If you judge a cake by its cover, this cake is possibly one of the most aesthetically appealing cake. It doesn’t end here however. It is also one of the best tasting cake, which I will explain why!

Easy Single Pan Rainbow Cake Recipe by Bakeomaniac

Let me first start off with the inspiration behind this cake. ( It is related to LGBT and pride, so if you are not interested to read this segment, scroll down until you reach a bold segment ” Now back to the Cake! ” ).

As you can see, the colour runs in the sequence violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and finally red. This sequence mimics the rainbow flag of the LGBT community. You can consider this as a pride cake, but of course, if you’re just baking for the fun of it simply because you love this cake, it doesn’t matter. Ultimately, everyone attaches different values and significance to the same thing!

For me, I baked this cake in support of the LGBT community of my home country, Singapore. This is part of a movement named the Pink Dot movement. It is held annually for peaceful demonstrations to urge the government to grant the LGBT community of Singapore the freedom to love. I believe that sexuality should be a right, and not a choice.

I feel that no one should be allowed to exert their beliefs on each other. Everyone is entitled to their own set of beliefs. Sure, you can live up to them but as long as you do not impact the lives of others, be it whether that you deem it a positive change. Positive  is all subjective afterall, but of course we do know that actions such as charitable donations are obviously a good thing. This stems from the fact that people have different beliefs and that everyone should be, and is equally entitled to their own set of beliefs in a Democratic society.

Sure, you might deem that the LGBT community or Pride scornful as they promote things such as being “against nature”. However, No matter what is deemed, I personally feel that that is your own perspective and belief. You shouldn’t deprive someone of their own rights if they are not doing anything offensive, but simply living out their own life they way they want it. No one likes to be oppressed for something they can’t change, am I right or am I right?

Of course, having said so much, I have a side confession to make. I was actually pretty afraid of being pro-LGBT.

This is because I am afraid of being attacked online or even in the real life context. But after weighing, I decided that I should just live with my opinions because afterall, I am not harming anyone, and besides, is a worthy cause to support for. So let’s get down to the kitchen now and do some pride baking! ( If you are part of the LGBT community, or wants to show support! ).
Now back to the cake!

This cake is extremely moist with a pleasant amount of vanilla. Even with some stirring to introduce and incorporate the pigments, it still works. Of course, do ensure to limit the amount of stirring as much as possible! Even if the cake won’t be affected too much, we still want to ensure that we can produce the best quality!

It won’t be pleasant of course, for those who do not support the use of food colourings. If you are still interested to make this rainbow cake, it is not impossible to do it with natural food colouring however. For instance, you can use pistachio or matcha for the green layer. Next, you can use beetroot for the red layer. I am not too sure about the other layers, but the point I am trying to get across is that it is not impossible to find substitutions for synthetic food colouring in the natural world! It might get tricky and difficult, however! The taste combination will definitely be interesting!

Here, I actually used both powder, liquids and gels to colour the six layers. This is because I do not want to purchase any more additional food colouring simply because they can all work well.

Just do take note to stir especially well to incorporate an even, desired intensity for each of the six layers and you shall fly with the colours of the rainbow! The only precaution you should take note is that we don’t want to mix the colours or there won’t be distinct layers, or the layers will be in a sense contaminated. Which is not desirable for me because the colours of the rainbow are always distinct!

I bet you can’t even tell what source of food colouring did I use for each colour of the rainbow! If you’re doing a rainbow, these are the six colours!

Now to the frosting for the rainbow cake. This frosting is extremely delicious. Makes me want to eat even more slices of the cake at one sitting. It is a cream cheese frosting with the cream cheese as a star. I did not add a lot of sugar to it simply for the fact that I want the taste of the cream cheese to remain prominent. As such, there are adjustments make here in order to ensure that the frosting is still of the desired consistency.

Next, some elaboration on the method. The method to make this cake simply utilizes the fact that the rainbow cake batter is on the liquidy than the solid side, and as such will be able to spread. Hence, when we split the batter into six portions to be separately coloured and pigmented, we want the base to have the most batter while the top layer has the least batter ( I will explain to you how I do the calculations later! ).

When we place the first base layer, we would want to tilt the cake pan such that the cake batter will be able to spread and reach the ends to form a nice layer. After which, we just pile on dollop after dollop of subsequent coloured batters. When the third dollop pile on the second dollop, the pressure will cause the second dollop of coloured batter added to spread. This makes the possibility of such an easy, single pan rainbow cake recipe possible.

For the calculations, I first allocate 1/4 cup of cake batter each to six bowls. After which, I add 1/4 cups to the first 4 batters to be added, and 1/8 cup each to the top two layer of the batter. You can see where this is going. We will be using a 1/4 cup portion and 1/8 cup portion to slowly ensure that the base colour will have the most batter, and the top colour will have the least batter. Do measure and adjust accordingly for the best effect!

Here’s an honest picture of how it will look like, with no editing, no filters etc and so on so you know what you are getting! It looks slightly bright because I utilized my counter which is exposed to the beautiful morning sun!

Overall Difficulty: 1/5
Time Taken: Less than 2 hours ( excluding time taken for cake to cool, for applying crumb layer, for applying second layer after crumb layer ).

Ingredients Needed:

For the Rainbow Cake:

  • 2 and 3/4 cups of plain flour
  • 1/2 cup of lightly packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup of caster sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 3/4 cup of melted unsalted butter
  • 2/3 cup of whole milk, at room temperature
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature ( I am using eggs weighing 55g each including the shell )
  • 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • Food colourings of your desired preferences ( I used violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red )

For the Cream Cheese Frosting ( More info under notes as I have made a separate post for this ):

  • 1/2 cup of cream cheese, softened at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
  • up to 2 teaspoons of milk

Optional items include toppings such as rainbow sprinkles, funfetti, sliced almonds, chocolate and so on!

Method:

For the Rainbow Cake:

  1. Prepare a 9 inch springform pan, by placing a piece of parchment paper at its base or simply by buttering and flouring the base and the sides. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C or 350 degrees F.
  2. Stir together the melted unsalted butter and the two sugars, until the sugars are dissolved.
  3. Add in the baking powder and salt, and stir again, until dissolved.
  4. Add in the three large eggs along with the vanilla essence / extract, and beat until they are incorporated, with no dark yellow streaks of the egg yolk remaining.
  5. Add in the whole milk and stir.
  6. Add in the plain flour, stirring until just dissolved.
  7. Separate into six portions by using a 1/4 cup and 1/8 cup measurement ( explained above ), with the base colour having the most batter and the top colour having the least batter.
  8. Colour them accordingly.
  9. Place the base colour in first. Tilt the springform pan such that the base colour is able to spread almost or already to the ends and circumference of the pan.
  10.  Add in the next colour in the center, tilting it slightly as well.
  11. Add in the next colour in the center of the second colour added in step (10). Tilting it slightly.
  12. Repeat the same process for the remaining colours. ( Pictures available under notes ).
  13. I allowed the batter to rest about 10 minutes to allow it to spread even more. Hit the springform pan gently against a hard surface to dislodge any air remaining in the batter. If not your cake will end up with some holes, like mine in the background as I forgot to do so!
  14. Bake in the preheated oven for about 23 to 27 minutes. It is completely cooked through when a toothpick poked in the middle comes out clean!
  15. Cool for about two hours before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

  1. Beat together the softened butter and cream cheese until they’re incorporated and creamy.
  2. Mix in the vanilla essence or vanilla extract.
  3. Add in the powdered sugar. Half a cup at the time to increase maximal incorporation and not making a mess!
  4. Add in the milk until you achieve the desired consistency.

Assembly:

  1. Do a crumb layer for the cake, and then put it back into the refrigerator to allow it to rest.
  2. Coat a second time, and put any toppings that you desire, such as rainbow sprinkles.

Notes:

More information about cream cheese frosting available here: Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe .

Here’s some rough pictures to allow you to have a better understanding of how to achieve the spread effect, and enjoy the beauty of this rainbow cake:

Notice how by placing the coloured batter at the center of the subsequent one at the bottom, it pushes the bottom batter outwards! Hence creating that beautiful rainbow effect!

Enjoy!
– Bakeomaniac, Javier Tan!