I have always found rainbows beautiful. Usually because when I see them I’m usually out and about and cursing the rain and its effect on my shoes but then a rainbow suddenly appears and instantly everything is all right with the world again. I think “Oh yes that’s right, that was what we were all waiting for!”.
I was snapping a picture of a rainbow while shopping on Oxford Street and a group of chic fashionistas walked past me holding bags that weighed more than they did. They paused and looked at what I was photographing. They looked up and stared in wonder stopping for about 10 seconds to admire the rainbow and coo over its beauty. Nobody hates a rainbow and I’m convinced people that hate rainbows also want to punch soft toys and run over pandas.
I was inspired by the Zebra Cheesecake that I made a few months ago. I didn’t want to make it exactly like the vertical patterns as rainbows are really sort of curved more than vertical. I wanted each slice to look like a slice from a rainbow with layers of colours. The actual cake recipe itself is a plain vanilla pound cake (based on the Daring Bakers cake we had last month) but you could of course add whatever flavour you like as long as it doesn’t change the colour of the batter-obviously chocolate is out unless it is white chocolate. You could also use another vanilla cake recipe if you don’t want to use that much butter. I was kindly given these Wilton colouring gels by the people at Little Betsy Baker and I only needed the tiniest 1/4 teaspoon to colour the batter vividly. I prefer using gels to liquids as it doesn’t change the consistency of the batter.
I almost wished that I hadn’t iced it because the effect of the cake by itself is pretty enough as it is. And please be judicious and if your child has ADHD tendencies due to food colourings, this is perhaps not the cake to serve them. Please refer all complaint letters to the government.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you stop and admire rainbows?
Rainbow Cake
- 19 oz or (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
- 1 cup granulated or caster sugar
- 7 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 cups (400g) sifted cake flour (to make cake flour, place 2 tablespoons cornflour in a 2 cup measuring cup and top fill up the rest with plain flour)
- 2 teaspoons (10g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
- Food colouring gels in: Royal Blue, Violet, Sky Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red
To decorate
- Fondant in the colours of your choice
- Mini white marshmallows
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the centre. Butter and line a 21cm round springform pan. Weigh the bowl of your electric mixer and record the weight-this is important.
2. Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well-it may look curdled but it’s ok, it will come together once you add the flour. Then add the vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture and baking powder at low speed until just combined.
Don’t forget to mix it up really well!
3. Now comes the tricky part. Get your food colouring and get 7 bowls or containers. Figure out how much your batter weights. To do this, you weigh the bowl with the batter and subtract the weight of the bowl that you recorded. Mine weighed about 2 kgs (4 pounds). Divide into seven which was just less than 300grams/10.6 ozs per container. The last colour that put in it will dominate so gradually put a little less for the last colour (which for me was red). I started with 280grams for the Royal Blue and ended up with about 220grams for the red.
The first shade
Then the second
Then adding more
4. Take your lined pan. place a circle of the royal blue batter in a circle shape. Then in the centre of this place another circle of batter of the Violet. Keep doing this with the rest of the colours until you reach the last colour red. My dough was a bit too thick so I pressed it down with a sheet of parchment so that it reached the sides. Place it in the oven being careful not to tip the tin sideways.
Flattening it down a little
Ready for the oven
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 55-60 minutes. Cool in the pan 10 minutes and then cool.
Vanilla Buttercream
- 125g/4 ozs butter, soft at room temperature
- 3 cups icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tablespoons milk
- vanilla extract
1. Beat butter in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Gradually add the icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time along with milk to help it bind. Beat for about 5 minutes on medium to high speed. Add vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Spread onto cooled cake.
To assemble
1. Roll each fondant colour into a long sausage shape and then flatten out with a small rolling pin. With a sharp paring knife or a pizza cutter, trim it to make a rainbow shape and place on cake.
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133 Comments | Add your own
This looks so lovely and colourful Lorraine! Rainbows are magic!
oh wow thats awesome, I want this as my next birthday cake!
This is a beautiful cake NQN! Perfect for spring or maybe also perfect for fall, to brighten up the rainy days!
Completely fabulous! I want to make one of these cakes but i am afraid of all the clean up I’ll have to do after LOL. I hate cleaning.
*kisses* HH
Oh my goodness…what a bright and cheery cake! Bring on the hordes of hyperactive children!
Bravo! This is one heck of a cake. I can use some rainbow right now as Los Angeles is unusually gray and cold!
I LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVE rainbows and rainbow cakes are even better!!
I’m sitting here reading this with Lacey and she just said, “I like rainbow. I like cake!”
So yes, I think everyone loves rainbows… and everyone pretty much loves cake.
oh my – how beautiful! I actually saw the prettiest rainbow driving home the other day!
I never, ever, EVER get tired of rainbow cakes. It’s such a fun dessert! I love how your version has a rainbow on top, too!
Aww, pretty! I am sure I wouldn’t have the patience to do this, but it would be a great kid’s birthday cake. I do stop and admire rainbows – there is not enough of such moments in this crazy world.
Beautiful!
I love the colours.
I do stop for the rainbows. It makes me smile.
SSG xxx
This is the most beautiful thing I’ve EVER seen. It’s the most perfect cake in the entire world. I’ve followed your blog for a while and think this is the most amazing thing you’ve ever made. Wow! You’ve made my day.
Rainbow cake brightens up a gloomy day. Looks like it might rain today but I’m loving your cake.
I’ve always wanted a cake like that when I was a kid
oh my goodness!! This cake is a dream! My man would love this
he loves ice-cream cakes & neapolitan ice-cream, so he would be in heaven with this. I think I might make this for his birthday! Thankyou!!
It reminds you how special and beautiful life is.
I do stop and admire rainbows. A little miracle of nature
Heidi xo
Great cake! Just wanted to double check that the 18inch-sized cake tin mentioned is correct, as wow, that would be one massive cake.
If I knew this existed as a kid, I’d have requested it for EVERY birthday
how do you do that? i’m sure you have mind reading capabilities. i was just looking at a rainbow cake picture (on fuck yeah cakes) and wondering how they do that. you also read my mind with alice in wonderland that time. i’m impressed
Please refer all complaint letters to the government.
haha
love the vibrant colours lorraine.
Sometimes when we are driving home it looks like a rainbow is ending at our house and the girls love it. Rainbow cake seem like so much work but so worth it when you cut a slice. Very Pretty.
So gotta try this!
That’s a lovely happy cake !
I always get a thrill from rainbows, especially when there is a full one!
And the cake also looks exciting – that apppeals to my fun side.
Lorraine, you are a girl after my own heart! I LOVE rainbows. Like CRAZY. Seriously, I made Frank stand and watch a rainbow for an hour last month. As long as it’s rainbow-coloured I’ll love it. And this cake is AMAZING!!! I could stare at the picture forever… (and that’s enough of me going nuts over rainbows. Have a lovely day!!)
I always stop to look at rainbows. I’m a christian so it has a whole lovely Noah’s Ark, promise from God, connotation that make it extra lovely!
Your rainbow cake is gorgeous. I make rainbow cake and cupcakes all the time for work. Plonking each colour on top of each other creates the most beautiful effect.
Honey and I just admired a rainbow on Sunday! We didn’t stop though as I was driving… I promise that there were no pandas, stuff toys or cars hurt.
Soy
How fabulously gay! The Rainbow Cake will be made for next year’s Mardi Gras – usually at Fair Day, the cake stall has amazing G&L motif cakes, weddings, etc, and quite classic, but this takes the cake.
Oh Lorraine, as soon as I saw this cake I laughed out loud! It’s so lovely. It would be great to serve a stuffy conservative dinner, just to wake them up a little and remind them to appreciate the little things. BTW, I don’t just admire rainbows, I chase them too!
Wow, now tgat’s some vivid colouring! Beautiful!
I love rainbows – and I LOVE this cake! It looks gorgeous
Lorraine,
OMG – what a very lovely cake. BEAUTIFUL!!!
Wow – my kids are SOOOO going to want me to make this!!! Those colours are so bright!! Imagine serving that to a bunch of hyper kids at a birthday party!!!! If you added a pot of gold on the icing too, the scene would have been complete. That’s what I am always hoping for – the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (to end up at my house!!!)
Wow, I have seen marble swirl cakes and rainbow jelly deserts, but never have a I seen a cake where the colours are so bright. It looks AMAZING
This is gorgeous- I made a couple of trial cakes for the Little Miss’ first birthday in June, and had a crack at a rainbow cake. I think I’m still coming down from the sugar high. I decided against it for a first birthday but you’ve inspired me for the bigger cherub. Will have to make sure we order a jumping castle to go with it for the sugar-crazed cherubs!
I’m convinced people that hate rainbows also want to punch soft toys and run over pandas.
hahahah i’m with you there
I haven’t commented for a while but how could I resist such a beautiful thing as a rainbow and your cake is fantastic- I am so inspired I might make one for my birthday cake next week- I always love rainbows they seem to represent the light at the end of the tunnel-even if it is a small one. Thanks for sharing.
Stunningly vibrant colours Lorraine.
I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say that they hate rainbows – have you?
Oh it looks amazing! Great for a kids party so I will def keep it in mind for my Godson. Im not the most maternal person but cooking for him I can def do haha.
Crazy cake!!! Hope you have lots of taste testers around your neighborhood. Your blog is very enjoyable & I’m sure we’d all hate to see you O-D on food colouring..Cheers
So pretty! A great way of welcoming spring.
Cheers,
Rosa
Wow! Check out those colours!
How wonderful! I might make this for the next childs birthday. I love rainbows, so underrated in my opinion.
What a fun and pretty cake, Lorraine. Speaking of rainbows, I do hope you’ve seen the “double rainbow” video on Youtube. I know American humor isn’t for everyone but it’s good silly fun in my opinion
.
What a colour explosion, totally awesome.
I LOVE it!
So would my daughter!
I will endeavour to make it.
Thanks for the post!
A very neat, beautiful cake – love the rainbow colors!
I always admire rainbows and rainbow cakes. Yours looks heavenly. I’m sure some special someone loved it. xoxo Mum
I love rainbows too, especially the double-arched ones! Your cake is stunning, Lorraine!
Awesome! Exactly what I want to make for my daughter’s first birthday next month
Thanks for sharing the way to create the layered colours in the cake. Fascinating for me.
This fabulous cake led me to the Zebra Cheese Cake…and then too Monkey Bread…food for thought!!
What a beautiful cake! I love it!
I’ve always wanted to make the zebra cheesecake now I want to make this as well!
I can definatly say, with hand over heart that I am certainly not one of those dreadful causes of panda road kill nor would I ever punch a soft toy
I’m a die hard rainbow luva & I’ve just got to create this recipe, its kind of…. happy. I love it.
Loving it! You know I’ve made oodles of these – kids LOVE them!
Hi Lorraine,
I’m looking forward to trying it out as a cake, I’ve never been so excited about the thought of cutting into a cake!
I love the look of this cake. I tried this a few months back with cupcakes and they looked amazing, very psychedelic!!! I frosted them with cream cheese icing, and then used little rainbow chocolate pebbles to decorate. They freaked a few adults out because of the bright colours, but were a hit with their kids! I love the fact that you used a fondant rainbow though, very cute
It looks absolutely gorgeous but I would hate to be near any children (or adults) who have eaten that cake! Actually it could be very entertaining!
What a fun cake! I love that you go the extra mile and decorate the cake so beautifully too. The decos are harder than making the cake itself ; )
Painstakingly hilarious, I love it.
Is there anything better than a subterfuge of dead carebears in a cake?
Its like cutting into happiness, without all the nasty bits.
Awesome work darlin.
Soooo pretty!! I am a big fan of rainbows… they always make me smile
wow those gels give such amazing colours and that cake is just beautiful
we saw a rainbow when driving home from our holiday on Monday and e even took at photo out of the car window because it was so lovely – I was driving and had to stop myself rubbernecking
This is sooooo adorable L, your comment about rainbow haters had me giggling
Yowza! I need to put on my Ray-Bans to stare at that technicolor cake.
How fun, Lorraine! The colors are scrumptiously vivid and SO cheering! I love rainbows too.
So cute!!! I love how bright and cheery it is!
It’s impossible to be friends with someone who doesn’t like rainbows. That looks so fantastic, I think I might try it on the weekend. Thank you for the gorgeous inspiration.
What a lovely cake and the inspiration even better….
Looks amazing n am sure tasted even better…
Cheers,
The Variable, Crazy Over Desserts – Nachiketa
Catch me on facebook @ Crazy Over Desserts
yummy! i would be bouncing off the walls if i had that cake!
looks amazing, and the colours turned out so bright!
how can you not love rainbows!
Lovely! It reminds me of those decorative pots with coloured sand, so pretty!
Did you see that panda in the ads on Gruen Nation last night? ‘Cause he totally deserves to be run over
This looks beautiful, Lorraine!
oh wow this is food colouring gone crazy – hate to think of the preservatives in there but it looks -GORGEOUS!
Lorraine – you must be a prophet (as well as a domestic goddess!!) As I sit here at my computer I see a rainbow almost as vivid as your cake!!!! I am off now to find the pot of gold!!!
Wow thats quite sycodelic! Its certainly a show stopping cake. I love how it looks ‘normal’ before you cut into it.
this looks incredible! i’ve made one using the basic food colourings from the supermarket and it didn’t look nearly as fantastic as this!
and i love love LOVE the icing and the rainbow!
Oh my goodness … how beautiful! I love rainbows and so do my kids. Luckily, they are fairly in touch with their bodies and when presented with a cake such as this (or bread – yes, we’ve had rainbow bread) they choose to steer clear of it. Amazing … but still pretty to look at!
Wow, that’s amazing! On a rainy day that cake would definitely put a smile on anyone’s face!
I literally gasped when the blog page loaded! What an amazing effect. You always do it!
Brilliant looking cake! I’m going to try making that. Well done you!
Always! Great idea for my grand-daughters 5th birthday coming up!
Such vivid colours! Love it… Does they food dye alter the taste at all though?
I am in awe… how did you squeeze that much clear color into the batter? Remarkable cake that would put a smile on any face… well done!!
Amazing! I love the addition of the care bear … ahhh, memories of childhood!
Love the vibrancy here! You know, it must be “Not Quite Nigella” if she manages to pull of a rainbow cake but still make it look neat
What else can you come up with? The colours are so vibrant! I love rainbows. And so lucky at work that I see it quite often.
So Pretty!
Yes, I’ve taken many photos of quite a few rainbows:) Your cake is gorgeous! I’ve made one before, but I like your more natural arrangement. I also like your assessment of rainbow haters:)
This is awesome! I´ve seen it before, but the way you introduce it looks just perfect!
All you need is a unicorn on that cake and it would be my dream cake as a kid.
That is so vivid. Beautiful cake, Lorraine.
i’m such a fan of rainbows. you wouldn’t know that from looking at me (i wear a lot of black, white, and gray), but i do. i adore your cake.
WOW! Now that is fantastic!!! Gorgeous work!
Haha love you’re little disclaimer about the colouring… but it really is such a brightly coloured cake! Looks so pretty when baked too so you’re right about it not really needing the icing.
NO WAY!!!! I cant believe it that cake is so kool!!!! I have never seen anything like it
Well done Lorraine…I love the Wilton colour pastes myself, they just give fabulous depth of colour. I will be trying this one out once Olivia is past the 18 month old stage…I can see it takes a little time.
i love colurs,especially rainbows
ive baked something of such before.its lovely&unique.
WOW. hehe how amazing is this cake??? I love it
and like the rainbow paddlepop, it never tastes like just vanilla when it’s coloured like this 
Oh wow! The cake looks super pretty! I am not a fan of food colourings actually, but I do use them to decorate my fondant cakes. I think eating a slice of rainbow cake is just like eating smarties or M&Ms, which most people do without thinking anyway…
So vivid and gorgeous! I like to challenge myself to bake such beautiful cake too. And the top decoration is just amazing and cuteeeee
Sawadee from Bangkok,
Kris
That is so creative – I love it. And the colours!
What a gorgeous cake! I like the frosting- it makes the inside more of a surprise. Rainbows are amazing!
As the mother of a three year old admiration of rainbows is a compulsory activity! (great cake btw)
Wow, I cannot imagine managing to make all these colours and how you got them so vibrant I cannot imagine. My food colouring (even the gel) always seems to fade when cooked. I bet you will dread being asked to make one of these again won’t you?!
That’s beautiful!
Marvellous!!
That looks amazing!!
Did you find that the dyes altered the taste of the cake at all?? That’s always been my problem when trying to get the colours so vibrant.
omigoodness that is so fabulous. i don’t know how you came up with such an idea! fantastic!
Wow! I’ve got a really good vanilla cupcake recipe & a 12-pack of Wilton gel colours, so I think I’ll give the rainbow method a go next time I make them. I didn’t realize the colours would bake so vibrant!
The colors are so vibrant – beautiful cake.
I do have one question – is cornflour the same as corn starch (in the US)?
LOL oh dear!
Can I suggest for the parents of kids who can’t deal with food colourings, the pink-centred dragonfruit make fantastic pink cakes!!
I think I’ll make this cake for my birthday, though not 100% sure if I’ll use a packet mix (any suggestions as to how many I’ll need and preferred base, it Betty Crocker vanilla) or from scratch. See how I go with the timing.
Ooh this looks fantastic! I’m tempted to try it for my nephew’s next birthday. It actually reminds me of a cake Martha Stewart made but her colours were straight. I like this effect better
So cool! Going to attempt this for my daugther’s 7th bday next week. Thanks for all the pics I think they will come in very useful.
This cake is amazing, i have been thinking about trying to make it… wish me luck
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I am a terrible cook, so I just had a trial run of this for my daughters birthday next week, and it turned out great! Before icing, I cut it in half, spun the halves around, cut out notches to make wings for a butterfly rainbow cake, which is precisely what she requested. THANKS!
just have my first attempt in the oven I skipped the real dark blue as I forgot to buy the color LOL…it looked the same before going in so here’s crossing fingers it looks similiar when its cooked I also used a different recipe
how n where can i get food colouring for the cake..??
gosh..ive been searching an easy recipe for raainbow cake..and i found urs!! thanx a lot!!!
i bake it just now..it was superby easy…me and my sisters had a great time playing with the colours…:)
i looked up rainbow cake and ended up wanting to do the layers all different colors~ as Martha Stewart had did on her website~ http://www.marthastewart.com/256688/rainbow-cake … but i got to looking at the reviews and not many ppl liked it~ soo my question is if i did it like this and since i have already bought the food coloring gels will those work just as good~ and how many ppl u think this one recipe will feed~ is that a 9 inch round pan?? your reviews look good and i would love to make this for my almost 4yr olds bday this weekend~ i have about 30 sumtin ppl coming and need to prepare myself fast~ thanks so much~
This cheerful recipe grasped my attention with it’s fabulous rainbow colours, and had me determined to make it for my nephews birthday recently.From start to finish it was a thrill to make and decorate…and the cake was simply amazing! A treat to the eye for all age groups..and tastes as good as it looks!!
I love this and just had my first attempts at making 2 of these. 1st quantity probably won’t turn out that well as I mis-read the recipe and so only has 1/4 of the amount of flour and no baking powder (recipe doesn’t say when to put it in so I forgot about it.) but hopefully the 2nd quantity will be much better. Struggled to get the paper off after flattening mixture and so colours mixed a bit and there was a bit too much mixture to fit in my tin so will use a deeper one next time. It is a great cake though.
Hi Sharon-Thanks so much for letting me know about the baking powder! I have amended the recipe
No worries. The second & third cakes turned out really well although I did have to do it at 130C for a bit longer.
I am making this cake right now. 1 hour and 30 mins and it has still not cooked grrrrrr I really hope the base isn’t fried by the time the middle cooks!!!
Lorraine, I made this amazing rainbow cake for my Grand Daughter’s 7th birthday. I really enjoyed making it and it was received with ooh’s and ah’s – ‘how did you do that?’
Thanks Wendy! I’m so glad that it was well received and that you enjoyed making it too!
Love it. Just noseying around the internet looking for ideas for Miss Arabella’s 18th – amazing what you find! xx
Hi, your cake looks great and I decided to make it for my little sisters birthday.
The mixture turned out very very thick and I had to add a little milk to make it spreadable.
Also I forgot to put in the salt as it is not stated in the method.
I used food dyes and I hope the end result is alright because the gels were too expensive.
Cake is in the oven now.
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[...] resist showing you these Rainbow Cupcakes from Megan at Clutzy Cooking. I first encountered rainbow and zebra cake on Not Quite Nigella and am amazed by the patience of anyone to do this. Still, [...]
[...] that baking one cake (rather than 7 layers) was the way to go for me. I checked the pictures on Not quite nigella and got the general [...]
[...] Mix for those who need to pull together a cake quickly. My favourite was the one that appears on Not Quite Nigella and I used this recipe with some [...]
[...] http://www.notquitenigella.com/2010/09/09/rainbow-cake/ [...]
[...] Mix for those who need to pull together a cake quickly. My favourite was the one that appears on Not Quite Nigella and I used this recipe with some [...]
[...] For pictures and Lorraine’s explanations CLICK HERE [...]
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