Checkerboard Cake

I made this cake for Mike's graduation party in the spring and it was a huge hit. It looks like it would be hard to make but it really isn't. I got this recipe from Valerie Barrett's Cakes Galore and only changed the color to make it blue and white instead of pink and white to match Ladue colors. For this cake above I cheated and used canned icing because I thought the cake would take too much time and I would not want to make buttercream but if I did this again I would make my own icing so I included the recipe the book had for the most basic buttercream. When I decorated with the canned icing I only dyed about a 1/3 of it blue rather than all of it because only the side of my cake and the writing on top was blue and the majority of it was white. 

CAKE:

Plain Cake Ingredients:

-3/4 cup vegetable margarine

-3/4 cup superfine sugar (I used granulated)

-3 eggs, beaten

-1 1/4 cups self-rising flour

Blue Cake Ingredients:

-3/4 cup vegetable margarine

-3/4 cup superfine sugar

-3 eggs, beaten

-1 1/4 cup self-rising flour

-Blue food coloring

 FROSTING:

-2 cups soft margarine

-8 cups powdered sugar, sifted

-blue food coloring

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. To make plain cake, grease and line the bottom of two 8 in. round cake pans.

     Beat the margarine and sugar together in a bowl until light and creamy. Add the eggs and flour and beat until smooth. Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared pans and level the surface. Bake in oven for 20-25 min, or until risen and firm to touch. Cool in the pans for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

     To make the blue cakes, follow the same method as for the plain cakes but add some blue food coloring to the margarine and sugar mixture, mixing well. Bake and cool the cakes as above. 

     To make the frosting, put the margarine in a bowl and gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Add some blue food coloring, mixing well. You can leave out come plain white icing for decorating if you would like

     To assemble the cakes, place them on a large work surface. Using a 4 1/2 in and a 2in plain round cookie cutter, cut rings from each cake. (make sure that cakes are COMPLETELY cooled) Carefully lift the central ring from each cake and replace it with one of the other color (when I did this I put a little icing between the different rings to keep them together better). Spread a little frosting over each cake and stack them on top of one another, making sure you alternate the cakes to give a checkerboard effect. 

this is what the cake should look like before icing it

     Spread the remaining blue frosting over the top and sides of the cake. If you are decorating it with white icing like I did then place the reserved icing in a piping bag and pipe away.