Italian Rainbow Flag Cookies

Ingredients

For The Cake:

3 disposable 9×11″ aluminum pans

1 (12-ounce can) almond Filling or paste

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon almond extract

For The Layers:

Red, Green and Yellow food coloring

1 cup seedless raspberry jam

For The Topping:

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large bottle of chocolate sprinkles

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour the three baking pans. Set aside.

In the bowl of a kitchen mixer, such as a KitchenAid, fitted with a whist attachment, add the butter and sugar and mix well on medium speed. With the mixer running, add and eggs. Add the almond filling and almond extract and mix well to incorporate and until smooth (don’t worry about the lumps from the almond pieces). With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour to form a loose looking dough.

Divide the dough into 3 equal portions in separate bowls. Mix each with appropriate food coloring and then spread into greased pan. The mixture may be hard to spread, do your best to evenly cover the bottom of the baking pan as best as possible.

Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until the cakes are set. Cool completely.

Once cool, very gently remove the cakes from the pan and place on atop of parchment paper. Using a serrated knife, lightly trim the cakes on all sides making them flat and even in size.

To Assemble: Place a piece of clear plastic wrap long enough to cover all the layers on the kitchen counter. Lay the GREEN layer down on the plastic wrap. Spread about 1/2 cup jam on top of the green layer.

Place the YELLOW layer on top of the green layer. Spread the yellow layer with the raining raspberry jam.

Place the PINK layer on top of the yellow layer. Wrap the layers cake up and with plastic wrap. Compress the cake with something heavy (Pyrex dish or a heavy cutting board work well) and place in fridge to chill for about 3 hours.

To Frost: Once chilled, remove the plastic wrap and place cake on a piece of parchment paper.

Place the chocolate chips and butter in a small sauce pan and heat over a low flame. When melted, using an offset spatula, quickly spread a thin layer the size of the cake on the wax paper. Note: this will be the bottom layer of the cake.

Next, place the cake on top of the chocolate. Begin spreading the melted chocolate on the top and sides of the cake. Note: you may have to reheat the chocolate if it gets too firm to spread.

Once the cake is covered in chocolate, cover generously in chocolate sprinkles pricing lightly to get them to adhere to the melted chocolate.

Refrigerate cake for an additional 30 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden.

Use a large slicer or serrate knife to slice cake into small squares.