Something happens inside a child's mind when they see their first rainbow. They are mesmerized. "How did it get there?" "Can we go touch it?" "I wonder where it goes!" They don't care that there's a science behind it at a young age, they don't want to hear about ROY G. BIV, they just want to oooh and ahhh and the beauty of nature. The innocence behind a child's love of a rainbow is actually quite beautiful. And then when they see a double rainbow! Watch out!
My kids are now 6, 5 and 3. They are super rainbow spotters. In the sprinklers or in the sky...even on the floor from a window, they find them and squeal with joy. Every so often, they'll ask for rainbow food. Now, as a mom, I look at some of the rainbow foods and think...ewwwww. Look at all that food color, and really, who wants to eat green or purple food? Ha! But, the look on their faces when I come out of the kitchen with something rainbow-riffic is so much fun for me!
The first rainbow food fun we had were rainbow pancakes for St. Patrick's Day 2010. It was a total surprise to my kids. When I brought the plates out of stacked rainbows, they giggled with delight...and wouldn't you know, ate almost every bite! That was a really fun one to do. The secret in sharp colors is to use frosting gel colors...like Wilton's brand. I did red first and worked my way to purple. A lesson learned...keep your heat low enough and your butter or spray free from browning...my purple pancakes got a little singed.
The next rainbow adventure we had was St. Patrick's Day 2011! Something about St. Patrick's Day and Leprechauns brings out the rainbows in our house. This time, I went with rainbow cupcakes. The process was basically the same. I had one main batter, divided into individual containers, and added coloring gel to each one for each color of the rainbow. I started with purple on the bottom and ended with red on top. I learned a lesson here too...to fill too much...my colors kinda exploded up the middle, which made a cool effect when cut, but not what I was going for. The rest of the cupcake stayed perfectly layered...but the middle looked like a volcano. Now, in the frenzy of party prepping, I forgot to cut on in half and show you the inside, but you can see the tops, and imagine the pancakes.
The most recent rainbow affair we had was for my daughter's 5th birthday. She requested a chocolate, heart-shaped, rainbow cake. While my first thought was to go with a layered rainbow cake much like the cupcakes and pancakes, been there, done that. So, I opted for the rainbow frosting. Again, I used the gel colors to get the vibrant colors needed for a rainbow. This might have been more fun to make than the others as I got to put the color right where I wanted it, and it stayed.
Bring a little rainbow love into your life. It's fun and brings smiles to all those little faces we love to see light up.
