To celebrate the introduction our of newest Fiesta® Dinnerware color, Butterscotch, we baked a cake as colorful as we are. Six layers of decadent vanilla cake, each colored a vibrant rainbow hue, thanks to the addition of gel food coloring.
You’ll need two boxes of cake mix (we used Duncan Hines French Vanilla), two or three 8-inch cake pans, and gel food coloring to pull this cake off, but it’s so worth it! Each layer is generously frosting with our favorite Birthday Cake Buttercream Frosting, because it’s the icing that makes the cake.
Serve your cake on one of our 12” Baking Trays for plenty of room to display and serve your gorgeous creation. While we are using our newest color Butterscotch here, any of our beautifully rich colors will do!
RAINBOW LAYER CAKE
Ingredients
- 2 boxes white vanilla cake mix
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 6 eggs
- 2 packages classic gel food colors* (2.7 oz each)
Birthday Cake Buttercream Frosting
- 7.5 sticks of butter
- 10 cups powdered sugar
- 2.5 tablespoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- Optional: milk
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment and spray again with cooking spray.
- In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs on low for 30 seconds, then on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping down the edges of the bowl occasionally. Divide batter into 6 small bowls, adding in about 1-1/3 cups of batter per bowl.
- Using gel food color tubes, tint the batter in each bowl a separate color, stirring well: 1 red (2.5 tsp color), 1 orange (1/2 tsp red + ½ tsp yellow), 1 yellow (1 tsp yellow), 1 green (1 tsp green), 1 blue (1 tsp blue), and 1 purple (1/2 tsp red + 1/4 tsp blue). Adjust coloring to your preferences.
- Refrigerate 3 colors of batter until ready to bake. Then pour remaining 3 colors of batter into the 3 prepared cake pans.
- Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until the cake is springy when touched gently with your finger and the sides pull away from the pan. Cool for 10 minutes then carefully remove cakes from pans and set on cooling racks to cool completely.
- Wash and dry the cake pans then spray with cooking spray. Line each one with a round of parchment paper then spray with cooking spray again.
- Pour remaining 3 colors of cake batter into the 3 prepared pans and bake and cool as directed above.
- Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer beat butter on medium speed until light yellow and creamy. Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time, blending first on low speed for a few seconds and then on medium until all powdered sugar is added.
- Add in vanilla and almond extracts and beat to combine. If too stiff, add in up to 8 tablespoons of milk, only adding 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency.
- Trim the rounded tops off of cakes using a cake leveler tool or serrated knife. On a serving plate place the purple cake layer. Carefully tuck 4 or 5 small pieces of parchment paper under the cake layer to protect the serving plate.
- Spread with frosting. Repeat with blue, green, yellow, orange, and red cake layers, then spread a light “crumb coat” of frosting on the top and sides of cake to seal in crumbs. Frost with remaining frosting. Carefully pull out parchment paper pieces and serve.
Notes
