Make a perfect rainbow cake with all the seven colors of the rainbow. A simple and easy butter-based cake that's moist, light, and airy. Frosted with my delicious buttercream and chocolate drip. Then topped with kids' favorite candy.
Nothing beats having a rainbow cake to celebrate your kids birthday party. This was my son's birthday cake. Well, having a mom as a cake decorator means my kids get more than one cake. I had strick instructions and specifically told to make sure there were seven colors. In fact, with the kids hovering I may had even place one color in the wrong order. 🤪🤪🤪
About this recipe
This is a simple, easy, and quick recipe as you can see in the video. I used my butter-based vanilla cake batter with buttermilk for a tender crumb. This cake here is seven layers but you can make six and omit the indigo layer.
Another thing to notice is that I have seven layers and no support in the middle. As a cake decorator that would be an absolute NO!! However, I wanted a tall slice of cake to showcase all the 7 colors when it was cut. If you doing a single-tier like this with good Swiss meringue buttercream - this is possible.
This cake is divided into two posts - here I shared the recipe which you can use to decorate any way you want. If you want to decorate as I have you can find the full tutorial here rainbow drip cake.
Ingredients and substitutes
- All-purpose flour - this recipe works great with just regular plain flour. You do not need to use any special cake flour or self-raising flour. If you do need to substitute with other flour I suggest you read about the types of flour and substitutes here.
- Butter - I prefer unsalted butter so I can control the amount of salt. If salted butter is all you get go-ahead and use it - just omit the salt in the recipe.
- Sugar - White sugar means the colors of the rainbow will be bright and beautiful. I like the taste of brown sugar but that would not bring out the true colors in this cake.
- Buttermilk - This contributes to a nice soft crumb in this cake. You can use store-bought buttermilk but homemade buttermilk takes no more than five minutes and here is how you make it - Homemade Buttermilk in 5 minutes.
- Vanilla - Always use good quality vanilla. Ideally, it would be nice to use a clear vanilla extract or vanilla sugar to ensure the colors stay bright and beautiful. But I have often used my homemade vanilla extract with no issues.
Step by step instructions (pin)
Prepare batter
- Preheat oven - 160 C / 320 F.
- Grease and line your baking pans /foils. I used 7 x 5 ½ inch baking foils
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or use a bowl and whisk/spatula. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time making each in properly
- Followed by the flour mixture and buttermilk in three additions. Make sure you have no lumps. Scrape the bottom of the bowl well.
Adding color to the batter
- Divide batter between six or seven bowls approximately. I use similar bowls and a measuring cup.
- Add the seven edible food colors straight out of the bottle - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet to each bowl and combine well.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pans.
Bake, cool, decorate
- Bake in a preheated oven on the center rack.
- Once baked cool them completely on a wire rack. Always decorate cakes when they are completely cold.
Tips - warm cakes will melt the frosting. I prefer to bake my cakes at least 6 to 8 hours prior to decorating. Chilling the cake for an hour will make it easier to handle. - If you want to decorate this cake as I have, watch my tutorial - rainbow drip cake.
How to decorate this cake?
You can simply frost it with buttercream. This cake works well with fondant as well. I used this cake to create a lollipop inspired rainbow drip cake for my sons' birthday. Needless to say, it was a big hit. Here's how I decorated it.
Need to bake this cake with the kids?
One of the fun things about making a rainbow is having the kids join in the fun. This means you need a recipe that can take a little kid abuse of overbeating or under mixing! Know what I mean?
I have always had my kids bake this cake with me. I mean, they are the ones that get excited about the colors, so why not get them to mix! They love mixing and over mixing that color. My Rhea can beat the life out of the cake batter before she hands it over for baking, not to mention she also eats quite a bit of the butter/sugar mix as well as the cake batter.
So, when I bake with the kids I use my One Bowl Vanilla Cake Recipe. It has been used by my kids on many occasions and still turns out absolutely delicious. Plus can you think of a cake recipe easier than just adding all the ingredients in a bowl and mixing? Nah! It works perfectly every single time. No surprise the recipe has always been most popular with everyone on this blog.
Who has so many baking pans for 7 layers?
I often get people who say I don't have so many baking pans of the same size. Is it ok to mix the batter and leave it out while I reuse the pan and bake in batches?
First, Yes, this recipe can wait while you bake in batches but waiting for seven may be a bit long to keep the batter. While I don't always recommend reusable baking pans I make exceptions to this cake.
Frequently asked questions
If properly stored, this cake will last for 2 days at room temperature. It can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 or 6 days
This recipe works best with eggs but I do have an eggless vanilla cake that can be used instead. I recommend you double this eggless vanilla cake to make seven layers with seven colors.
If you want to make a 9-inch tall cake like this use seven - 5 ½ inch round pans
If you want to make a 6-inch tall cake use six - 7 inch round cake pans
There are so many other choices for frosting. Such as:
Swiss or Italian Meringue ButtercreamÂ
French or German Buttercream FrostingÂ
Chocolate Buttercream FrostingÂ
I have over 30 plus frosting recipes on this blog. And I highly recommend checking them out
Can I use natural food colors for this rainbow cake?
I always use food color gels. And yet, I know many of you would like to consider the option of using natural food colors. These days you do get some brand of natural color gels. Here I am sharing with you some options of fruit puree/juice that you can use to obtain colors naturally.
Start with 2 tbsp of fruit puree/juice and add more if needed.
It is very important to understand that unlike gel food color that are flavorless natural food colors will add taste and flavor. This means your batter will not only obtain the color of the fruit but also the taste and flavor of the ingredient used.
Here are some options to consider.
Green - Juice of Kale or Spinach
Blue - Juice or puree of Blueberries
Purple - Juice of puree of Blackberries, grapes.
Red - Beetroot juice
Pink-red currents or Strawberries
Brown - Coffee or Chocolate
Orange - Carrot juice
Yellow - yellow beet/turmeric or Saffron
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Easy Rainbow Cake Recipe from scratch
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Ingredients
- 3 cups (375 g) All-purpose flour
- 8 oz (226 g) Unsalted butter (2 sticks,1 cup) room temperature
- 1 ½ cup (300 g) Sugar
- 5 Eggs large
- 1 cup (240 ml) Buttermilk
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- Food colors red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo, violet - a few drops
Instructions
Prepare batter
- Preheat oven - 160 C / 320 F.
- Grease and line your baking pans /foils. I used 7 x 5 ½ inch baking foils
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or use a bowl and whisk/spatula. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time making each in properly
- Followed by the flour mixture and buttermilk in three additions. Make sure you have no lumps. Scrape the bottom of the bowl well.
Adding color to the batter
- Divide batter between six or seven bowls approximately. I use similar bowls and a measuring cup.
- Add the seven edible food colors straight out of the bottle - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet to each bowl and combine well.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pans.
Bake, cool, decorate
- Bake in a preheated oven on the center rack.
- Once baked cool them completely on a wire rack. Always decorate cakes when they are completely cold. Tips - warm cakes will melt the frosting. I prefer to bake my cakes at least 6 to 8 hours prior to decorating. Chilling the cake for an hour will make it easier to handle.
- If you want to decorate this cake as I have watch my tutorial - rainbow drip cake.
Recipe Notes
Baking Pans
- If you want to make a 9-inch tall cake like this use 7 x 5 ½ inch round pans
- If you want to make a 6-inch tall cake use six x 7 inch round cake pans
Tips for making the perfect Rainbow Cake Recipe
- Always make sure the ingredients are at room temperature when you start mixing the batter.
- For the color indigo, you will need to play with blue and red until you find the shade you are looking for. I find a ratio of 1 drop blue and two drops of red is a good ratio.
- The colors will darken during baking so do not overdo the colors.
- You don't have to bake the batter all at once, you can bake them two at a time in batches.
- These layers are thinner than regular cake layers so they bake real quick. It is very important to pay close attention to the baking time or these will dry out.
- Always store the cake layers well wrapped in cling wrap to prevent them from drying out.
Equipment
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Yasmeen
For half kg rainbow the recipe pls
Veena Azmanov
Not sure about half kg, Yasmeen. I don't do cakes by weight. You can reduce or increase the servings below in the recipe card and it will calculate the recipe for you. Thanks
Maddy
I want to thank you for your very helpful videos and quick replies to questions. I made a four layer cake for my son, and it turned out great. I wish I could share a pic. I'm hoping to do one of your masterclasses too sometime soon. Thank you again!
Veena Azmanov
You are welcome, Maddy. Thank you, You can share the pictures in our Facebook Group. Would love to see them
Maddy
Thank you for your previous replies. One more question - Which brand of gel food coloring have you used for this cake?
Veena Azmanov
Hey Maddy. happy to help. I always use Magic Colours Brand but any brand would work - Try Americolor too.
Maddy
Please clarify - Are you referring to confectioners sugar when you say fine grain sugar? Or is it granulated cane sugar? Thank you
Veena Azmanov
Maddy, Confectioners sugar is powdered sugar or icing sugar. Thanks
Maddy
I need help modifying this recipe. I only have two 9 inch pans and I want to make a four layer (blue, red, yellow, green) cake. Please advice. I can only bake two layers at a time, so do I leave the remaining batters in the fridge while waiting on the pans?
Veena Azmanov
Maddy, this batter is good for 2 x 9-inch cake pans. My cake is tall but the diameter is only 5 1/2 inches. I hope that makes sense. So you can make 2x9 inch cakes or double it and make 4 x 9-inch layers
Susan
Very moist, smooth and delicious cake. Recipe was easy to understand and very helpful every step of the way. Thank you
Veena Azmanov
Thank you so much Susan for the lovely feedback
cynthia
this recipe is the bomb its light and moist best cake recipe for sure love that you do metric measurements
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, Cynthia. So happy you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for coming back to write this feedback. Yes, the recipe card has both Metric and US measurements