“How to make a rainbow cake from scratch, easily!! Fail-proof buttermilk vanilla cake recipe that’s delicious, easy and downright impressive!”
Listen, I don’t know too many foods that can make you feel all cheery inside than the sight of a beautiful, bright rainbow layered cake!
Just look at all those happy vibrant colors!! Wouldn’t you feel special if someone made this for you? Especially if you thought you were receiving just a regular ol cake? I know I would!
I made this rainbow cake this morning for my boys and they thought I was the coolest mom EVERRRRR! *toot toot*
They were so impressed and was all like “oh my God how did you make this!?”, “You’re the best mom on this earth”, “You’re prettier than Beyonce mom!”, “I hope my wife is just as fabulous as you are!”…. Ok I added those last two lines but still…..you get the point…they were like, really happy.
The last time I made something rainbowish on my blog was when I made these rainbow (tie dye) cupcakes for Isaac when he was potty trained.
Wow how time flies! Now I’m potty training Ethan!
Well this homemade rainbow cake is super simple to make just like those cupcakes!
I like to use my grandmother’s homemade buttermilk vanilla cake for this recipe. Most recipes I’ve seen online for rainbow cakes use a couple of box cake mixes to make the process easier. I’m not knocking the box cakes at all honey if that’s your thang, do what you gotta do! It’s hard out here!
But this buttermilk vanilla cake is so freakin easy there’s really no reason to pull out those box cake mixes. Save them for another day.
Did I mention that this cake recipe is a one bowl deal? (YESSSS GAWD!!!) It has a light old fashioned vanilla-ish taste but not too intense.
It’s kind of a cross between a white cake and a hummingbird cake in flavor. It’s one of my go-to cake flavors whenever I’m making something for a crowd. It’s simple, tender, delicious and pairs up with pretty much any frosting flavor under the sun.
I rrrrreally like it with cream cheese frosting though. Makes it taste all complicated and stuff. And since there’s a lot of frosted layers with this cake you might as well make a really good, but not to sweet frosting right?
I’m really selling this cake recipe aren’t I? Ha! Well might as well add another great thing I love about it: It’s VERY forgiving if you overmix it! Huge bonus since we’ll be doing a lot of stirring when we add in our food coloring.
Make this cake for someone special. Even better if it’s a raining day! It will bring on a smile for sure!
Watch me make this easy rainbow cake recipe from start to finish!
Easy Rainbow Cake...From Scratch!
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups white granulated sugar
- 1 cup butter softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Food coloring: red, yellow, blue, green
FROSTING
- 12 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 ½ cups butter softened (do not melt)
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F.
- Generously grease and flour 6 (9-inch cake pans.) I only had 3 pans so I had to bake in two rounds.
- In a large bowl cream together sugar and butter.
- Mix in eggs until thoroughly incorporated.
- Mix in vanilla extract, buttermilk and heavy cream.
- Mix in half of the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- When mixture is combined, mix in the rest of the flour.
- Divide the batter into six bowls (about 1 cup of batter per bowl)
- Add food coloring to each bowl to create a vibrant red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. (see note on how to make colors)
- Pour each colored batter into the prepared pans and spread out into an even layer. (layers will be thin)
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until center is set. Do not overbake. Keep a close eye on them as some ovens run hotter and these are thin layers.
- Remove from oven and let cakes cool in the pan until pans are warm enough to touch.
- Run a spatula around the edges of the pans to loosen the cake and then very carefully remove the cakes from the pans.
- Place on a cooling rack and cool completely.
- Meanwhile make the cream cheese frosting by creaming together cream cheese and butter.
- Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla.
- Place the violet layer down first and frost. Followed by the blue layer, green layer, yellow layer, orange layer and finally the red layer. (frost between each layer)
- Place a thin coat of the icing on the cake to create a crumb coat. This will make the cake even all around and seal any loose crumbs.
- Once the crumb coat is set, finish frosting the cake.
- Slice & serve!
- (To create more defined layers of frosting between the colors, place the frosted cake in the fridge to allow the cream cheese frosting to firm up before slicing)
Do you have a recommended brand for food coloring? The brand I used left a chemical bitter taste. Otherwise a great cake!
What brand did you use? Have you tried AmeriColor or Wiltons?
Made this cake for my daughters 10th bday!! She was adamant on a rainbow cake and I searched for a recipe that was going to be above average. Well this my formers is IT!!! It was a huge hit and I have had requests from all those who were lucky enough to have a taste to make it again. Including myself.., I have been craving this dang cake every day since… . Going to make it again today and experiment with pink and white layers. I like the idea of layers so you can have the perfect disbursement of cake and frosting. Amazingly memorable cake. Thank you Monique for the recipe. I feel that I have been robbed all my life using boxed cake mixes.
2nd year in a row for this cake! It’s a great recipe that is easy to follow with great results! I’m not a baker, but I feel like Buddy The Cake Boss with this cake! Thank you so much!
I’ve made this cake probably about 10 times over the last year because whenever someone tastes it, they want me make it again! Even when my cake layers crumbled a little sometimes, or the cake was a little skew, it still tastes AMAZING!! Definitely an easy and incredibly delicious cake. Thanks for sharing!!
Could you use jello for the colour instead of food colouring?
My four year old grandson asked me to make a rainbow cake for his aunt’s birthday. I followed your recipe to the letter and it came out perfectly delicious & looked great. I only had two 9″ pans so I baked batches of two layers at a time while keeping the rest of the batter refrigerated. I was worried that the later layers wouldn’t rise as much but they all came out the same! Thanks.
Just made this cake for my daughters 3rd birthday. It has come out amazing
Only thing I have done differently is I added purple colouring for the final frosting as she requested a purple rainbow cake
Every single cake layer broke into a million pieces when I tried to remove from Pan despite greasing the pans. I am SO FRUSTRATED.
I am going to try to make this for my granddaughter’s 2nd birthday which is on Jan. 4 but will be celebrating it on Jan 2. Wish me luck.
What brand of food coloring do you prefer?
I am looking for a good white cake recipe and they are hard to come by. Everything I’ve made from your recipes has been amazing! Would it be possible to make a white cake from this recipe by leaving out the food coloring and only add egg whites?
Wondering if this recipe will work well if I substituted 2 of the eggs for apple sauce? We have an egg allergy.
I’m looking for a white cake recipe from you. Can I make a white cake out of your confetti cup cakes, and what’s the time on cooking the cake.
This cake is BEAUTIFUL! We are making it today for a birthday tomorrow…I know you say to put in the fridge if you want more defined layers, but otherwise how do you store? Out on the counter? Or in fridge? Thank you!!!
Thank you for giving me the confidence to make such a fancy cake!
I made this for my son’s 8th birthday and it turned out brilliantly.
I substituted Greek yoghurt in place of the cream.
My son loved this cake and is still eating it days later.
The colours are gorgeous and the icing is totally delicious.
It’s a big cake! I used 20cm pans and the layers were a good thickness.
Thanks again for posting!
I havent even put in the frosting but the cake came out really tasty. I always just love cakes even without frosting. If the cake itself is nice then thats all that matters. This recipe is gold.
Made this for a baby shower recently! I only have one baking tin the same size so it took a while to bake all 6 layers but otherwise easy and with a huge impact on the day: what more could you want? Oh yes, tasted so good!
Thanks from an Irish woman in Switzerland!
Hi! May I know how many grams is one cup you are using ? Can I have the ingredients in grams and litre please?
And can I have a 6inch pan recipe for this rainbow cake, please?
Thank you
This came out so so good. It is a forgiving recipe for sure. I spent a good 15-20 min mixing everything and the cake was still soft.
This cake is so delicious. I used to just go the easy/boxed route, but will never do that again after trying her recipe. My daughter helped and everyone was thrilled when it was cut open!
Can you please help me with measurements for 6″ inch rainbow cake recipe.
Hi, Sorry , Just a modification in the size. Can you please help me with measurements for 8″ inch rainbow cake recipe.
can I make half this recipe? how many eggs should I use?
Look up the weight for three eggs and then use half of that amount.
I made this recipe for my daughter’s 4th birthday after she declared she wanted a rainbow cake with rainbow sprinkles (I googled rainbow cake which is how I discovered divas can cook). It tasted and looked amazing! My daughter still loves watching the video Of Monique making the cake nearly 1 year later!
I just made this for a little girl’s 6th birthday. I used a traditional vanilla buttercream. It was a massive hit. I ended up making 1.5 times the recipe and had to bake in 3 batches. It took 20 mins in my oven for 9″ pans. I am almost always a chocolate cake person so I am thrilled to add a good quality white cake (other than pound cake) to my recipe book.
Thanks very much for posting!
I have no idea where I went wrong but it was super spongy and a really wierd consistency. I spent two house making it but ended up throwing out.
Made this cake for my daughter’s 5th birthday and it turned out AMAZING!! Everyone loved it! Thankyou so much for sharing a great recipe!!! It’s definitely a keeper! Can’t wait to try out more of your recipes!
This cake is amazing and never fails. So moist and deliciousevery time I make it.
What about adding flavor for the color of the layer and how much for each layer.
This cake looked and tasted great. My family loved it ❤️
I’m making it today after work
Can I use this recipe with no eggs for vegan?
I made this cake for my granddaughter’s first birthday. We wanted her to have her own special cake so we could capture those moments of baby’s first cake. Adorable. I used very small silicone pans that were only 5 inches wide, so I cut bake time way down. WOW!!! This is a delicious cake. And yes…I felt like I was an old granny on Sesame Street with so many fun colors. I’m baking these cakes again (no fun colors this time) for a ladies luncheon at church. I know they’ll taste soooooo good!
Please send me the ingredients
Hi! Can I do this in 6 inch pans and just bake them longer?
I tried making this yesterday, but the layers were very flat and dense (they barely rose at all). I’m wondering if I overmixed the batter – I just used regular food colouring so I ended up adding a lot to get the colours vibrant, and maybe I stirred too much? Any other thoughts?
The kids loved it anyway so I’m sure I’ll have to make it again some time!
Hi,
Could you please give me the measurement for a 6 inch cake pan?
My girls (ages 7 and 10) have asked me to make layered cakes in the past and I just never felt equipped, but I decided to give it a try and this was an easy, fun first for us. I decided to make two smaller cakes so they’d each have their own to decorate. I did 1/2 c batter into 2 6” pans for each rainbow layer and they turned out so cute. It was a lot of baking since I only have 2 pans but it was fun. Thanks for the recipe!
So after the big taste test, it was amazing. The layers turned out really well and the birthday girl was well impressed. I reduced the sugar in the cake to 1 cup and used 3/4 cup Stevia (for baking) in the cream cheese icing – delicious. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing this recipe and the cute little video! Successfully made this recipe using the Wilton 6” 5-layer cake tins. The cream cheese frosting was the best part however I reduced the amount of sugar used to approx 4cups. The batter was a tad dense/dry for my liking though it could be because of substituting buttermilk+cream with natural yogurt+milk and/or overmixing batter to include colour. I also had to increase cooking time to compensate for thicker layers.
Ahhh Hello!! So glad I stumbled across this recipe this morning. I’m making my daughter’s 11th birthday cake. This was so simple, easy to follow and a little bit fun to make. I can’t believe the layers actually turned out for me. The last two layers are in the oven now, so as for taste, unable to comment as yet. But I’m betting they taste delicious. YAY can’t wait to see her face. Thanks so much for sharing your grandma’s recipe! Much love from Australia xo
Didn’t have the cream so I added more buttermilk. This is the BEST tasting cake ever. Haven’t frosted yet but if the frosting is half as good as the cake you get an A+++++++++‼️
What if I have only one pan to back triple color cake. Can I bake the batter layer by layer then just add the next layer on top and again??
I was so excited about making my comment that I forgot to rate the cake. I would give it 10 Stars if they were available.
All I can say is WOW!! I’ve been looking for a delicious, moist, and easy vanilla cake recipe. OMG! This is it PERIOD. I didn’t do the colors I just want the cake recipe. I also tried your rainbow cupcakes to make simple cupcakes. And they are equally delicious. Thank you Monique!!!
This cake was a super hit with my nieces and I get asked to make it all the time now. The cake alongside the cream cheese frosting pairs really well together and not too sweet. Even my dad and brother who don’t like cakes went in for seconds and thirds. Thank you so much for making cake baking for this non-Baker so easy!
This cake was absolutely phenomenal. I am NOT a baker and even I didn’t mess it up. Not only was it completely delicious – one of the best actual cakes and frostings I have ever tasted – it was also SOOOOO easy to make. Everyone at my daughter’s rainbow 6th birthday party thought I had ordered it from a bakery! Thank you SO much. I used 8-in cake pans because I already had three of them. I think it was the perfect size to give it enough height. 9-in would likely have been too short and flat for my liking. As it was the layers were pretty flat. But it was PERFECT. So impressive. Beautiful, and delicious. Thank you thank you thank you!!!
Hi!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!!! have used twice for both my nephews birthdays. And it was a HUGE success!!! The cake turns out soo lovely and the texture is really nice! Used Vanilla buttercream, which made it a bit too sweet, will have to try next time with the cream cheese icing! 🙂
This looks amazing! Will definitely try it. Can you store the cake in the fridge overnight? Or will it dry?
Yes it can be stored covered in the fridge.
Hello! I will attempt to make your recipe. It is just a matter of when lol. It really depends on the cake freezing well or not. I would like to make it in advance and do the layering and decoration on the morning of the party since it’s going to be later in the afternoon. Looking forward to your replying.
If I cannot get hold of buttermilk. Normal milk is fine too or cream maybe?
I tried this recipe and it turned out great! My friemds loved it.
Now Iam making another batch for my friend’s birthday. Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂
Are you sure 1 tbsp/tablespoon baking powder?
Icing is lovely, but overall I am throughly disappointed. My cakes turned out completley flat, and resembled pancakes. The produced cake looks like an utter flop. Made this for a friends birthday, now I will have to advertise it as a rainbow pancake pudding. I am very sad as was looking forward to presenting a beautiful rainbow cake.
Awww I’m so sad to hear this happened to you! Maybe I can help you troubleshoot?
Thank you for sharing this recipe! This cake came out lovely! Made it for my nephew’s 11th birthday…it was a hit!
Hello.I found this recipe for my girl’s 3rd birthday. My question is…can i add less sugar? As it was so very sweet! I am also making buttercream so i am worried it will be too sugary. Thank you
This cake looks amazing! Could you please provide the metric measurements for your ingredients?
Absolutely love love this cake recipe. It has replaced the family famous red Waldorf Astoria red cake that my mother in law would make for all her kids birthdays. If I make cupcakes how much of batter and how long to bake?
I tried this cake, and the layers wouldn’t come out of the pans. It had the consistency of Sand Alive when I cut into them to get them out. The recipe was easy to follow, but just not a good turn out for me.
This is super looking – I think I’m going to make it for my granddaughter. I would like to make this cake using 6″ pans – do you have an idea by how much I should reduce the batter amount? Also did you color the layers with regular food dye or a special dye?
I made this cake and unfortunately I think I over baked it. 🙁 The taste was great but was a little too dry even with the frosting. How long do you suggest I bake a much thicker cake for (instead of thin layers of cake), say 2 9-inch pans?
I baked for 30-35 minutes and the 35 minute cake came out perfect!
Is ‘heavy whipping cream’ the same as fresh cream?
What Colors do you recommend???
Are the cakes sturdy to stack a tier on top?
Great recipe, now monsoon will come and also my birthday so the perfect time for this rainbow cake, thanks for sharing
Yay! A rainbow recipie people have rated high, I will definitely make this!
Nick
Thank you so much for this recipe!! Its so surprisingly easy that even a high schooler like me can make it 🙂
I made this for my best friends birthday and she LOVED IT! Covered in white icing, she totally wasn’t expecting the rainbow inside. Really tasty, and looks gorgeous!
I made this cake and people were saying OMG how did you do that and the taste and texture were awesome. Thanks Monique
Hi there! Thank you so much for your awesome recipe! I made this cake for my daughter’s 7th birthday and she loved it! I just blogged about it and linked to you. You can check it out here http://alisondaydesigns.com/4770-2/
Thanks again!
I may this for Easter and it was a hit! It presents lovely and has a wonderful flavor. Thank you!!!
I made this cake using gluten free Cup 4 cup flour and it was delicious!!! I only ended up doing 4 layers and cooking for about 25 minutes, but it turned out perfectly! The batter was thick and a little difficult to evenly spread in the pan, but it was worth it. Yum! Thanks for sharing. (I ran out of time so I used store bought icing). My daughter LOVED her rainbow birthday cake!
Hey how long does the cake keep for?
Hi
Can you freeze this cake?
I made this cake using your recipe. It turned out great. My friends love it. Thank you for sharing this great recipe.
HI there. Thanks so much for sharing this fab recipe. I made it for my daughter’s 4th birthday (complete with fondant rainbow on top, a couple of My Little Ponies and her name in rainbow colours) and it was such a hit! She adored it, as did her friends and their parents. Really tasty, colourful and fun. Thank you!
How much is a ‘cup’?
250 ml
Made this cake for my 5 year old’s birthday a week ago. Thank you for the recipe shared.
Thanks for the great recipe, i’ve tried it and the taste is so marvelous,, your video is so fun and your methods are easy to follow,, keep up the good work,,
Hi There ,
Just wondering how many days in advance can you make cake , if your pressed for time ?
And should it be stored in airtight container and kept in fridge ?
Look forward to a reply 🙂
Thankyou Susan
I had a huge problem with the thinness of these layers. Getting them out of the pans was a nightmare. Any tips? Have you ever doubled the recipe to get thicker tiers?
Try greasing the pans before adding the batter.. hopefully that will keep it from sticking.
I lined the bottom of my pans with a disc of parchment paper and they flipped out with no trouble at all. The paper really helped keep the layers from breaking apart when I positioned them to cool
Hello is it ok to freeze the cakes and then put unfreeze the day before and put it together? Or how long before can I make it and it still taste ok? X
Hi Monique,
Could I use the red velvet recipe to make this cake? Or could I swap the butter for oil in the above mentioned recipe?
Looking forward to hearing from you!!
Hi I was wondering do I have to use heavy whipping cream?
Hi nice cake. Does this cake remain moist and soft in refrigerator as butter is added to it. As some of my butter cakes gets hard in refrigerator although they r soft nd moist when prepared and if kept outside at room temp.Thnks fr help in advance.
I made this as a birthday cake and it turned out great. The directions were awesome. I especially appreciated the tips on achieving the color for the orange and purple layers, very helpful.
Hello! I am hoping to make this for my daughters birthday in a few weeks. I am wondering how this cake freezes? I would like to bake it the week before, freeze for a few days, thaw and assemble.
Thanks!! Hoping mine comes out as pretty as yours!!
HI! Please, help me with size of this cake. On how portions (kilograms) it is?
Hi the recipe was perfect.but I added gelatin jellies flavour to each layer. I used tang flavours as well.the cake came out perfect.
I just made this cake today. I added strained strawberry puree to the frosting but that kind of failed. I also added a little too much gel color to the cakes. But as it was a practice cake before my birthday next week, I’m glad I learned now. I will make this again for sure next week for my special day.
the url to see my “masterpiece”: http://i.imgur.com/z41WvdC.png
Would like to try this recipe, however living in the UK we dont have measuring cups.
Is there any possibility of having the measurements converted to grams or ounces?
Many Thanks.
Val, 1 cup = 8oz. You can also use google to convert measurements, just type what you want to convert from and to (such as “cups to ounces”) and google will give you a converter to use. Hope that helps.
Just want to say that I love love love your site!! I love looking at all the Delicious looking recipes. but the rainbow cake I’m definitely will be baking for my son’s birthday… I can’t wait to try it!!
Hi,
It looks great! My sister´s birthday is next week and I am so doing this recipe!
Just wanted to ask you about the measuring cups… how big are the cups? or about how many gr/oz?
thanks
Nice colors, it’s awesome. But from where can i get the colored elements?
Thanks,
Any supermarkets
Thank you sooooo much
It was a students 13 birthday at gisborne intermediate and she got a big prize
HI, Many thanks for sharing cake looks so moist and yummy! How many persons does this serve?
Thanks so much for this great recipe! My god daughter wanted a rainbow cake for her birthday and I was planning to order it from a bakery until I heard the price. A quick Google search turned up this awesome cake. It was so easy and delicious!
HI i have a small otg, may be 1 tin at a time, so in that case if i have to make six cakes, what be the bake time, n then resting time for each cake, i mean when can i remove the cake and then add another colour cake inside?
I made this recipe and brought it into the office, it was a hit!
Hi! I am curious how tall the finished cake is? Also how many it serves? Ta
Diva! I used your recipe and made this cake for my family and they loved it, the cake it very moist and very good!! You go Diva!!
Well, this is just wonderfully colorful! The colors are so vibrant, they gave out that happy vibe. The cake is just so amazing! I really love it!
Oh boy where do I start. …this cake is so pretty. ..my kids loved making it almost as much as they loved eating it. I wish I could upload a pic because it came out flawless. ..well aside from the fact that I didn’t know which order the colors were in the rainbow lol! !!
I made this cake over the weekend and it turned out GREAT! I was nervous about it, and I made sure I followed the recipe to zap because I wanted it to look like the pics and also taste good! I’m happy to say that my kids and hubby loved it and it was gone in 3 days! My oldest son is already asking when I plan to bake it again. (puts a smile on my face!!) Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Mo, can you use cake flower with this recipe?
Looks delicious and easy to make! And your boys are adorable!
Monique,
It was nice meeting you at the Town Hall meeting with the President and Lisa Stone last week. I was blown away by how cool the whole thing was, kinda still in shock. Thought I would pop over and say “hey” and check out some of these awesome recipes. Keep Rocking!
Do you have to make it layers or will it be okay in one pan ?
I will be trying this recipe. It looks & tastes so good even though I haven’t tried the cake yet. This is my favorite website to come to when
Excellent as usual… I cant wait to make this cake… it’s an excellent idea..Thanks!
AWESOME CAKE!!! This cake is outstanding… I made it on Saturday evening, come Sunday mornging my husband and I sampled it and delish!!! My brother, mom and other family members finished the cake by Sunday evening. Thank you Monique!!
Wow! I would love to do this cake! But, for me it doesn’t seems too easy! 🙂
Hey Monique, made this cake yesterday AWESOME!!!! Delicious, moist & easy to make. The cream cheese frosting compliments this cake so well. Thank you for this recipe.
I’m going to make this for my mom for Mother’s Day. The cake is so pretty and sounds delicious. I like vanilla cake.
There is nothing wrong with cake before breakfast…or cake for breakfast every once in a while. 🙂
Thanks for such a happy cake.
DIva; I can tell you that you make my day with your pleasant personality and wonderful recipes. Keep up the great job. I plan to make the cake in my spare time. It will take more than 15 minutes.
To make dairy free would coconut cream work instead of regular cream and a nut or coconut milk instead of buttermilk?
You can go ahead & box up a slice of this to send to me. Gosh, it’s so pretty! I can practically taste it too. Yum!
Love your apple crisp recipe now I’m gone have to make your rainbow cake that looks real good