How to make festive, colorful tie-dye homemade vanilla cakes and cupcakes for any occasion. These are always, always a huge hit!
Tie-Dye Cakes, Rainbow Cakes, Swirly Color Cakes, whatever you want to call them… I love them all! And they are super easy to make, too.
Dazzle your guests with this colorful dessert on any occasion.
Let me show you the cake and also walk you through the steps.
Make your 1-layer sprinkle cake batter (leave out the sprinkles in the batter).
Divide the batter into three different bowls. Drop food coloring of choice into each bowl. The white batter has no food coloring. Drop spoonfuls of batter into baking pan. It doesn’t have to be perfect or pretty:
Bake the cake. Frost the cake. Sprinkle the cake. Cut the cake. Look at the pretty colors!
Devour the cake. –> That’s the best part.
For more delicious inspiration, see this list of 25+ 4th of July desserts!
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How to Make a Tie-Dye Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: serves 10
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
How to make festive, colorful tie-dye homemade vanilla cakes and cupcakes for any occasion. These are always, always a huge hit!
Ingredients
- Recipe for 1-layer sprinkle cake (leave out the sprinkles in the batter)
- Food coloring
- Recipe for homemade vanilla buttercream
- Sprinkles for decoration
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC). Grease one 9-inch round cake pan (or 9-inch springform pan), line with a parchment paper round, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the cakes seamlessly release from the pans. (If it’s helpful, see this parchment paper rounds for cakes video & post.)
- Make the cake batter according to my directions (see link in the ingredient list). Divide the white batter into three separate bowls. Grab your food coloring and dye your batters any color you choose. I used 10 drops of red, 10 drops of blue, and left the third bowl plain. Place a separate spoon in each bowl. Scoop large spoonfuls of each batter and layer them into prepared baking pan. It does not have to be pretty. The colors will create a tie-dye effect. See photo above for how my cake looked prior to baking.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil (loosely to avoid the top from sticking to the foil). Bake for 13-17 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool.
- Make the frosting according to my directions (see link for frosting in ingredient list). Frost cooled cake and decorate as desired. Cake stays fresh covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links):ย 9-inch Round Cake Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Gel Food Coloring
- Layer Cake: You could: (1) Bake the cake as indicated and slice the cake horizontally to create two layers. Double the frosting if desired. (2) Double the cake recipe and bake in two separate 9-inch cake pans for 1 extra tall layer cake. Double the frosting recipe as well.
I know what you’re thinking. Can I do this with cupcakes?
Make the batter for very vanilla cupcakes. Divide the batter into three bowls. Use a few drops of food coloring to dye your batters. Layer the batter into the cupcake liners and bake. Frost with my vanilla frosting. That’s it!
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hey Sally and team!
I love the colors, but the colors that I used turned out turquoise blue, coral pink, and yellowish cake (instead of white). Iโm doing this today for the 4th of July and now Iโm wondering if itโs because I used gel colors, or the colors were expired, or maybe one of my ingredients made it turn. Such as, I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk and 5% Greek Fage plain yogurt. Iโm sure theyโll taste great though!!
Thank you in advance!
Hi Cara – what was your bake time for the 9×13 cake?
Thanks – Judy
Made it with the kids for the 4th. Doubled the recipe and made it in a 9×13 pan. Looked super cute, but might try this with a different white cake recipe of Sally’s we liked better flavor wise. Very excited how good the colors looked and will try this for other holidays.
Did you get the cook time for the 9×13?
Hi Carol, for a 9×13-inch cake, we’d follow our vanilla sheet cake recipe and then divide the batter and color as directed for the tie-dye cake. Enjoy!
Tasted very good. But, the blue turned green and the white turned yellow? What?
But when I cut into it the colors were perfect. I don’t get how that happened. Very tasty and festive cake.
Is it really sufficient to just spray the pan with non-stick spray alone, rather than using spray plus parchment paper or greasing and flouring? I’ve never used just spray before when baking a cake, feel a little nervous about it and need confirmation/reassurance.
Hi Janice, a parchment paper round is recommended here as well. We just updated the directions to include that information. Hope you enjoy the cake!
If I make cupcakes, is the bake time and tinfoil the same as what the cake recipe calls for? Thanks!
Hi Pepper, you can make the batter from and follow the baking directions for very vanilla cupcakes. Enjoy!
Do you make a vanilla cake for the Tie-Dye Cake or do you make the sprinkle cake?
You can use either. For a 1-layer vanilla cake, use this sprinkle cake recipe and leave out the sprinkles.
For the Tie -Dye-Cake. Can you replace the butter milk with whole milk?
Hi Jade! The 1 layer cake linked in the recipe calls for whole milk already. No need to substitute!
Made these cupcakes for the 4th of July and loved them! Biting into them was fun because every one was a little different.
Would this technique work with the Simply Perfect Vanilla Cupcake recipe?
Absolutely!
Hi Sally! I love your vanilla cake and would to give this a try as a birthday cake! I used a few more colors in my test run and my colors got muddy. Any suggestions for why this happened? Could my ingredients be too warm or is it a problem with my coloring (Americolor)?
Thank you!
Hi Megan, sorry to hear your colors ran together too much! Happy to help troubleshoot. It could be that you’re just using too many colors–maybe scale back to just three or four? You could also try using gel food color instead of liquid drops, and see if that makes the colors swirl a bit better without mixing together too much. Best of luck with your next attempt!
Could this work with Halloween colors purples, greens, oranges and white?
Definitely!
How fun! These cupcakes would be great for a summer birthday party, too, not just for the Fourth!
Hello Sally. I make a lot of your recipes but I have never commented. The recipes are wonderful and I love the detailed instruction. I made this cake for my daughter whom is turning 8 today. I actually made it with both my daughters last night as they wanted to have a piece for breakfast and in their lunches today. It is the best vanilla cake I have tasted. Our whole family enjoyed it and the birthday girl loved selecting the colors. She chose Barbie pink, light blue and yellow. She thought it looked like the 1980s and it did! Thank you for all the great recipes and info!
Sally,ย
Can I bake the tye dye cupcakes in a mini muffin pan or will the colors not work out in such a tiny space??
Definitely!
Hi Sally!
Would I need to change the baking time if I am planning to double the recipe and make a layer cake? I’m using this for my twins’ Cat in the Hat themed 1st birthday!!
No need to change the baking time – just bake two separate cakes. I find that doubling the recipe actually makes a little more than you need for 2 cake pans. Fill them halfway with batter and then use extra batter to make cupcakes.
Hi Sally,
I made this cake for my niece’s 4th of July birthday celebration. It was a HUGE hit. Seriously….the cake was light and moist and it was super cool when you cut into it.
I also made your raspberry/chocolate skyhigh muffins and the strawberry cheesecake bars (except I made them with raspberry jam. Everything was awesome. Thank you for sharing your recipes. You are my go to website for baking ideas!
Do you think this technique would work with your Cake Batter Blondies? I bought some Fourth of July Funfetti cake mix to make those for work, but I might see if I can try this out and make them even more festive. Also, what kind of food coloring do you use? I tried making a red cake for the Fourth last year and it came out super pink.
I’m unsure – I’ve never tried it before. But I can’t see why not. I used store brand food coloring – liquid. I had to use a lot of drops to get it red.