How to Make a Rainbow Pound Cake
In this fun little cake video, I'm going to demonstrate how to make a rainbow cake. This rainbow pound cake is made in a bundt pan, and the technique is so easy!
We love rainbow cake designs and have made many over the years for St. Patrick's Day, baby showers, birthdays, and more- but had never tried a rainbow bundt cake version. This colorful cake is surprisingly easy to make!
Table of Contents
How to Make a Rainbow Pound Cake
- Today we used our go-to pound cake recipe from our cake recipes section, but I would imagine any batter that works well for bundt cakes would work! I did like the added thickness of the pound cake batter.
- After making the pound cake batter, we divided it between 6 bowls. (Our pound cake recipe makes about 8 cups of batter.) Try to divide it up as evenly as you can.
- Next, tint the batter in each bowl a different color of the rainbow. I used Americolor coloring gels but go with whatever your preferred coloring is.
- **Helpful Hint about Violet- I used Americolor violet to tint my last bowl of batter but to give it a little extra purple color (it was a little too blue-grey) I added a touch of Deep Pink. This gave me the shade of purple that I needed.
- Starting with the red batter, I loaded a disposable piping bag and snipped the tip away, and then piped it into the bottom of the prepared bundt pan. I smoothed over it with a spoon, and followed with orange, piping directly onto the red batter and covering it completely. Smooth over gently with a spoon as needed and repeat for all of the colors.
- Bake as usual. Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes before turning it out.
- Once cool, I added a glaze, sprinkles, and a buttercream "cloud border". So cute and fun!
- Also, to represent the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for St Patrick's Day, I served the slices with a few gold wrapped chocolate coins.
We have more Rainbow Cakes to Share!
We've made lots of fun rainbow cakes over the years! Check out these fun rainbow cakes below!:
Rainbow Cake with Piped Buttercream Shells
Striped Rainbow Cake- Free Video Tutorial
Puffed Buttercream Rainbow Cake
Funfetti Cake and Funfetti Cupcakes
Helpful Tips for Rainbow Bundt Cakes
- Line up your bowls or piping bags of tinted batter in order to be on the safe side!
- We like to use disposable piping bags to pipe my batter into the pan- but you can also carefully spoon it on and gently smooth it.
- When adding a new layer of batter to the cake pan, it should completely cover the previous color of batter.
- When mixing the Violet batter, I mixed a touch of Deep Pink into it to brighten it a little.
- If you don't want to make buttercream "clouds", you can serve your slices with dollops of whipped cream or cool whip for a very similar cloud-like look!
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this fun rainbow pound cake recipe and tutorial.
More Cakes with Patterns Inside
Check out our other cakes that have a surprise pattern on the inside. These are fun to make, and fun for your unsuspecting guests too!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Rainbow Pound Cake {Rainbow Inside}
Learn how to make a rainbow cake in this free cake video! We're using our go-to pound cake recipe to demonstrate the rainbow technique! So fun (and delicious)!
Ingredients
For the Pound Cake
- 3 sticks (339 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups (600 g) sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 3 cups (375 g) all purpose flour, (not self-rising)
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- 1 cup (235 g) whole milk
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) vanilla
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) lemon extract (optional)
- *Colors: We used Americolor Super Red, Orange, Lemon Yellow, Leaf Green, Sky Blue and Violet (with a touch of Deep Pink mixed into it to deepen the purple)
- Optional: sprinkles on top (I also place chocolate gold coins on the plate for St. Patrick's Day)
For the Sugar Glaze
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
- 1.5 Tablespoons milk (adjust as needed)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (use clear imitation vanilla if you need a true white glaze)
For the Buttercream Cloud Border (optional)
- 1 sticks (113g) unsalted butter, slightly softened but cool to the touch and holding it's shape
- 3 cups(345g) powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency. More sugar=more crusting).
- 1 tsp. vanilla (4 grams), use clear imitation vanilla if you like a whiter frosting
- 2 Tablespoons (30g) whole milk or more if needed
- ¼ teaspoon salt (1.5g) to cut the sweetness (preferably fine grain or popcorn salt). Adjust to taste.
Instructions
For the Pound Cake
- Grease and flour a bundt pan.
- Lower the oven rack to the next to lowest position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a separate bowl whisk the flour and baking powder to combine, set aside for later. - Cream the butter with the paddle attachment in your mixer, gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time blending after each to incorporate.
- Add the vanilla and lemon extract to the l cup of milk. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to the butter, sugar, egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. I add the dry 3 times and milk twice.
Tinting the Batter
- Divide the pound cake batter (approximately 8 cups) into 6 bowls- each will be tinted a different color of the rainbow.
- I used Americolor coloring gels for this.
- Next, you will layer on your colors into the prepared (greased/floured) bundt pan. Some people spoon in the colors- I find it easier to pipe them into the bundt pan using disposable piping bags (with the tips snipped away).
- Start with the red batter, gently smooth over it, and follow with orange batter, covering the red completely. Repeat for each color.
- Bake on the lowest rack of your oven at 325 degrees (F). Start checking for doneness at the 50 minute mark but it often takes up to 1 hour, 10 minutes. If a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, it is ready. If not, add a few minutes to baking time as needed.
For the Sugar Glaze
- Combine all ingredients
- Load into a piping bag with the tip snipped away (or use a spoon if you prefer) and drizzle over the cake. We added confetti sprinkles right after drizzling so that they would stick- the glaze sets up fairly quickly.
For the Buttercream (border)
- Cream the (slightly softened) butter until smooth. Blend in the vanilla.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and most of the milk. Beat at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated.
- Add remaining powdered sugar and milk and mix at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. I slow down the mixer to very slow. (#2 on the Kitchenaid) for 1 to 2 minutes. This will help eliminate air pockets in the buttercream. The texture will become very smooth.
- Yields about 2 cups of frosting.
- *I filled my piping bag with the buttercream frosting and snipped the tip away to create puffs of buttercream for a cloud-like look all the way around the base of the cake.
Amazing! That is so cool!!! I didn't realize how simple it was! Already added to my baking list!
There was a simple pound cake made with butter recipe cake mix a nd pecans but I can’t find it. It also had sour cream
Hi Norma, All of our cake recipes are in the recipe section. Was it the Butter Pecan Cake ? It could be made in a bundt cake pan. Link below.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes-tutorials/butter-pecan-cake-recipe/
The mobile version of this site makes it very hard to watch the video. It goes through it once then skips to the next video and I was unable to get back to the rainbow cake video.
Hi KR- I'm sorry you had trouble viewing the video- Are you watching the video that appears at the bottom of the recipe? This is the full, more detailed video. I wonder if what you saw was the "quick look" video which shows snippets of different featured tutorials.
Our rainbow cake can also be viewed on our YouTube if you continue to have trouble!
Can you freeze this and how long does it take to defrost?