Rainbow Confetti Cake

I usually make my own birthday cake every year as an excuse to try something from my neverending list of Things I Could Make. Before I could check my list to pick something out, though, I happened to see this on Instagram and it was so colorful and nostalgic (and easy to make) that I needed it to be my birthday cake. Smitten Kitchen seemed to know it was my birthday, haha. I made this cake to share with my friends after my birthday outing, during which we bicycled to a nearby small town and spent the afternoon sitting outside and drinking beer and playing beanbags and lying in the grass. It was sunny and warm as July generally is but not unbearably hot.

I sought out clear imitation vanilla extract especially for this cake, and I sincerely believe this is the thing that I miss from boxed mixes. Literally the only thing. I know real vanilla is superior in basically every way, but it's hard to beat nostalgia.

I loved how the cake turned out and would gladly make it again. Indeed I will have to in order to use up more of this clear imitation vanilla! Oh no. Twist my arm.

Edit: I made this again for my birthday in July 2019, still as delicious as I remember. I made it into 12 cupcakes but the cups were not filled quite as much as I'd have liked; 10 or 11 would have worked a little bit better. They took about 23 minutes to bake. Frosting was enough for a thin layer over the top plus 6 little piped stars on each one.

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RECIPE: Confetti Party Cake