2014-03-30 16.58.01My daughter turns 15 today. One one hand I’m a little shocked that I have a daughter this old (which means I’m getting older too) and yet on the other hand – how can she be this old already? How?

It’s a simple day in our home today. She gets to pick what she wants to do. First up was dinner with Dad at her favorite breakfast place. Then we’re off to a pet store, her favorite restaurant for dinner and then home for cake and presents. I think she’ll be happy with her gifts this year (she’s a teenager, of course she’s going to love money and a new phone).

This year, instead of a regular chocolate cake for her birthday, she saw a picture on the Kraft magazine of a rainbow cake and wanted that. She was even very particular on the colours she wanted in the cake – red/pink, yellow, green and blue. The picture in the magazine had white icing…thankfully she chose chocolate icing…my favorite 🙂2014-03-30 19.44.34

There’s no recipe card today…it’s a very simple recipe. For a 4 layer cake, use 2 boxes of french vanilla cake mix. Instead of oil, I used apple sauce and instead of water, I used cream. Mix the batter, one box at a time. Divide the mixed batter into 2 bowls evenly…add required food colouring to each bowl. Our first batch was pink and yellow. Bake for 30 min. As the pans are cooling on the racks, get your next batch ready (use the second box, divide again into two bowls). This one was blue and green…bake and cool.

I like to make homemade butter icing and add some whipped cream to the mixture to help create a creamy smooth mixture. And I add lots of cocoa powder for a real chocolate taste 🙂