How to Make a Tie-Dye Cake (and Cupcakes!)

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 beauty on any occasion.

Let me show you the cake and also walk you through the steps.

Make your Homemade Funfetti 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 had 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.

Happy 4th of July, America!

*You may absolutely make this tie-dye cake a with box cake mix. However, why use a box when my homemade vanilla cake recipe is just as easy? I promise. You’ll be thankful!

Follow me on Instagram and tag #sallysbakingaddiction so I can see all the SBA recipes you make. ♥

More how-to recipes you’ll love:

• How to make chocolate lava cakes
• How to make a red velvet cake roll
• How to pipe a two-toned frosting rose
• How to make rugelach cookies
• How to make homemade glazed donuts
• How to make lemon curd
• How to make easy Saltine toffee
• How to make homemade cinnamon raisin bagels
• How to make a piñata cake
• How to make crepes
• How to make swirled frosting

How to Make a Tie-Dye Cake

Serves 10.

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

• Recipe for homemade vanilla cake (leave out the sprinkles in the batter)
• Food coloring
• Recipe for homemade vanilla buttercream
• Sprinkles for decoration

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray 9x2 inch round cake pan (or 9-inch springform pan) with nonstick spray.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Make the frosting according to my directions (see link for frosting in ingredient list). Frost cooled cake and decorate as desired. Serves 10. Cake stays fresh covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 5 days.

Recipe Notes:

Interested in making a 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.

Did you make a recipe?

Tag @sallysbakeblog on Instagram and hashtag it #sallysbakingaddiction.

I know what you’re thinking. Can I do this with cupcakes?

I got ya covered…

Make the batter for 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!

Easy, right? Hope you enjoy.