Grandma’s Fun Cake

Basic Cake Layers:

1 cup butter or margarine

2 cups sugar

3 cups cake flour, sifted

3 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Food coloring – red, green, yellow

Buttercream Frosting:

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1 stick margarine, softened

1 box confectionery sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter then gradually add sugar, creaming until light and fluffy. Beat 10 minutes with electric mixer or longer by hand. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add eggs one at a time to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk and flavoring, beating after each addition until smooth. Divide batter (2 – 1/3 cups each) into 3 bowls. Add 4 drops of green food coloring to one bowl, 3 drops of red to another and 2 drops of yellow to the remaining bowl. Stir to combine. Pour batter into three greased and floured 9-inch layer pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and finish cooling on racks.

For the buttercream frosting, cream together the cream cheese and margarine. Then gradually add the confectioners’ sugar and blend until smooth. Add flavoring and beat until combined. Spread icing between layers and on the sides of the cake.

This is great basic cake recipe. The layers bake up evenly and are easy to work with when icing. You can also add almond extract: 1 tsp. vanilla & ½ tsp. almond extract. Another idea would be to flavor the pink layer with raspberry flavoring, the yellow layer with lemon and the green with lime.