Delicious and Groovy Tie-Dye Cake Recipe

I am one of those people that will come up with any excuse to bake something. I love sweets and baking of all kinds and I especially love trying out new recipes. So when the boyfriend was coming for his first ever visit to the United States, I thought that was as good a time as any to bake a cake. Not just any cake thought ... a tie-dye cake!

It is a pretty straight forward recipe and can be done using and white cake box mix, if you want to go the simpler route (which I did in this case). The only disclaimer I have is that you will have lots of dishes to wash after this is done.

Ingredients:

White cake batter

Food coloring

Lots of bowls and spoons

9 inch circle cake pans (2-3)

Icing of your choice

First, follow whatever recipe you have chosen, whether it be from scratch or from a box, for white cake.

Now, comes the fun part. Separate the batter evenly into 6 different bowls. This is where you will add the food coloring: (This is just a guideline you can mix however you feel looks best)

 Red - 15 drops of red food coloring

 Orange - 2 drops of red and 9 drops of yellow

 Yellow - 10 drops of yellow food coloring

 Green - 5 drops of yellow and 2 drops of blue

 Blue - 10 drops of blue food coloring

 Purple- 5 drops of red and 6 drops of blue

Next step is to start pouring the batter into the pans (make sure you spray them with no stick ahead of time). Some people like to now separate each color into two bowls, because they are perfectionists. You don't need to do that. Going in rainbow order, pour half of the red batter into the first pan, give it a few seconds to let it spread. Next half of the orange directly on top of the red, again giving it a few seconds to spread. Continue in that order until you get to purple. Now in the second pan, do the same but in reverse order starting with purple, blue, green and so on. Don't try and manipulate the batter just give it time to spread on its own. 

  * I used a measuring cup to divide each color in half. I think pouring half the batter directly from the bowl would be easier

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or you pass the toothpick test.

Finally layer the cakes and ice them with your choice of icing. I chose chocolate funfetti icing, because I believe funfetti makes everything better.

Don't let the amount of dirty dishes overwhelm you (I like to follow the whoever did the baking doesn't do the dishes philosophy). This cake will be a hit no matter what occasion you bake it for. 

  

Have you ever tried a more difficult recipe like this? Were you successful?

The End ... or The Beginning?

The time has come … I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer. I am now what they call a Returned Peace Corps volunteer. It is called RPCV instead of using words like ex or former because they say you are a Peace Corps volunteer for life.

About half of my group (G-38) had left Paraguay already, but, 15 of us were left for our swearing-out ceremony which included words from our bosses, receiving our completion certificates and ringing the bell that signifies the end of service … oh and who can forget, the cake!

It is a bittersweet moment ending my service. I was feeling a mixture of emotions, excited for the future, sad to be leaving so many new people in my life and just a feeling of uncertainty. End of service is one of those things that always seemed off in the distance and now that it’s here, I can’t help but thinking …. What  is next?

Well I do have a plan for the next few months at least and that is …. To stay in Paraguay! I have moved to a town called San Ignacio in the department of Missiones. I will be living with my boyfriend Jose and exploring some possible working/volunteering opportunities.

I have also decided to continue blogging! Keeping you up-to-date on my daily adventures.

Week of Celebrations!

I've been in site for just over a month now and I'm not going to lie it hasn't been easy. A lot of volunteers say first month in site can be one of the hardest. You go from a family you have been living with for 10 weeks and that you have gotten comfortable with to a brand new one. You go from being surrounded by other Americans all day to being the only one for miles, and you go from having every single second planned out for you to having no set schedule at all. Guarani is also a lot more prevalent in my site than it was in my training community which has been another added difficulty.

But I've made it through the first month, taking each day at a time.

Last Tuesday was also my 24th birthday! My friend Alex (also in G-38) came to hang out with me and my host family for the celebration. On the day of my birthday we made whole-wheat pizza and drank "Paraguayan Sangria" (aka Wine and Orange Fanta). It was a fun first birthday in Paraguay.

Made a Pepperoni Pizza and a Veggie Pizza

Alex, Host Mom (Margarita), Me

2 of my favorite girls in my site so far -- Maribel, Lizzi with my host mom, Margarita

The next day after my birthday it rained all day so Alex and I decided to make a Pumpkin Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. A few things ended up going wrong ... we didn't have enough powdered sugar for the icing so it was more like a glaze and we didn't bake the cake long enough but we were impatient and ate it anyway.

Doesn't look the prettiest but it sure did taste good.

The next day after that was "Dia de Maria Auxilliadora." She is one of the Patron Saints of my town. My host grandmother had been preparing for this day at least 2 weeks or more, painting the house, buying food (lots and lots of food), renting chairs and even wiring the outside of the house with speakers. It was a  long day of eating lots of food, praying to Maria Auxilliadora, dancing, drinking and even doing a small procession around town. Oh and did I mention this all took place at my house.

Decorating!

Sooooo much meat!

Alex and I enjoying some Terere

Sopa Paraguaya

My host Grandmother

All the people at my house

Procession through town

The next day Alex and I left for Asuncion where a bunch of our G-mates got together for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and David's birthday. It was so great to see all my friends again, I didn't realize til I went to site how close I'd gotten to the rest of my G-mates, this experience really bonds you together. We went out for dinner, one night to TGIFridays and out to a bunch of other places around Asuncion to celebrate.

Amy and I sharing a romantical moment

The group at TGIFridays

Alex y yo