For the cake:
2 cups sugar
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup milk, at room temperature
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp lemon zest
4 large farm fresh eggs

For the frosting:
6 cups powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the crown:
1/2 box yellow fondant
Oatmeal container (or something round of similar size)
Edible gold shimmer powder

To bake the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour two 9″ round cake pans.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Add butter to the mixer and beat until it looks sandy.
4. Combine the milk and vanilla and add to the mixer. Mix on low speed until incorporated. Add lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice and mix well.
5. Crack eggs into a bowl. This way, you won’t accidentally get egg shells in your cake batter. With the mixer running on low, add eggs one at a time. Make sure each is incorporated before adding the next.
6. Divide batter evenly into six bowls. Start with a cup measure. The last couple of colors will have a bit less than a cup of batter, but that’s fine because those will be your inner colors. Color the batter to your liking in gold, green, red, pink, and blue, leaving one bowl plain for the white queen.
7. Spoon half of each color into each pan. Softly bang the bottom of the pans against the countertop to help settle the batter after each addition. Spoon each additional color directly on top of the last in the center of the pan. The batter will make its way to the edge of the pan.
8. Bake for  30-35 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.
9. Remove the cake from the oven and place it on a rack to cool for five minutes before removing it from the pan and allowing layers to cool completely.
10. Frost with Lemon Frosting (recipe below) with the first layer’s rainbow facing you and the top layer’s rainbow facing down for the arched effect. Top with gold crown (recipe follows).

To make the Lemon Frosting:

1. Cream together powdered sugar and softened butter with an electric mixer. Start with two cups of powdered sugar and half a stick of butter, alternating additions.
2. Slowly incorporate vanilla, milk, and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Beat until smooth. Add additional milk or powdered sugar if needed for desired consistency.

To make the crown:

1. Use a fashion measuring tape to measure the outside of a large oatmeal container, or something of similar size to shape your crown around. Roll yellow fondant out to match those dimensions (mine was DIMENSIONS).
2. Use a pairing knife to mark the exact center of one long side of the fondant, going about half an inch up. (See photo.) Use that mark to cut out a triangle. Use the two triangle halves to make an identical cut next to that triangle and use the whole triangle as a stencil to cut triangles out of the rest of that side.
3. Wrap the fondant around the oatmeal container, using a culinary paint brush dipped in water to seal the edge. Let dry for several days or pop it in the oven with the oven light turned on to dry out the fondant quicker.
4. When thoroughly dry, remove crown from oatmeal container. Mix edible gold glitter and lemon extract and use a culinary paint brush to paint the glitter on the crown. Let dry over night, then carefully transfer crown to cake.