Looking to add a little colour to your next birthday celebration? Look no further than a layered rainbow birthday cake! I had seen these a few times on Pinterest and always thought they looked great, so when I had the opportunity to bake a cake for a child’s birthday party, it was a no-brainer.
Notes:
Icing: Most people use a buttercream frosting for this cake, however my family always prefers a cream cheese icing. It may not be everyone’s taste, so go with your gut, but I’ve included the instructions for the cream cheese icing here.
Sweetness Level: This cake is incredibly sweet. I have a pretty intense sweet tooth, and it was quite sweet even for me. But the kids really loved it. So keep that in mind and think of who your audience will be before you make this cake.
Size: This recipe uses two cake mixes and makes a very large cake. If you want a smaller cake you can do it using a single box, but you’ll need the appropriate size pans. I was recently gifted a set of five small round pans specifically intended for a single cake. If I were to do this cake again using those pans I would likely eliminate the purple layer and make a five-layer rainbow birthday cake.
Food Coloring: I’ve read in other posts that you need to use gel food coloring. The colours that were recommended to me were all sold out where I went, so instead I used Wilton’s Color Right Food Color Mixture. It worked perfectly.
Rainbow Birthday Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 boxes of your favorite boxed white cake mix (the rest of the cake ingredients will depend on the instructions on the cake mix you’re using. The following are based on Duncan Hines)
- 2/3 cups of oil
- 2 cups water
- 6 eggs
Cream Cheese Icing
- 2 8 ounce blocks cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup salted butter softened
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 6 cups powdered sugar
Directions
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 (8-inch) round cake pans.
- In large bowl, beat the cake mix, oil, water and eggs with an electric mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds, then on medium speed for 2 minutes. Don’t forget to scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Divide the batter evenly among 6 small bowls, about 1 1/4 cups each.
- Using the food coloring, tint each bowl of batter. One red, one orange (by mixing red and yellow), one yellow, one green, one blue, one purple (by mixing blue and red).
- Refrigerate four colors of the batter until you’re ready to bake. Pour the remaining two colors of batter into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched lightly in the center and begins to pull away from the side of the pan. Check it with a toothpick and make sure it comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans and place on cooling racks. Let them cool completely.
- Wash the cake pans thoroughly. Bake and cool the next two cake layers as directed. Then repeat with the final two.
I should point out here that I did two pans at a time because that’s all I had. You can do three or four if you have the space.
For the icing, simply mix the softened cream cheese and butter together, then add in the vanilla. Mix well. Slowly beat in the icing sugar until you reach the consistency and flavour that you want.
Now comes the frosting part. I have to admit that I’m not the best at this, but I gave it my best shot.
Place your first layer onto your cake board. It’s best if you have a round turntable, but no biggie if you don’t. I started with the purple layer so that red would be on top, but you can do the opposite if you want.
Add a thin layer of icing. Then place the next layer on top. Repeat until you have all the layers done.
At this point I like to cover the entire cake in a thin layer of icing (called a crumb coat) and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Then I remove it and put a thicker layer of icing on the entire thing. Then I added a ton of sprinkles, and voila!
It may not be as beautiful as some of the cakes I’ve seen out there, but for an amateur baker, I think it looks pretty good! And it went over very well with the crowd.
Looking for another fun birthday cake idea? Check out my cute birthday Kit Kat cake!
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