Rainbow Cake Recipe from scratch
Make a perfect rainbow cake recipe with all the seven colors of the rainbow. This easy rainbow cake recipe from scratch with step by step pictures and video shows you how to make a seven-layer rainbow cake simple, easy and effortlessly. Whether you chose to use gel food colors or natural food colors to make the colors this is a birthday cake recipe any kid would love to celebrate with.
Nothing beats having a rainbow cake to celebrate your kids birthday party. This was my son's birthday cake (post updated - 2018). Well, having a mom as a cake decorator means my kids get more than one cake. So this was one of his three birthday cakes.
He has somehow not into chocolate cake recently. And he did not want any brown, white or black on his cake. Mama, can you make me a rainbow cake? I mean a rainbow drip cake? And I want colorful drip on top, no chocolate, or white or metallic. Now here the drip is, of course, white chocolate but he was ok with that since we were going to color it. Of course, if you wanted to make a drip with a different medium than you can, of course, use royal icing. I will share more details on how you can do that when I share how I made this Lolipop Rainbow Drip Cake - here.
About this rainbow cake recipe (Save/Pin)
This is a simple, easy and quick recipe as you can see in the video below. The butter-based cake batter with buttermilk for a tender crumb. This cake here is seven layers of rainbow cake. Of course, you can make six if you prefer to omit the indigo layers.
Another thing to notice is that I have seven layers of cake and no support in the middle. Yes, that's because we wanted a tall rainbow cake that we cut in one slice. 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 for the rainbow cake. You can decorate it any way you want. If you want to decorate it as I have you can see the process here in my rainbow drip cake
Ingredients and substitutes (Save/Pin)
- 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.
Useful Tips and Tools
- If you bake often, it would be a good idea to invest in a cake mixer. Because, often, we try to mix by hand and then we are too tired to give it enough creaming or mixing. So, if you are making this cake go ahead and remove that K-Mix or Kitchen Aid from your kitchen cabinet. You don’t have to buy an expensive stand mixer, a simple hand mixer also works great.
- I believe in measuring ingredients by weight, which makes my kitchen scale one of the most valuable items when baking.
- And the same goes for my measuring cups and measuring spoons. It’s always a good idea to have these handy and use them when baking rather than trying to guess measurements.
- Also, I think one set of baking pans is a must for anyone a home baker. I often use three 6-inch round cakes, which I often split into 4 layers for a tall display. Some times, I use three 8-inch round pans or three 7-inch cakes.
- Once baked, always invert your cakes on a cooling rack. This enables air circulation and prevents the steam from pooling at the bottom of the pan.
- Lastly, every oven works differently. So the baking times are just guidelines. In the case of cakes, a skewer inserted in the center is a great indication. If the cake bakes too fast or too slow compared to the time given, it might be a good idea to check if your oven needs calibration.
- An oven thermometer is a great little gadget to help keep the oven temperature in check. All you need to do then is adjust the temperature accordingly.
How to Make an Easy Rainbow Cake (Save/Pin)
Prepare batter
- Preheat oven - 160 C / 320 F.
- Grease and line your baking pans/foils.
- Ensure all ingredients are at room temperature especially butter and eggs.
- In a mixing bowl or use a bowl and whisk/spatula.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time.
- Followed by the flour mixture and buttermilk in three additions.
- Once you have a smooth batter.
Adding color to the batter
- Divide batter between six or seven bowls approximately. I use similar bowls and a measuring cup.
- To make a Rainbow Cake we need six or seven colors if you choose to make the last color.
- Add the seven edible food colors straight out of the bottle - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and violet.
- Once all the colors are ready.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pans.
Bake, cool, decorate
- Bake in a preheated oven on the center rack - the layers take no more than 8 to 10 minutes.
- Insert a skewer in the center at about 8-minute mark.
- You can bake them in batches of two or three.
- When baked cool them completely on a wire rack.
- Decorate layered with frosting as required.
How to decorate this rainbow 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.
Easy Rainbow Cake Recipe from scratch aka Seven Layer Rainbow Cake
Print Pin RateDescription
Ingredients
- 380 grams (3.00 cups) All-purpose flour
- 226 grams (1 cups) Unsalted butter (2 sticks) room temperature
- 300 grams (1.5 cups) White fine grain sugar
- 5 Eggs large
- 250 ml (1 cups) Buttermilk
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 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.
- Ensure all ingredients are at room temperature especially butter and eggs.
- In a mixing bowl or use a bowl and whisk/spatula.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time.
- Followed by the flour mixture and buttermilk in three additions.
- Once you have a smooth batter.
Adding color to the batter
- Divide batter between six or seven bowls approximately. I use similar bowls and a measuring cup.
- To make a Rainbow Cake we need six or seven colors if you choose to make the last color.
- Add the seven edible food colors straight out of the bottle - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.
- Once all the colors are ready.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pans.
Bake, cool, decorate
- Bake in a preheated oven on the center rack.
- You can bake them in batches of two or three.
- When baked cool them completely on a wire rack.
- Decorate layered with frosting as required.
Recipe Notes
Baking Pans
- If you want to make a 9-inch tall cake like this use seven - 5 1/2 inch round pans
- If you want to make a 6-inch tall cake use six - 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
Need to bake a rainbow cake with the kids?
One of the fun things about making a rainbow cake is having the kids join in the fun. Which 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 a rainbow 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 a rainbow cake recipe?
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 layers may be a bit long to keep the batter. While I don't always recommend reusable baking pans in some cases like a rainbow cake they work better.
Frequently asked questions
If properly stored, a chocolate fudge cake will last for 2 to 3 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 to make a rainbow cake. I recommend you double this eggless vanilla cake to make this size rainbow cake.
If you want to make a 9-inch tall cake like this use seven - 5 1/2 inch round pans
If you want to make a 6-inch tall cake use six - 7 inch round cake pans
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 option 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. Which means your batter will not only obtain the color of the fruit but also the taste and flavor for 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
There are so many other choices for frosting. Such as:
Swiss or Italian Meringue Buttercream
French or German Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
I have over 30 plus frosting recipes on this blog. And I highly recommend checking them out
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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
Valerie
Could you please tell me where to find the icing recipe and the directions for decorating the cake. Thank you.
Veena Azmanov
Hey Valerie, I have linked it in the post. Rainbow Drip Cake Tutorial. Thanks
Valerie
Thank you.
Preema
Dear Veena....You've kind of become my mentor... Luv your work. Keep going... Im gonna try this cake and come back to you on the result. Ive tried your meringue, its superb. I tried the fondant and i fell in love with it. Im yet to learn to roll the fondant on the cake though :-). you are doing a great job. Cant thank you enough for sharing your wonderful recipes... thnx again.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you so much Preema. Have fun with it.
Sandra Morais Fernandes
For sure the oven can't fit the 6 cake pans at the same time, can the others wait outside the oven for 20 minutes until the firt ones comes out?
Anissa Fleming
I'm always on your pg looking at all your beautiful cakes an other desserts
Nilanjana Chatterji
Hi! Tried the different colors but never got as vibrant as yours- yours are awesome! Please tell me which colours you used. Also the eggwhites were so yellow that when i tried to make blue, it turned out green- HELP!
Anissah S. Keskin
nice your post, very interisting.beautiful work and shape, colors designing and any kinds of flavors. i love it..good ideas.
TANVI VASANI
Hello mam just love your tips and techniques. Thank u very much for all the information. can you tell me how to flavor a rainbow cake?
Donna Buell
I LOVE YOUR VIEDOS! Can you tell me what to use on gumpaste figurines for edible paint? Example... Eyes, eyeliner... Lipstick etc...
Gul Bansal
U are a cake artist......
Zainab Hasnain
Hi veena mam, ilike yor ideas n i m also making cakes on order.
Maritza Perez
No entiendo lo quiero en español
Marcia Ribeiro
Could I use a sponge cake will it still work ty love your cake could you pleasw do a fishing boat my dad goes fishing with his friend in his boat will like to make same thing special ty
Debbie Cannon Kelly
Always beautiful work
Sunita Nagiah
your recipe are too interesting
shalu
That is my kind of resolution. Why do you always tempt me so much. I am definitely saving this recipe!:)