Looking for some easy cake recipes to make for a birthday party? If so, you can never go wrong with rainbow cake. Rainbow cake is so pretty and festive, which makes it perfect for a celebration. Whether it is your child’s first birthday party or some other festive party, baking a rainbow cake is a great idea. In this article, I’ll go over how to make rainbow cake, as well as the different kinds of rainbow cake you can make. Let’s begin.
How To Make Rainbow Cake
There are many different rainbow cake recipes available. Some people add rainbow frosting, while others keep it simple with regular white icing. Some people make their rainbow cake in layers, while others add swirls. The most popular rainbow cake recipes are a rainbow layer cake and a rainbow swirl cake. Both are fairly easy to make. Let’s take a look at how to make these two types of rainbow cake.
How To Make A Rainbow Layer Cake
Recipe Source: Betty Crocker
Image Source: Betty Crocker
A rainbow layer cake is probably the most popular and easiest type of rainbow cake to make. This layer cake has layers of colors instead of the colors being swirled together. That is why it is called a layer cake. Here are the instructions for making this delicious layer cake.
Ingredients:
- 2 boxes Betty Crocker™ Super Moist™ vanilla cake mix
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 6 eggs
- 2 packages (2.7 oz each) Betty Crocker™ classic gel food colors
For the frosting:
- Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Divide batter evenly among 6 small bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each.
- Using food colors, tint batter in 1 bowl blue, 1 bowl red, 1 bowl green, 1 bowl yellow, 1 bowl orange (using red and yellow) and 1 bowl purple (using blue and red).
- Refrigerate 3 colors of batter until ready to bake. Pour remaining 3 colors of batter into cake pans.
- Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center and begins to pull away from the side of the pan. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks; cool completely.
- Wash cake pans. Bake and cool remaining 3 cake layers as directed.
Directions:
- In a large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer on medium speed until light yellow. On low speed, gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat in vanilla. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until frosting is smooth. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy.
- Trim rounded tops off cakes to level, if needed. On serving plate, place purple cake layer. Spread with frosting to within 1/4 inch of edge. Repeat with blue, green, yellow, orange and red cake layers. Spread a light coat of frosting on top and side of cake to seal in crumbs, then frost with remaining frosting.
How To Make the Frosting and Finish the Cake:
How To Make a Rainbow Swirl Cake
Recipe Source: In Katrina’s Kitchen
Image Source: In Katrina’s Kitchen
The next most popular rainbow cake is the swirl cake. Rainbow swirl cakes are very unique, as they do not have layers, but instead, the colors are all mixed together. Although it may seem more difficult to make a rainbow swirl cake, it is actually very easy. Let’s take a look at how to make rainbow cake with swirls in it.
Ingredients:
- Prepare your cake batter as you normally would and divide into however many sections that you would like.
- Use food dye to color your cake batter. If you use gel or paste then you will only need 1 drop per section for a deep color.
- Drop your batter into the pan one color at a time and bake as normal.
- Frost and enjoy!
Directions:
How To Make A Rainbow Surprise Inside Cake
Recipe Source: Betty Crocker
Image Source: Betty Crocker
This next rainbow cake does not actually have rainbow-colored filling or frosting. Instead, the cake is stuffed with colorful candy such as M&Ms. You can also decorate the top of the cake with colorful cake toppings. Here are the instructions for making a rainbow surprise cake.
Ingredients:
- 2 boxes Betty Crocker™ Super Moist™ party rainbow chip cake mix (read the label to find out how many eggs, water, and vegetable oil you need).
- 2 containers Betty Crocker™ Whipped vanilla frosting
- 1 cup M&M’s minis chocolate candies
- 2 cups M&M’s chocolate candies
- 3/4 cup assorted Betty Crocker™ candy sprinkles
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease or spray two 8-inch round cake pans; place an 8-inch round piece of cooking parchment paper in the bottom of each pan. Grease or spray parchment paper. In a large bowl, beat 1 box cake mix and ingredients called for on box with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on high speed about 2 minutes or until smooth. Spread in pans. Bake as directed on box. Cool 10 minutes; run a knife around sides of pans to loosen cakes. Gently remove from pans to cooling rack; remove parchment paper. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, repeat to make 2 more layers.
- Flatten cake layers by trimming off rounded tops. In 2 layers, cut small round out of the center, using a 4-inch round cutter.
- To assemble cake: Place 1 uncut cake layer on cake stand or serving platter; spread 1/3 cup frosting on top. Top with 1 layer with center removed; spread 1/3 cup frosting on top. Top with the second layer with center removed; spread 1/3 cup frosting on top.
- Fill cake with candies and candy sprinkles. Gently press candies to level; top with full cake layer. Frost side and top of cake with remaining frosting.
Directions:
Rainbow Layer Cake with Rainbow Chip Frosting
Recipe Source: Betty Crocker
Image Source: Betty Crocker
Once again, this is another layer cake. However, this time the cake is made with rainbow chip frosting. This means that the frosting has a different taste than the previous rainbow cakes. Here are the instructions on how to make rainbow cake with rainbow chip frosting.
Ingredients:
- Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, beat cake mixes, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Divide batter evenly among 6 small bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each.
- Using food colors, tint batter in 1 bowl blue, 1 bowl red, 1 bowl green, 1 bowl yellow, 1 bowl orange (using red and yellow) and 1 bowl purple (using blue and red).
- Refrigerate 3 colors of batter until ready to bake. Pour remaining 3 colors of batter into cake pans.
- Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center and begins to pull away from the side of the pan. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks; cool completely, about 1 hour.
- Wash cake pans. Bake and cool remaining 3 cake layers as directed.
- Trim rounded tops off cakes to level, if needed. On a serving plate, place purple cake layer. Spread with frosting to within 1/4 inch of edge. Repeat with blue, green, yellow, orange and red cake layers. Spread a light coat of frosting on side and top of the cake to seal in crumbs, then frost again with remaining frosting.
Directions:
How To Make Rainbow Cake With Rainbow Buttercream Roses
Recipe Source: Land Lakes
Image Source: Land Lakes
This cake is almost too pretty to eat! With the beautiful rainbow buttercream roses and the rainbow layer cake filling, this cake is simply gorgeous. Here are the steps on how to make rainbow cake with buttercream roses.
Ingredients:
For the buttercream frosting:
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 (8-inch) round cake pans; set aside.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a bowl; set aside.
- Beat sugar and 1 cup butter in another bowl at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until creamy. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Add 1 tablespoon vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating at low speed after each addition, just until mixed.
- Divide batter evenly between 6 bowls. Tint cake batters red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Spread red and orange batter into prepared pans. Bake 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool 3 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely. Meanwhile, wash pans; grease and lightly flour pans. Repeat with remaining colors until all cake layers are baked.
Directions:
- Combine powdered sugar, 1 1/2 cups butter and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy. Add whipping cream and 1 tablespoon vanilla; continue beating until smooth. Remove 2 cups frosting; set aside. Divide remaining frosting evenly between 6 bowls with approximately 1/3 cup each. Tint frostings pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Set aside.
- Place purple cake layer onto serving plate, bottom-side up. Frost top with 1/4 cup white frosting. Place blue cake layer over frosting; frost with 1/4 cup white frosting. Continuing adding green, yellow, orange, and red layers in that order, and frosting with 1/4 cup white frosting between each layer. Frost outside of cake with remaining white frosting.
- Place each tinted frosting into an individual resealable plastic food bag; pushing frosting to one corner. Cut off 1/2 inch from the tip of the corner. Place an 18-inch long piece of plastic food wrap onto counter surface. Pipe each color onto plastic wrap to form wide 12-inch horizontal lines (using all of the frostings) that are touching. Gently roll frosting lines into one large log, using plastic wrap. Snip tip off 1 end of the plastic wrap. Place cut-side down into piping bag fitted with star tip. Pipe rainbow rosettes onto cake as desired.
How To Make the Frosting and Finish the Cake:
Final Thoughts
I hope this article on how to make rainbow cake has answered all your questions. As you can see, there are many recipes for how to make rainbow cake. From layer cake to swirl cake, these cake ideas are all perfect for birthday parties and other celebrations. Have fun baking rainbow cake!
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Image Source: Betty Crocker
Last update on 2024-04-25 at 20:57 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
