This recipe can be used to create a homemade rainbow cake from scratch. Bake this delicious cake with a different hue for each tier, using all the colors of the rainbow. The six-layer, 9-inch round cake made with this recipe has a light mascarpone cream icing.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 rainbow cake |
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ⅓ cups milk
- 1 cup white sugar
- 5 large egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- food coloring in 6 rainbow colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet)
- 2 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 (8 ounce) containers mascarpone cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease six 9-inch round cake pans and dust with flour.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Beat 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, milk, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla extract in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in flour mixture and mix until just combined.
- Divide cake batter evenly between 6 bowls. Mix in different food coloring to each bowl, creating 6 different colored batters. Start with just 1 to 2 drops of food coloring in each bowl, then mix; you can always add more.
- Bake each cake in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Beat cream in a chilled glass or metal bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Stir together confectioners’ sugar and mascarpone cheese in a separate bowl, then fold gently into the whipped cream until smooth.
- Spread frosting on each layer of cooled cake, placing one on top of the other. Cover the top and sides with the remaining frosting. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
- The original measurements for this cake are in metric – if you have a scale, please measure out: 370 grams flour, 200 grams unsalted butter, 180 grams sugar, and 320 ml milk for the cake. For the frosting you will need 600 ml cream, 5 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, and 450 grams mascarpone cheese.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 663 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 47 g |
| Cholesterol | 152 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 9 g |
| Saturated Fat | 30 g |
| Sodium | 315 mg |
| Sugars | 22 g |
| Fat | 50 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I made my granddaughter this Homemade Rainbow Cake. She absolutely loved all of the beautiful rainbow colors in the cake. The cake was delicious.
Question: The recipe says to bake EACH cake….which makes me wonder if they are all supposed to be baked individually or, if the oven accommodates all the cake pans, can they be baked at the same time..
I was so glad to see this recipe because a friend of my made the cake last summer it was beautiful, but she went a little overboard and flavored each color which confused the taste buds a bit. I made the recipe today for a birthday party but left the flavors out. I’m also glad to see that the Mascarpone thing has caught on, not so much for the flavor it brings to Whipped Cream (well that too) but rather the fact that it “holds and preserves” the cream. Any leftover cake (refrigerated) will look and taste just a good as it did the day before.