This cake is so much fun! I was in a serious time crunch this year for the girls’ 7 & 9 year birthday party, so I needed something using basic ingredients with minimal decoration and no fondant! Thankfully I stumbled across this Rainbow Cake from fellow Michigan blogger, Whisk Kid, at the Nth hour.
The party theme this year was a Construction Site Carnival. We’re under construction with a dumpster in the front yard and a front-end loader in the back…so I just decided to work with it. Scaffolding worked well for the concession stand, construction debris made adventure golf more fun, gravel piles and lumber came in handy as well.
The important thing about making this cake, is making it after hours or when the kids are out of the house so they can’t see the process. Cutting it has to be a surprise. My girls were VERY concerned about the cake. They saw the plain white cake and kept asking me “are you SURE you’re done decorating?” Katie was concerned enough that she went into the garden and picked raspberries to put on top. The gasps and glee when the cake was opened…priceless.
Rainbow Surprise Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Description
This rainbow surprise cake is dairy-free and egg-free, it takes a while to bake all the layers, but it’s pretty fun to do.
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 2 cups dairy-free milk (I used Silk Coconut Milk)
- 1 T. cider vinegar
- 2/3 cup oil (I used melted coconut oil)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 T. vanilla
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Gel Food Coloring (I use AmeriColor soft gel paste)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Whisk dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Whisk the wet ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl: dairy-free milk, sugar, oil and vanilla.
- Add about 1/2 the liquid into the dry ingredients and beat pretty well. Usually, I don’t beat cakes…but in this case you want every last lump out. If you don’t, you’ll have white flour clumps in your final cake.
- Add the second 1/2 of the liquid and gently fold it in.
- If for some reason, you have some stubborn lumps…just put the batter through a mesh sieve and get the lumps out.
- Using a scale, divide the batter into 6 equal portions. I did this by zeroing out a big empty bowl, add the batter to determine total batter weight. Then divide the total batter weight by 6, and measure out 6 portions in 6 different bowls to color.
- Color up the 6 portions. Gel color works much better than color drops, which don’t have nearly the color options or vibrancy.
- I only have two 8-inch round pans, which works out ok, as all the layers cook quickly. Cut out parchment rounds to fit the pan, and then spray with cooking spray.
- Bake each later for 10-12 minutes, until the center is set.
- Carefully remove the layers to a cooling rack, add a new parchment liner to the pan, re-spray and cook the next set of layers.
- Frost and build the layer cake once all the layers are cooled. I was impatient the first time, and started stacking the warm layers, everything melted and it was a disaster. Oops.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: rainbow cake, dairy free rainbow cake, egg free rainbow cake
Dairy-Free Vanilla Frosting
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 7 cups 1x
Description
This is my basic dairy-free vanilla frosting sized up to make enough to frost an 8 layer rainbow cake.
Ingredients
- 1 cup shortening
- 1 cup dairy-free margarine
- 8 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup dairy-free milk
Instructions
- Cream the margarine and shortening until fluffy.
- Add the salt and powdered sugar slowly. You can add a little of the dairy-free milk as you are trying to mix in all the powdered sugar if things get too thick.
- Once all the powdered sugar is mixed in, you can start adding dairy-free milk until you get the frosting thickness you want. Sometimes I like it dense, sometimes I like it fluffy and mousse-like.
Notes
This makes a boatload of frosting, but it’s always better to have too much frosting than not enough. You can refrigerate or freeze extras for another day.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Mixed
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: dairy free frosting, dairy free icing, vegan frosting
beautiful:) Their expressions are priceless:)
I love this cake, too! I've made it for my son's 1st birthday and my mother-in-laws birthday the following month b/c I loved the way it looked;)
I cheated though…. I used milk,peanut & egg-free cake mix and then used a can of Sprite;) Mixed it well with a mixer and then divided the batter three ways!! (I used to boxes of mixes, and 2 cans of soda to get the 6 layers)!
nice to know I can do it from scratch though:)
I'm thinking it would work with a couple Cherrybrook Kitchen mixes too.
Hi! I am the author of Sophie Safe Cooking, a food allergy cookbook for anyone allergic to any of the 8 most common food allergens. I also have a website where people can build an allergy profile and use them to search for groceries that fit their allergens. If you would like to review my book or website, I would be happy to arrange complimentary access. I look forward to hearing from you.
Emily
http://www.sophiesafecooking.com
http://www.sophiesafefoodguide.com
sophiesafe@gmail.com
This cake simply took my breath away! My kids would go crazy for a cake like this! I have kept away from food colourings due to my eldest son's eczema. (Felt that he was sensitive to the colour red) Would love to try this cake now that his skin has cleared. Where do you get the gel colours from? I live in Canada. Susan H. @ The Food Allergy Chronicles
Love this idea! I used to use Wilton gels, but they ALL now have cross contamination warnings for nuts, soy and other allergens….Will regular food coloring work too?
Hi Jenine, you could use regular food coloring…but you’d need a ton to make the colors as dark as they need to be. Another option is AmeriColor, but requires ordering online. Not a big deal if you plan in advance! http://www.americolorcorp.com
I am a mom who is new to having a child with food allergies and has a birthday coming up. Perfect timing can not wait to try this!!!!
Great idea….what can i use instead of milk?
I use coconut cream as its thicker. I have made this recipe a few times now and its my go to cake recipe.
I just found this the other day looking for a cake and instantly knew this was THE one to attempt for my daughter’s b-day today! I looked no further. If it comes out 1/2 as good as yours I’ll be pleased. I have very little red so I think my will be pastels. I can’t wait!! 🙂 Thanks you for sharing this treat!!
Kristine 🙂
I love this idea but i tried to make it but the cake stick to the pan and i put spray on it. I’m felling so sad. Do you know what could happened?
Hi Meg, Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe so that all our kids can have rainbow cake whatever their allergies and not be left out at parties! Making this cake for my daughter’s birthday this weekend who has multiple food allergies, but we have another kid coming who needs to be gluten free! Can I substitute the flour in your recipe for gluten free cake flour? Will I need to add /subtract anything else for it to work? Thanks in advance ?
Hi Shabnam. I’ve always struggled with baked goods that are without dairy, eggs, AND gluten. Both eggs and gluten act as binding agents to keep baked goods from falling apart and they also create a binding structure that allows the baking soda/baking powder to create rise. When you remove both, baked goods tend to be crumbly and flat. Fortunately, in this case, the cake layers are very thin, so rising isn’t essential. However, they will be very crumbly and tricky to remove from the parchment paper without falling apart.
I would give it a go and see how it works out. I would try freezing the cooked cake layers before removing from the parchment paper and go very slowly. My guess is that freezing the layers will make it easier to remove from the parchment in once piece and layer the cake without it falling apart.
Plain or self raising flour?
And what oil did you use?
Hi Beth. I use plain unbleached all-purpose flour and vegetable oil (canola or soy). Good luck!
Have you made this as a 6-inch cake? How much batter do you think is needed in comparison to the 8-inch?