Best 4 Vibrant Rainbow Cake Recipes

RAINBOW SWIRL CAKE

Steps:

• Prepare three 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
• Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
• Add the butter, vegetable oil and sugar to a large mixer bowl and beat together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time. You should be able to see the change in the color and texture of the mixture.
• Add the eggs two at a time, mixing until well combined after each. Add the vanilla extract with the second round of eggs. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
• Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until combined.
• Add the buttermilk and mix until well combined.
• Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Do not over mix the batter.
• Divide the batter evenly between 6 bowls. It should be a little more than a cup per bowl.
• Add gel icing color to the bowls (one color per bowl) and gently fold until the color is mixed throughout. You should have one bowl each of purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.
• Add the colored cake batter to the cake pans. Starting with the purple batter, add spoonfuls of batter around the bottom of the pan. Divide each color evenly between the three pans. Give the pan a little side-to-side shake to distribute the batter around a bit between each color. After the purple, add the blue, then green, then yellow, then orange and finally red.
• Bake for 28-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.
• To make the frosting, add the butter and shortening to a large mixer bowl and beat until smooth.
• Add about half of the powdered sugar and mix until well combined and smooth.
• Add the vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of water or milk and mix until well combined.
• Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until well combined and smooth.
• Add additional water or milk as needed to get the right consistency.
• To put the cake together, first remove the domes from the top of the cakes so they are level.
• Place the first layer of cake on a cake plate or cardboard cake circle, then top it with about 1 cup of frosting and spread into an even layer.
• Add the second layer of cake another layer of frosting.
• Add the final layer of cake on top, the frost the outside of the cake. Feel free to use my tutorial for frosting a smooth cake, if you like.
• Divide the remaining frosting between 6 bowls. I had about 1/3 cup of frosting per bowl, but you may have a little more or less, depending on how much you use to frost the cake.
• Use the gel icing colors to color each bowl of frosting, using one color per bowl.
• To make the rainbow swirl frosting border, add each color of frosting to a ziplock bag. Lay a piece of clear wrap out on the table. Trim the corner off of each ziplock bag. Pipe a thick row of each color of frosting in this order - purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red - side-by-side onto the clear wrap.
• Fold the clear wrap over into a long log (see photos above for guidance). Twist one end closed and trim the other end, if needed, so that the frosting is right at the end.
• Put the log into a piping bag with the open end of the log going into the piping tip. I used piping tip Ateco 849.
• Begin piping shells of frosting around the top edge of the cake. After each shell is piped, turn the piping bag just a little bit before piping the next shell. As you continue piping and turning the piping bag, you'll get a rainbow that rotates around so you see all the colors.
• To pipe shells around the bottom of the cake, create another log of rainbow frosting, add it to the piping bag and pipe shells around the bottom in the cake manner - turning the bag slightly after each shell.
• Store cake in an airtight container until ready to serve. Cake is best for 2-3 days.

EASY SIX-LAYER RAINBOW CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease six 9-inch round cake pans and dust with flour.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
• Beat 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, milk, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla extract in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in flour mixture and mix until just combined.
• Divide cake batter evenly between 6 bowls. Mix in different food coloring to each bowl, creating 6 different colored batters. Start with just 1 to 2 drops of food coloring in each bowl, then mix; you can always add more.
• Bake each cake in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
• Beat cream in a chilled glass or metal bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Stir together confectioners' sugar and mascarpone cheese in a separate bowl, then fold gently into the whipped cream until smooth.
• Spread frosting on each layer of cooled cake, placing one on top of the other. Cover the top and sides with the remaining frosting. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

RAINBOW LAYER CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.
• In 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 side of pan. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks; cool completely.
• Wash cake pans. Bake and cool remaining 3 cake layers as directed.
• In 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 light coat of frosting on top and side of cake to seal in crumbs, then frost with remaining frosting.

VIBRANT RAINBOW CAKE

Steps:

• Grease two 9" round cake pans with shortening and then lightly flour each. Preheat oven to whatever the cake mix directions calls for.
• Mix cake according to box directions, then seperate into 6 bowls (if doing the full rainbow). Since the first color gets spread the furthest it is a good idea to put slightly more in one bowl and a little less in each subsequently after that so the last color has the least amouont of all.
• Mix in GEL coloring until desired color is achieved. Use a little for pastel colors, and use a bit more for bold and vibrant colors. Take care to put the appropriate color in each bowl if you took the extra step to put a little more in your outside color bowls. The rainbow pattern is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet.
• Take the first color (red if you are doing the rainbow, and this will be your outside color) and spoon half into the very middle of each cake pan. You can then lightly tip it around a bit to get the color to spread some, but don't worry about it not reaching the sides, because it will by the time you are done.
• Take your next color and carefully pour it directly into the middle of the first color. Once in you can again tip it a bit to spread it out some, but don't stir it or anything as that will mess up the pattern. Do this with each color until you have used all of them -- by this time your outside colors should be pushed out to the edges.
• Bake as stated on your box, and allow to cool for a couple minutes in the pans before trying to remove them. Carefully tip them out onto a wire rack to cool completely (after a couple minutes I also carefully then flipped them right side up so the bottoms were on the rack since the tops tend to stick to the rack if left for too long).
• Once cool, shave a little off one layer to make a flat surface (this is so the other piece can stack without tipping). You can put some sort of filling in between the layers if you want, but I just left them without for mine. Then frost your cake and top with sprinkles!
• *NOTE* this can also be done in a rectangular dish if you prefer and then you would obviously just pour all of each color at a time, and frost it directly in the pan. It might also be fun to try a splatter type pattern, just taking scoops and dropping them into the pan in a swirl motion (not stirring in the pan) or putting into cupcake form. The person who told me about this also mentioned that you can use 2 cake mixes for the round pans and then just use the leftover batter for extra cupcakes or something, but for my family I didn't need quite so much cake.