Homemade rainbow cake with layers of vanilla buttermilk cake and buttercream frosting
I feel so happy when I eat this rainbow cake. It was so much fun to cut into it and see all the beautiful layers. This rainbow cake is not only beautiful, but it also tastes amazing. There won’t be any leftover crumbs.
I love this rainbow cake. It’s something I have wanted to make for a while. Since the moment we learned that we were pregnant with Ezra, we knew we wanted to make him a rainbow birthday cake (6 months).
My husband and I went through many infertility treatments before we were able to have our precious Avalon. It’s not something I regret. We should be more open about infertility and how common this is. We will feel less isolated.
Homemade rainbow cake from scratch
Rainbow Cake
Two years ago, we started treatment. It was not working. My body was against me. My mental and emotional state was poor.
Although it may sound absurd, I had a dream that we would have a son. Although I did not tell anyone, I kept my hope alive.
We almost gave up on the idea of having a second child. However, I knew deep down that there was a second child in our future. So we didn’t give up.
We were able to have one egg after all the treatments and all the medications. You’ve probably been through IVF. The chances of even one egg being taken are very low. My hopes were not fulfilled.
That one egg was the only one that stuck. Here we are, with our handsome baby boy. Our rainbow after the storm. Our lucky charm. Our family is complete.
Which rainbow-colored cake recipe is the best?
First, bake your rainbow layers. Although it might sound daunting, it is actually quite simple.
We will use white velvet, my favorite cake. It’s not only delicious. This cake is delicious, and it’s very white, so it can take the color well.
You can’t add color to vanilla cakes that have egg yolks. They will cause your colors to shift while you bake.
White velvet is ideal for making rainbow cakes because it doesn’t get too mixed when you add color.
I have colored white velvet many times. It has been pink velvet, green velvet, and blue velvet. It always comes out looking amazing.
How to make rainbow cake layers
Make sure you have 8×2-inch cake pans. It is possible that you don’t have six identical-sized cake pans (I don’t). Keep your cake batter in the refrigerator while you bake your other cakes. They bake quickly because they are thin.
Put a layer of cake glue on your cake pan and heat the oven to 335oF. Because my pans were so thin, I also placed a piece of parchment paper on the bottom.
Make our rainbow cake layers by mixing your batter according to the recipe. Divide your batter into six bowls and let it cool.
Each bowl can hold 15 ounces of cake batter. To make sure they were all equal, I used a kitchen scale.
Ameri color electric colors are what I am using. This rainbow is more Lisa Frank. These electric colors are great because you don’t need to use much food color, and they can make bright neon colors.
Colors I used
- Electric Purple
- Electric Blue
- Electric Green
- Electric Yellow
- Electric Orange
- Electric Pink
You can go classic rainbow with red, violet, and electric purple instead of electric.
Mix the colors together in a bowl. Stir with a spoon until well combined. To make the green more vibrant, add a bit of yellow to each bowl.
To make the orange pop, mix a little orange with a little bit of yellow.
To make the purple pop, you can add some pink to the purple.
Put your batter in your pans. I baked three cakes at once and used 15 ounces each.
After they have finished baking, they will pull away a little from the edges of their pans (normal). Let them cool in the pan for a while before turning them out onto a cooling rack.
I put my cakes in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up before trimming the dome, brown sides, and bottom.
The best thing about cutting your cakes is that they are more beautiful and perfect when you slice them.
How to decorate rainbow cakes
It’s time to decorate our rainbow cake! Because it’s so easy to make, I’m using my simple buttercream. However, you could use any buttercream, such as Swiss meringue Buttercream, Italian Meringue Buttercream, or Cream Cheese Frosting.
Place the first layer on your cake board. To make the whole process more simple, I am working on a turntable.
Spread a thin layer of buttercream. You should aim for 1/4 inch of frosting.
Make sure your spatula is flat to ensure a smooth buttercream.
Because it makes the most sense to me, I am starting with purple. However, you could also start with pink if that is what you prefer.
Continue frosting and stacking in this manner with all the layers. Finally, give the entire cake a good crumb coat to seal in all the rainbow crumbs.
To firm up the buttercream layer, chill your cake for 15 mins.
Add a final layer of buttercream to your cake and smoothen it with a bench scraper or offset spatula.
After cooling my cake, I added fancy sprinkles to its bottom. Finally, I transferred the cake to a cake board.
This cake is finished with a water-ganache drip. I used 6 ounces of water, 1 ounce of white candy melts, and 5 ounces of chocolate candy melts.
To make a golden candy melt color, I added some electric yellow food coloring. This water ganache was then dripped onto the chilled cake. I then painted the cake gold with some really mad plastics, gold dust, and vodka.
To get great coverage, make sure that your dust-vodka mixture is thicker than the paint.
Next, I added some white frosting swirled to the top and sprinkled some more. To create the swirls, I used a 1M tip.