought that little something extra to the whole table.

And as a five year old guest at the party very kindly pointed out, I accidentally swapped the green and blue layers in this cake and they weren’t in the proper order. Maybe I did it to test them. Inadvertent layer swapping aside, this is the least leaning cake I have made in all the years of six layer cake making. And in my rough math, I think I’ve made the cake seven times so far. So a cake that doesn’t collapse midway through cutting it trumped the blue/green swap.

I also make a shorter rainbow cake in a 9×13 dish, mostly to hedge my bets against a six layer cake that might collapse. And to make sure I have enough cake for everyone.