Recipe

Celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month With This Massive Rainbow Layer Cake

By Kierri Price at University of Oxford

February is LGBTQIA+ history month, and the rainbow flags are flying. So, what better way to celebrate diversity and equality than by making a giant rainbow cake to share with all your friends?

Having just handed in my coursework, I couldn't wait to get back to baking, and this rainbow cake definitely brightened everything up. It's given me an excuse to get away from my desk, see some friends, and share a bit of rainbow cake-y goodness. Can you even imagine anything better?

It's deliciously vanilla-y, with a generous helping of orange-scented icing, and looks absolutely stunning when you slice into it. So get your aprons on, and make this gorgeous rainbow cake—and celebrate LGBTQIA+ history month while you're at it!

Rainbow Cake

  • Prep Time: 40 mins
  • Cook Time: 12 mins
  • Total Time: 52 mins
  • Servings: 24
Ingredients
  • For the cake: 200 grams softened butter
  • 200 grams caster sugar
  • 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs
  • 250 grams self-raising flour
  • A few tablespoons water if needed
  • Rainbow food colouring - red through to purple
  • For the icing: 140 grams softened butter
  • 280 grams icing sugar
  • 1 teaspoon orange essence to taste optional
  • A few tablespoons water if needed

Kierri Price

Step 1

Beat the butter and sugar together until soft and creamy.

Step 2

Stir in the vanilla extract and eggs, one by one.

Step 3

Sift in flour, and stir until combined. Add a spoonful or two of water if necessary to loosen the mix a bit.

Step 4

Divide the mix into 6 bowls, and stir in a few drops of food colouring (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) until you’re happy with the colour.

Step 5

Pipe rings of cake mixture into the two tins. (The colour that’s used as the outer ring of one tin will be the inner ring of the other tin, and uses the mixture up nicely!)

Step 6

Bake at 180C for 12-15 minutes, until springy to the touch.

Step 7

Leave your rainbow cakes to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely while you make the icing.

Step 8

Beat the butter until pale and creamy.

Step 9

Sift in half the icing sugar, stir, then sift in other half along with the orange extract (if using). Add a spoonful or two or water if necessary to loosen it a bit.

Step 10

Cut the cakes in half to make semicircles, and sandwich them together with the buttercream icing.

Kierri Price

Step 11

Stand them up on their cut edge and cover the whole thing with buttercream icing.

Step 12

Cut through the cake to reveal a beautiful rainbow!

If fiddling about with piping bags is too much hassle, why not convert this into a multicoloured marble cake? Still really colourful, and hugely impressive. And if orange-flavoured buttercream isn't really your thing, try swapping it for your favourite flavour (or leaving it out altogether). For more rainbow-themed ideas, check out this no-bake cheesecake for inspiration.