Learn how to make easy and simple Eggless Rainbow Cake recipe with detailed step by step pictures. Make the most beautiful layered rainbow cake that is super simple to bake and assemble! A fun project for engaging kids, and to make any celebration colorful.
Eggless Rainbow Cake is a classic layered cake made with all the colors of the rainbow. It is simple to bake and put together, to be decorated making it one of the easiest baking projects even for beginners. All you require are the basic pantry ingredients, except for good-quality food grade liquid colors to make the cake pop! This cake is an oil-based cake, much like all my other eggless cake recipes adapted from my Eggless Rasmalai Cake.
Oil-based cakes are moist, soft and keep fresh both when refrigerated and at room temperature. I find decorating and frosting oil based eggless cakes easier, as its not very crumbly while being soft. This easy rainbow cake can be customized to any height and depending on the number of colors at hand, even the layers can be customized. I made a 5 layered rainbow cake, but feel free to add on more colors for a much taller cake.
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Ingredients
All Purpose Flour is an essential ingredient for making the cake batter. While wheat flour can be used, it can reduce the pigmentation of the colors and impact the texture of the cake, so recommended to go to 50:50 if using any other flour along.
Oil, Curd and Milk are the liquid ingredients of the cake batter, making it light & fluffy acting as an egg replacement.
Baking Soda and Baking Powder are both used as raising agents for this eggless rainbow cake batter.
Food Grade Liquid Colors are used to make the different colored layers of the cake and work much better compared to the powder-based colors.
Whipping Cream (dairy or non-dairy) is used for frosting the cake and Rainbow Sprinkles are used for the decorating the cake.
For full list of ingredients and exact measurements, check the recipe below.
Step by Step Instructions
Preheat oven at 180°C for 10-12 mins and grease, line two 6” round baking pans with parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, add all dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix it well. It could be sieved as well.
In another mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredients – milk, curd, oil, vanilla essence, and sugar.
Mix the ingredients with a whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
Now make a well at the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture.
Fold it in gently such that there are no lumps.
Now divide the batter into 5-6 equal portions, I used little more than ½ cup of batter for each color. Add the liquid colors in each of the portions and mix well. You will need 5-6 drops of food color per portion and make sure there are no white patches for even coloring of baked cake.
Pour the colored cake batter equally into the 2 greased, lined baking pans. Bake at 180°C for 12-15 mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean. As lesser batter is used in the pans, it should bake faster than a normal cake. Repeat this with rest of the colored batters.
Invert the baked cakes onto a wire rack and remove the parchment paper. Let them cool down completely. If required, trim the edges and the top off the cake to make layers even.
Meanwhile whip the cream until soft peaks are formed. Set it in fridge until the cake is ready to be frosted.
Prepare a simple sugar syrup by dissolving sugar with water and mix until the sugar is dissolved.
Place the first layer of the cake and gently brush the sugar syrup all over the cake.
Evenly spread a layer of whipped cream on top. Place the next layer of cake and repeat the frosting process. I alternated between a light & dark colored layer to show contrasts.
Spread the whipped cream along the edges and on top, covering the cake all over as evenly as possible.
Decorate with rainbow sprinkles.
Chill it until ready to serve. Stores well in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Recipe Notes
- This makes for a tall 6” cake. I used two pans to reduce the baking time and to fasten the cake making process, can be made with a single pan too. Use a 7” or 8” pan to get a larger but short cake, but keep an eye on the baking time – it might need just abut 10 minutes to bake the colored cake batter in a large pan.
- Adjust sweetness of the whipping cream by adding icing sugar. If using non-dairy based whipping cream powder, it is already sweetened – don’t have to use any icing sugar.
Top Tip
Always sieve the dry ingredients one or two times to evenly mix them well and to get a lump-free smooth cake batter.
Make sure the oven and pans are ready to go, when the cake batter is ready. Leaving the batter out in the open for longer time will affect the consistency of the cake. Using 2 pans to bake the colored batters will reduce the overall baking time and is highly recommended.
Using liquid food colors ensures that the batter is pigmented well and the cakes also look pretty.
Always wait until the cakes are fully cooled down before being frosted or decorated.
Substitutions & Variations
The all-purpose flour can be replaced with half of whole wheat flour if desired, however the texture of the cake and the colors can vary.
Instead of the rainbow sprinkles, colorful candy like M&Ms or Gems can be used to decorate as well.
Divide the cake batter into any equal number of portions depending on the food colors available and mix & match while assembling the layers.
Storage & Serving Suggestions
Eggless Rainbow Cake stores well in the fridge for over 5 days and can be served cold as a dessert or with coffee as desired. The cakes can be baked in advance and left wrapped in cling film in the fridge – this also helps with the frosting & decorating of the cake as there are less crumbs.
I would be delighted to know if you have tried this recipe, don’t forget to provide your rating for this recipe and do share your comments below. If you have any questions, you can always e-mail me! I am also available on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter 🙂
📖 Recipe
Eggless Rainbow Cake
Equipment
- OTG
- 2 6" Round Baking Pans
- Parchment Paper
- Whisk
- Silicon Spatula
MEASUREMENT
1 cup = 250ml, 1 tablespoon = 15ml, 1 teaspoon = 5ml
Ingredients
For the Eggless Vanilla Cake Base –
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour/Maida
- 1 cup Sugar
- ¾ cup Plain Yogurt/Curd
- 1 cup Milk
- ½ cup Oil
- ¾ teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1.5 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
- A Pinch of Salt
- 5 Liquid Food Colors of your choice
For Decorating the Cake –
- 2 cup Whipping Cream 2 packs non-dairy whipping cream powder
- 3 tablespoon Rainbow Sprinkles
For Sugar Syrup -
- 3 tablespoon Sugar
- ¼ Water
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 180°C for 10-12 mins and grease, line two 6” round baking pans with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, add all dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix it well. It could be sieved as well.
- In another mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredients – milk, curd, oil, vanilla essence, and sugar.
- Mix the ingredients with a whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
- Now make a well at the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture.
- Fold it in gently such that there are no lumps.
- Now divide the batter into 6 equal portions, I used ⅓ cup for each color. Add the liquid colors in each of the portions and mix well. You will need 5-6 drops of food color per portion and make sure there are no white patches for even coloring of baked cake.
- Pour the colored cake batter equally into the 2 greased, lined baking pans.
- Bake at 180°C for 12-15 mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean. As lesser batter is used in the pans, it should bake faster than a normal cake. Repeat this with rest of the colored batters.
- Invert the baked cakes onto a wire rack and remove the parchment paper. Let them cool down completely. If required, trim the edges and the top off the cake to make layers even.
- Meanwhile whip the cream until soft peaks are formed. Set it in fridge until the cake is ready to be frosted.
- Prepare a simple sugar syrup by dissolving sugar with water and mix until the sugar is dissolved.
- Place the first layer of the cake and gently brush the sugar syrup all over the cake. Even spread a layer of whipped cream on top. Place the next layer of cake and repeat the frosting process. I alternated between a light & dark colored layer to show contrasts.
- Spread the whipped cream along the edges and on top, covering the cake all over as evenly as possible. Decorate with rainbow sprinkles.
- Chill it until ready to serve. Stores well in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Notes
- This makes for a tall 6” cake. I used two pans to reduce the baking time and to fasten the cake making process, can be made with a single pan too. Use a 7” or 8” pan to get a larger but short cake, but keep an eye on the baking time – it might need just abut 10 minutes to bake the colored cake batter in a large pan.
- Adjust sweetness of the whipping cream by adding icing sugar. If using non-dairy based whipping cream powder, it is already sweetened – don’t have to use any icing sugar.
Shannon Smith
I love new recipes