This Rainbow Pride Cake is a moist vanilla funfetti cake with cream cheese frosting covered in homemade rainbow sprinkles. This rainbow cake is perfect for pride or any rainbow lovers.
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This cake is my contribution to the #LovePrideCollab on Instagram that was created to bring awareness to the LGBTQ community and celebrate diversity, equality and inclusion. The collaboration is fundraising for The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among the LGBTQ youth.
I decorated this cake in the style of my Blood Orange Layer Cake. The base recipe, however, is from my Easy Strawberry Crunch Cupcakes. I just added rainbow sprinkles to make it more festive and doubled the frosting to have plenty to decorate with.
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Why you'll love this recipe
- The cake layers do not require a stand mixer or beaters.
- The cake stays moist for days, even in the refrigerator.
- The rainbow sprinkles are easy to make and only require a few ingredients.
- This is a 6-inch cake, so it is perfect for smaller groups and events.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour gives structure to the cake layers.
- Granulated sugar sweetens the cake. Powdered sugar and corn syrup (not pictured) sweetens the frosting and sprinkles.
- Cream cheese and unsalted butter flavors the frosting.
- Vanilla extract, almond extract, kosher salt and lemon juice balance the overall flavor.
- The cake is moistened by sour cream and vegetable oil.
- Baking soda and baking powder give rise to the cake.
- Eggs bind the cake.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions and variations
Here’s how to customize this cake to your liking:
- No sprinkles inside — omit the sprinkles inside the cake
- No lemon juice — omit the lemon juice
- Different frosting — make an ermine buttercream or swiss meringue instead
- Greek yogurt — sub greek yogurt for the sour cream
- Two layers — instead of slicing the two cake layers into four layers, just keep the two layers whole and stack those with a generous amount of frosting in between.
This recipe has not been tested with any substitutions or variations. If you try any, please let me know how it turned out by commenting below!
How to make homemade funfetti cake
Step 1: Combine all of the wet ingredients with a whisk in a large bowl.
Step 2: Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add them to the wet ingredients.
Step 3: Add the sprinkles and gently fold them in just until combined.
Step 4: Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tins and bake.
Hot tips
- Help eggs from the fridge come to room temperature quickly by placing them in warm water as you prep the other ingredients.
- Use a thin knife or offset spatula to help shimmy the dried sprinkles away from the parchment paper.
- If your frosting is too runny, chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator to firm up before decorating.
- Place the bench scraper in a bowl of warm water before using it (drying it off in between) to help remove air bubbles on the outside and make smoothing easier.
Recipe FAQs
Store the cake in the refrigerator for 3-5 days in an airtight container.
Homemade sprinkles will keep for about 1 year if you keep them in an airtight container.
Yes, just use 1 teaspoon more cake flour than what is called for in all-purpose flour.
This is not recommended as the recipe has not been tested without eggs.
More recipes you'll love
Lastly, if you make this Rainbow Pride Cake recipe be sure to leave a comment or give it a rating. I love to see when people make my recipes, so please tag me @youthsweets on Instagram if you post!
📖 Recipe
Rainbow Pride Cake
Ingredients
Homemade tall sprinkles
- 3 cups powdered sugar (360g)
- 4 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoon corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food coloring
Confetti cake
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour (220g)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅔ cup oil vegetable, canola or grapeseed
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ¾ cup sour cream (173g)
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice freshly-squeezed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- ¼ cup sprinkles
Cream cheese frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter room temperature (340g, 3 sticks)
- 4 cups powdered sugar sifted (480g)
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice freshly-squeezed
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Do ahead
- If making the homemade sprinkles, they MUST be made the day before as they need to dry out overnight.
Make the sprinkles
- Combine the powdered sugar, water, corn syrup and vanilla in a medium bowl with a whisk until there are no lumps. If coloring rainbow style, divide between 6 smaller bowls. Color each bowl with red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple food coloring respectively.
- Transfer each color to a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip. Lay out 6-8 large sheets of parchment paper on your workspace. Pipe long straight lines of each color. Pipe them a bit longer than the length you plan on using so you can cut the ends to clean them up. I cut mine to 6-inches long for my cake.
- Let dry uncovered at room temperature overnight.
Make the cake
- Grease two 6-inch round cake tins and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Thoroughly whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil, lemon juice, vanilla and almond extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold with a rubber spatula just until there are no longer any streaks of flour. Add the sprinkles and fold just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tins. Bake for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the tins for at least 30 minutes before gently removing the cake layers to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting
- Beat the cream cheese with beaters or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until completely smooth and no lumps remain. Remove to a small bowl.
- Place the room temperature butter in the stand mixer bowl or regular bowl that the cream cheese was just in. Beat on high for 3-4 minutes or until smooth and fluffy.
- Add the cream cheese to the butter and beat until combined, 1-2 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add salt, lemon juice and vanilla. Beat until combined. You may want more powdered sugar depending on your desired sweetness and consistency*.
Assemble the cake
- Prep the homemade sprinkles, if using, by gently peeling away from the parchment paper. Cut down to 6-inch sections.
- Level the cake layers by slicing off any domed tops. Slice the cake layers in half to create four thin cake layers.
- Place a small dollop of frosting onto your serving plate or cake board. Place the first sturdiest cake layer on top. Pipe or spoon a layer of frosting on top. Repeat with remaining cake layers.
Crumb coat
- Coat the cake in a very thin layer of frosting, smoothing the sides and top with an offset spatula or bench scraper. Chill in the freezer for at least 10 minutes to set it. This locks in any crumbs that could ruin your final coat of frosting.
Decorate the cake
- When the crumb coat is set, pipe or dollop more frosting around the outside and on top. Spread evenly with an offset spatula before scraping down the outside with a bench scraper. You may need to do this several times to get a smooth look.
- If you would like a visual on how to frost a cake, check out this video.
- Cover the outside with the tall sprinkles, standing straight up. I followed the rainbow pattern (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple), using two of each color at a time.
