Regnbogar

Rainbows

For me, Iceland is definitely the land of rainbows. In nature in Iceland I always see a rainbow somewhere - whether in the bright sunshine at the waterfall like here at Skógafoss...

... or in the middle of the rain like here at Litla kaffistofa on the ring road on Hellisheiði.

And not only does nature constantly produce beautiful rainbows, most people in Iceland also fully support what the rainbow stands for politically/socially: as a symbol of the LGBTQ community.

Like here in the picture from Gleðiganga 2022, the Reykjavík Pride Parade - the whole street was rainbow colored, the spectators on the street, the street, the shops... A great experience!

Iceland is actually a good country to live in. Actually. Iceland has always been a pioneer in legislation for the full rights of queer people and social acceptance is higher in Iceland than in most other countries. But there are also regressions in Iceland; in recent years there has been increasing hostility and even attacks on people from the LGBTQ community. Most recently, at the end of September 2023, a participant at a Samtökin '78 conference was physically attacked on his way home in Reykjavík and had to spend a night in the hospital.

The government has responded to the attacks by passing laws against hate speech. A campaign is currently in progress to provide information and awareness in this area. “Raising awareness cannot wait!” said Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir’s statement.

So with that in mind - rainbows, especially now!

A little person recently had his 5th birthday here and asked for a birthday cake “with a rainbow and a mermaid”. Of course, grandma also developed ambition to be able to fulfill this birthday wish.

This rainbow birthday cake is of course not a typical Icelandic cake. But rainbows are typically Icelandic. If you also want to bake a cake like this, I have brought you a recipe anyway.

By the way, my little mermaid here is made from colored marzipan that I kneaded and shaped.

Ingredients for the dough

300 g soft butter
240 g sugar
1 pinch of ground vanilla
7 large eggs (L)
3 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 organic lemon
375 ml milk
Food coloring in red, yellow, green and blue

Ingredients for the cream

900 g cream cheese
375 g softened butter
180 g powdered sugar

Decoration to taste

Preparation

Mix butter with sugar and vanilla sugar. Gradually stir in eggs. Mix the flour with baking powder, salt and lemon zest and add to the dough alternately with the milk. Mix well.

Then divide the dough evenly into 6 bowls. Add some food coloring to each bowl to create the 6 colors for the layers of the rainbow:

- Purple dough (mix red and blue color),

- Blue dough (blue color),

- Green dough (green color),

- Yellow dough (yellow color),

- Orange dough (mix yellow and red paint),

- Red dough (red color).

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

Line a springform pan (diameter 24 cm) with baking paper, then add one color of the dough, smooth it out and bake at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 15 to 20 minutes (test with a toothpick!).

I always put two layers in the oven, then carefully removed them from the mold and then baked the next two layers.

Then let all six baked bases cool down.

For the cream, mix the cream cheese with the soft butter and powdered sugar well.

Place the first layer (purple) on a flat cake plate. Spread with a little cream, then place the next base (blue) on top and spread it. Continue with the green, yellow, orange and red soil.

Then spread it all over and decorate the top of the cake to taste. I sprinkled the top with colorful sugar sprinkles, piped the remaining cream all around and then topped the whole thing off with a big rainbow, a mermaid and of course a birthday candle!

Here's another picture of a piece of cake on a plate - by the way, such a tall piece of cake with cream cheese and butter cream fills you up!

Grandson was happy - and grandma too!

[Translated from here.]