Rainbow Layer Cake with Sprinkles

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A beautiful, bright, show-stopping, delicious rainbow layer cake with sprinkles. Nothing beats slicing into this cake and seeing the vibrant colors of the rainbow! This rainbow cake is perfect for birthdays and other special occasions!

rainbow layer cake with sprinkles with a slice.

This decadent and vivid Rainbow Sprinkle Cake is absolutely gorgeous and a crowd pleaser!

This cake has 6 bright colorful layers from the rainbow: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The acronym ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) is useful to remember the order of the rainbow colors. As indigo and violet are fairly similar you can skip indigo. To decorate this cake I add vanilla buttercream in between each layer and frost the cake with vanilla buttercream. Then I add multi-colored sprinkles to the entire body of the cake and use a piping bag and star nozzle to create swirls around the rim of the cake.

Table of Contents

What I Love About This Recipe?

Every time I make this cake I see the delight in people’s faces when they get their first slice. It definitely brings life to the phrase “taste the rainbow ” and it always adds excitement to special occasions!

A super easy recipe of a colorful cake that is kids friendly and trust me, there won’t be any leftovers! Feel free to experiment with this bright cake’s frosting- you can try chocolate, strawberry or any other flavor you wish. You may always use white flour or GF flour in place of self-raising flour.

Every bite of this rainbow cake smothered with sprinkles is indulging!

Ingredients

This recipe uses easy-to-find ingredients that can be bought from a local store if you don’t already have them in your pantry. Read the Recipe Card for the measurements.

For Rainbow Layer Cake

This is a 6” cake with 6 layers of vanilla sponge. This vanilla sponge is made with butter using the creaming method. All ingredients should be at room temperature and all dry ingredients should be sifted (poured through a sieve) before baking.

Unsalted butter- I have used unsalted butter. Any local brand works. Make sure that the butter is at room temperature when you start with steps.
Caster sugar- is finer than granulated sugar and dissolves easily with melted butter. You may use coconut or brown sugar as well.
Vanilla extract- I prefer using vanilla extract over essence as extract adds a strong aroma and flavor to this cake.
Eggs- Eggs add the natural structure and moisture to this cake. They help create a fluffy and soft cake. To make this rainbow cake vegan, you may skip adding eggs and add a flax egg or vegan yogurt with oil.
Self-raising flour- Using self-raising flour eases up the baking process. If you have time, you may always use white flour with leavening agents. For gf, use gf flour.
Milk- I have used full-fat milk and recommend using it. If you wish to make this layer cake vegan, use vegan milk or yogurt.
1/8-1/4 tsp of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet food coloring gel. Each gel is of rainbow color.
Sprinkles- Any local good brand will work.

Equipment

rainbow layered cake with sprinkles top view.

Variations

Rainbow Cheesecake- If you love cheesecake, this rainbow cake can be easily made as cheesecake. Make a base of graham crackers. Mix sour cream, cream cheese, cream, eggs and divide into parts. Add color to each part and add to the top of the graham base. Bake this colorful cake!
Easy Rainbow Unicorn Cake- Make this cake a designer cake by adding a unicorn shape for your kid!
Eggless Rainbow Cake- If you dislike the flavor of egg in cakes, feel free to replace it by flax egg, yogurt and oil.
Rainbow Jello Cake- Twist my recipe of layer cake by adding colorful jello to the cake batter!

Storage Instructions

I would be surprised if there are any leftovers from this amazing cake! If you have any, store them in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

This cake is not recommended to be frozen and I prefer to serve it fresh!

How to Make Rainbow Sprinkle Cake

This rainbow cake is bright, fun and delicious! The steps below will guide you through how to make a rainbow cake from scratch.

TOP TIP: Bake cakes on the middle oven rack if possible. If you don’t have space for 6 tins in your oven then you can half the recipe below and make three cakes first and then bake the remaining three.

Prep Baking Tins

Preheat the oven to 160C/320F/Gas mark 3. Start by greasing 6 non-stick 6″ cake tins with butter or oil and line them with baking paper if necessary.

Mix Ingredients

In a large bowl, add room temperature butter, and sifted caster sugar. Whisk it for a few minutes or until it is pale yellow.

Greased baking tin, room temperature butter in a bowl, caster sugar and room temperature butter in a bowl.

Mix vanilla extract into the butter-sugar mixture. To this, add an egg and mix well until the egg is not visible.
Keep adding the remaining eggs in a similar way. If you add all of the eggs at once the mixture may split and curdle. The mixture should look smooth and silky.
Gradually add sifted self-raising flour (not all at once) to the mixture and room temperature milk and mix.
Add the rest of the self-raising flour and milk then mix.
Note: Do not overmix the cake batter as you still need to mix in food coloring. Overmixing will result in a tough cake.

Color Up the Layers

You will need red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet food coloring. I suggest you use the gel as the colors come out a lot more vibrant. Add equal amounts of the cake batter to six different bowls and add each food coloring and mix until well combined.

red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet cake batter.

Add each colored cake batter into the greased tins and bake for 30 minutes or until done.
To test if your cake is ready, stick a knife into the cake. If it comes out clean then it is done but if it is wet with cake batter then it’s not ready. Once the cakes are ready leave them to cool completely on a cooling rack before decorating.

As you can see from the image below not all of the cakes appear to be the right color. Don’t worry this is perfectly normal because most cakes get burnt on the outside. All you need to do is use a knife to shave off the burnt bits and the color will come through.

Prep Butter Cream

Take another bowl and add room temperature unsalted butter. Whisk on a low speed for 1 minute. Then add some sifted icing sugar and whisk on a medium speed for 3 minutes.
Add the remaining sifted icing sugar, vanilla extract, and double cream. Whisk for 3-5 minutes or until spreadable. Click here for my detailed vanilla buttercream recipe and video.

Assemble The Rainbow Layers

Make sure you stack the cakes in the correct order once it’s time to decorate.

stacked rainbow cake with red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet layers.

Add buttercream to the center of an 8″ cake board. Then place the violet cake on the board. Option to add homemade syrup to the cake to keep it moist. Then add buttercream. Repeat this step for the rest of the cakes.

Syrup Recipe: Heat a 1:1 ratio of water and sugar in a saucepan to create a syrup. Bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes and leave to cool.

Then add buttercream to a piping bag and cover the cake in buttercream. Use a smoother to smooth the cake. I recommend refrigerating the cake for 30 minutes.

stacked rainbow cake with vanilla buttercream in between each layer. Rainbow cake with buttercream frosting.

You have the option to add a second layer of buttercream or skip this and add sprinkles to the entire body of the cake using your hands or a spoon.

stacked rainbow layer cake with vanilla buttercream coated with sprinkles.

Finally, add a star nozzle to a piping bag, add buttercream and add swirls around the rim of the cake.

stacked rainbow layer cake with vanilla buttercream coated with sprinkles and buttercream frosting.

Serve The Cake

Serve the show-stopping rainbow cake with sprinkles! Cut into the cake, take your first slice and take a look at the beautiful rainbow colors!

rainbow layer cake with sprinkles sliced.

Top Tips

Cake tins: This cake is tall as I used 6″ cake tins. You can also use 7″ tins or 8″ tins. However, be aware that the cake layers will be thinner.
Different proportions: You can double or triple this recipe depending on how many people you need to feed. If you want to make a smaller amount then be aware that the cake layers will be thinner and this can sometimes be difficult to decorate.
Ingredients: Make sure that all of the ingredients are at room temperature. Sift all of the dry ingredients before mixing.
Overmixing batter: Do not overmix the batter because the cake will become tough.
Baking: Cakes should be baked on the middle shelf. Baking cakes on the top shelf can result in dry burnt cakes and baking cakes on the bottom shelf can take longer. Add cakes to the oven as soon as possible for the best results. Also, do not open the oven in the first 20 minutes of baking.
Moisture: If you want to add more moisture to the cake then heat a 1:1 ratio of water and sugar in a saucepan to create a syrup. Bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes and leave to cool.
Different ways to decorate: You can decorate this cake in lots of different ways. If you want a simple look then skip the sprinkles and frost the cake with vanilla buttercream. You can also add chocolate drip or use rainbow-colored buttercream!

FAQS

How to make a rainbow cake from scratch?

1. Grease 6 non-stick cake tins.
2. Grab a large bowl. Add unsalted butter and caster sugar and whisk for 3-5 minutes or until pale yellow.
3. Add eggs and vanilla extract to the bowl and whisk again.
4. Then add self-raising flour, milk and mix.
5. Add equal amounts of the cake batter to 6 different bowls.
6. Add 1/8 to 1/4 of red food coloring to one of the bowls with cake batter and stir until well combined. Repeat this step with the orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet food coloring.
7. Finally, bake the cakes at 160C/320F for 30 minutes or until done.

Can you add food coloring to cake mix?

Yes, you can. Add food coloring to the cake batter just before you put it in the oven. Make sure the food coloring and cake batter is well combined before baking.

What is rainbow cake made of?

Rainbow cake is made of layers of vanilla cake colored with food coloring.

Is gel food coloring better than liquid?

Gel food coloring is better than liquid coloring because the colors come out a lot more vibrant. Gel food coloring is made with synthetic coloring, water, and corn syrup or a glycerin base. This makes the texture thick and gel-like. Whereas liquid food coloring is made with synthetic coloring and has a water base. This makes it more liquid and causes the colors to come out pale.

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