This Rainbow Surprise Cake is easy to make for St. Patrick’s Day or any day you need to find a bright spot in life.
A leprechaun lives at our house! Just ask my kiddos. They’ll tell you all about the silly tricks he pulls every St. Patrick’s Day. Our kids love following a trail of shamrocks through the house, looking for signs of mischief. They usually discover that our leprechaun has dyed our milk green and left bits of glitter on the floor. Of course, they’re favorite tricks are always the candy related ones. This rainbow surprise cake is no exception.
What is a Surprise Cake?
Hidden beneath a thick layer of sprinkles, tucked inside five brightly colored layers of fluffy vanilla cake lies a hidden surprise: a treasure trove of golden M&Ms candies.
How to Make a Rainbow Cake
This is such a fun, happy Rainbow Surprise Cake. Its the perfect way to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day and the start of Spring. Even better, its surprisingly easy to make! After mixing up a standard vanilla cake, I divided the batter into five separate bowls. The key to getting those vibrant colors is to use gel colors to achieve vivid, rainbow hues with just a few drops.
Which Pans to Use for a Rainbow Cake
Despite its height, this 5-layer Rainbow Surprise Cake can be made using just one standard recipe cake mix. Wilton’s Easy Layers Cake Pan set includes five perfectly-sized pans. They’re sized to fit one cake recipe and can all fit in the oven at the same time, making simple work out of creating layered cakes.
How to fill a Surprise Cake
Once the cakes are baked and cooled, I used a biscuit cutter to cut the center out of the bottom three layers, then filled them with golden candies.
How to decorate a Rainbow Cake
Creating the all-over sprinkle look is easy too. Just fill a rimmed baking sheet with sprinkles and use your hands to gently draw them up the sides of your frosted cake. Its a great way to hid any imperfections in your frosting layer (not that I’d know anything about that.…). From there just stick it on a pedestal and slice this sucker open.
The results, are simply magical. Just ask the leprechauns.
Rainbow Surprise Cake
Description
This Rainbow Surprise Cake is easy to make for St. Patrick’s Day or any day you need to find a bright spot in life.
Ingredients
- 1 store-bought white cake mix plus ingredients listed on back of box
- Gel food coloring in Red, Orange, Yellow and Blue
- Double batch of Super Simple Vanilla Frosting
- 2 cups Golden M&Ms Candies
- 20 ounces Rainbow Nonpariels or other multicolored sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray baking pans with cooking spray and set aside.
- Prepare cake mix according to package instructions.
- Divide cake mix evenly between 5 small bowls or large ramekins. Dye each bowl of batter as follows: Red: 12 drops red food gel, Orange: 5 drops orange food gel, 5 drops yellow food gel, 1 drop red food gel, Yellow: 5 drops yellow, 1 drop orange, Green: 5 drops yellow, 1 drop blue, Blue: 10 drops blue
- Pour each bowl of cake batter into a separate cake pan. Place cakes in oven on center rack. Bake 15 minutes, rotating pans halfway through cooking time.
- Remove pans from oven and allow cakes to cool completely.
- Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut a circle from the center of the yellow, green and blue cakes.
- Use frosting to stack the blue, green and yellow cakes together on a cake circle. Fill the hole in the center of the cakes with M&Ms. Add remaining two layers of cake and frost cake completely.
- Allow cake to chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Place sprinkles in a large, rimmed baking sheet. Place chilled, frosted cake in the center of the pan. Using your hands or a spoon, spread sprinkles evenly over the top and sides of the cake until completely coated in sprinkles.
This is super cool! Thanks for sharing 🙂
You are welcome! Thanks so much for your comment 🌈