Back to School Rainbow Cake

Back to school rainbow cake means it’s time for summer to end and school to start again. 

I can’t believe the kids have been in school for a few weeks now. One of our traditions before the start of the school year is to have a little pizza party with our neighbors and eat rainbow cake. Well, that didn’t quite happen this year with me going to Haven. I was so busy preparing for the conference and trying to get the kids ready for school on time. However, I did make it last week and shared it with a group of friends over dinner to celebrate the start of a new school season. Better late than never right? 

It looks a lot more complicated than it really is so I thought I’d share this easy recipe and method with you all. It’s so colorful and festive and such a fun cake to make. Once you make it, you’ll realize just how easy it is! This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience.

A couple years ago, my sister bought me this awesome 5 piece cake pan set since she knew I loved baking layered cakes. 

This set from Wilton has 5 small pans. One cake box is what you need to make this layered cake. I love using a cake box when I’m in a hurry and when it’s made with homemade frosting it’s perfect! Unfortunately, last week I noticed I didn’t have any white boxed cake mixes so I decided to just make the whole thing from scratch. The recipe I used was from All Recipes. Everyone loved how moist the cake was. I loved the fact that it only contained 7 ingredients which I always have on hand in my kitchen. 

BASIC VANILLA CAKE

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup of milk

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour your cake pans or generously spray them with oil. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. (I just used a whisk for this) Beat in the eggs one at a time and add the vanilla extract. Mix in the flour and baking powder and combine the mixture. Add in the milk and stir with a spatula until the batter is creamy. 

Divide the batter into five separate bowls equally. Add a tiny bit of the food coloring gel. I typically use Wilton concentrated gels when coloring my batter or icing. A little goes a long way! Combine the dye into the batter until it’s one color and be sure not to over mix it. Pour the batter into the pans and bake for about 14-18 minutes. Check on them because you do not want them to overcook. I always tap the top of the cake and if it has a bounce, it’s done. You could also use the toothpick method. 

See how pretty they are?! I let them cool and pop them out onto a cooling rack. 

When it’s completely cool, you can frost it! I made my homemade whipped cream frosting. 

Whipped Cream Frosting (just beat the 2 ingredients with a hand blender or mixer until it peaks)

• 1 box of heavy whipping cream (1 quart)
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar

Double the recipe if you like a lot of frosting like I did here. 

All you do is layer on some frosting in between each layer. Afterwards, ice the top and all around the cake. If you put a thin layer on the outside, it’s like a naked cake! I did a video tutorial on FB about a month ago and you can watch how I quickly frost a naked cake. The cake pans are small individually but once you ice and put the layers together, it ends up being quite tall. 

Add sprinkles and refrigerate until ready to eat! 

I’m telling you it’s so easy! 

It makes the perfect cake for any celebration and the kids always get a kick out of it. Actually, the adults do too! 

If you want more information on food gels, you can find them on Amazon. The one I use is by Wilton and is very concentrated so I use a toothpick to put a tiny bit into the batter or frosting.

 

You can also find natural food coloring but this brand only has pink, yellow and blue. You could always leave one bowl of batter without any dye so it looks more white. Be creative and add two colors together or make one lighter shade ie: darker blue and lighter blue. I love that there are natural options available now. 

Lmk if you make this cake! I would love for you to post it on my FB group page. 

Have a wonderful day!

Yuni