Easy Vegan Rainbow Cake Recipe (Natural Colors!) (2024)

FAQs

How to naturally color cake batter? ›

I used gel food coloring to color these rainbow cake layers. Liquid food coloring can work too, but you won't be able to get the same vibrant colors. You also can throw off the consistency of the cake batter if you add too much liquid food coloring. I highly recommend using gel food coloring.

Fresh organic beets work great as natural food coloring by shredding the beets and squeezing out their dark red juice. Mix a little beet juice with white buttercream frosting to create the most beautiful natural pink frosting that is completely free of artificial food dye.

Of course, most blue cake recipes use food coloring. However, I used the magic blue matcha powder, otherwise referred to as Blue Butterfly Pea Powder. It's a natural ingredient, which is appealing. Add the pea powder to the batter and stir, and the cake batter will transform into a stunning shade of blue.

Start at one end of cake and pour a spoonful of purple ganache over the top edge allowing it to drip down the sides of the cake. Next to the purple add a spoonful of blue, then green, yellow, orange, red, then pink, repeating this as you go around the entire cake. If desired, swirl the colors on the top of the cake.

Powders such as spices, matcha, cocoa powder, coffee/espresso powder, or pulverized freeze-dried fruits can be added directly to the recipe for an extra pop of color. To incorporate these ingredients as a powder – run them through a food processor or spice grinder beforehand to make sure the granules are extra fine.

Sugarflair Liquid Food Colouring

If you are looking to buy a colouring to be used specifically with high fat ingredients like buttercream, cake batter and chocolate, Sugarflair Oil Based Colours are the most suitable option.

Fill 6 clear cups about 3/4 full of water. Then, get that food coloring ready. Add red, blue, and yellow to 3 of the cups. One color per cup.

Stand It Up

Spread a thin layer of buttercream onto the flat bottom of the cake and stand it up, using that layer of buttercream to adhere it to the plate or cake board. Add a thicker crumb coat of buttercream, then put it back in the fridge until the icing is firm to the touch (at least 10 minutes).

Cocoa, coffee, tea, spices, and spirulina are already in powder form, so those are easy options. Just as you would with food dyes, start with a small amount of these natural frosting coloring options and add more as needed to adjust the color to your desired tint.

What is the natural blue color for cake? ›

Red Cabbage = Blue

Chop about 1/4 head of red cabbage; put the cabbage in a saucepan with about 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and cook 20 minutes. Strain or lift out and discard the cabbage pieces. Stir 1 teaspoon baking soda into the purple liquid to turn it blue.

Natural food colorings are derived from naturally occurring sources, like plants, animals, or minerals.

Natural cyan might one day replace synthetic dyes. It's not that hard to make a natural blue dye. Just take a red cabbage, cut it into pieces, and boil it. What you get is a purple broth that turns bright blue when you add some baking powder.

Indigo, woad, logwood & other blue or purple natural dyes

Woad, which is related to cabbage, is the principal blue dye plant in Europe. True indigo, related to beans, has been used for centuries in India and, indeed, the word indigo originally meant a dye from India.

For the Buttercream

Add a few drops of Pink Colour Gel into one bowl of buttercream and mix through, adding a few drops of colour until you have a bright pink buttercream. Repeat this step for each colour until you have 5 different coloured bowls of buttercream. Place each colour buttercream into a separate piping bag.

Prepping the Piping Bag for Rainbows

On plastic wrap, pipe a line (about 6-inches long) of each color. Make sure the colors line up and touch one another. Try to create equal amounts of frosting in each line. After you've piped all six colors, take the end of one side of the plastic wrap and begin to lift it up.

Start with the red, then spread with some icing right to the very edge. Repeat, sandwiching on top the orange, yellow, green, blue and finally purple sponges. Spread the remaining icing thickly all over the sides and top of the cake.

They can also be brushed directly onto fondant icing for artistic effect or mixed with alcohol to create an edible paint. Rainbow Dust powdered food colourings are the go-to choice for serious hobbyists and professionals.

To successfully colour or dye cake batter it is necessary to use a “bake stable” edible food colour. Not all food colours on the market will hold their colour during baking, the colour can change completely or just be very pale and washed out regardless of the amount of colour used.

A few things can happen when you bake a cake. Some chemical reactions to keep in mind while doing this tasty experiment are: Heat helps baking powder produce tiny bubbles of gas, which makes the cake light and fluffy. Heat causes protein from the egg to change and make the cake firm.

Does baking soda change cake color? ›

Baking Soda: When it comes to baking soda, when used appropriately, it does leave a distinctive taste as well as darker colour in your baked goods. It's very common to use baking soda in darker colored baked goods like chocolate cake or banana muffins.