Pony Cake

This cake was for the 4-year birthday of my friend's daughter. Needless to say, the kids all liked it. It's a lot of cake, though, so bring some adults to help eat it .

Yield: 24 servings.

Ingredients

Cake

3 white cake mixes + ingredients on the box
Food coloring

Buttercream Frosting

32 tbsp butter
22 cups powdered sugar
20-24 tbsp milk
Red food coloring

Decorations

1 lb. gum paste
Gel food coloring
2 small ponies
5-6 lollopops
Rainbow gumballs

Directions

Making the rainbow (5-6 days in advance):

Divide the gum paste into six portions. Color each as one of the colors of the rainbow: puple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.
Roll the gum paste into long ropes. Use each of the colors to form a rainbow (purple on the inside, red on the outside). Use a paintbrush and water to bond them together. Stick toothpicks into the base while the gum paste is still soft. Set on wax paper to dry.
With the remaining gum paste, use a rolling pin to flatten them into a rainbow-colored sheet. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make rainbow hearts. Place them on the wax paper.
Each day, flip the rainbow and hearts until they've completely dried and hardened.

Prepare the cake mixes as directed on the box. Split into six equal portions. Color each to be one of the colors of the rainbow: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.
Grease and flour six 9" cake pans. Pour each of the colored batters into a pan. Bake according to the package directions. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Level each cake. Wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze overnight. Freezing the cake will make it much easier to frost and will not adversely affect the taste.
For the frosting, cream together the butter, sugar, and milk. Leave half the frosting plain white; color the other half pink.

Unless you have an exceptionally large stand mixer, you'll need to do this in two batches.

Lay the purple cake on a 10" round cardboard cake base. Apply a crumb coat using the white frosting. Top with each successive cake layer, applying the crumb coat. At the end, crumb coat the outside so that you have a large, white tower. Place in the fridge until the frosting sets.
Apply the pink frosting overtop the white crumb coat, making a smooth pink layer over the top and sides.
Decorating:

Press gumballs into the base of the cake, following the color of the rainbow.
Take each of the gum paste hearts and apply some frosting on one side. Stick them to the side of the cake, about halfway up.
Place your rainbow on the top of the cake. The toothpicks you put into it should hold it upright.
Pipe frosting around the base of the rainbow to cover any uneven points. I did small dollops so that it'd look like clouds.
In retrospect, I should have kept some white frosting for the clouds. Oh well.
Put a small amount of frosting on the feet of the ponies. Add them to the cake.
Stick the lollipops onto the cake. Use longer-stemmed lollipops behind the rainbow and shorter ones in the front. Long stems are good because it'll anchor deep into the cake.