How to make a Wild Tie-Dye Cake
Colorful Cakes
Making it fun
My daughter is a recent college graduate and still prefers a colorful or wild cake for her birthday. I have made layer cakes with different colored layers as well as vibrant colored frosting. This year she wanted a tie-dye or rainbow swirled cake in neon colors. Here is what I came up with:
Cooking Time
Follow the times suggested on a 
Ingredients
- one box cake mix, white or butter (not yellow) works best
- one box neon food colors, water or oil based
- one container frosting mix, white
- one bottle flavor essence, clear liquid works best, but we used a little chocolate and added additional color
- optional - one cup miniature chocolate chips, or candy pieces
Putting it all together
- First assemble all the ingredients you will need from my list and the package directions. This cake used four colors so I also used three additional bowls for mixing colors. The top layer picture looks spotted because we added miniature chocolate chips to the batter.
- Make the cake mix according to package directions. Make sure you follow the beater times to ensure your cake will be moist. Adding chocolate chips after beating with mixer.
- Divide the mix evenly between the bowls (this example is for four colors).
- Prepare your pans according to package directions. Set aside.
- Add several drops of color to a bowl and mix THOROUGHLY by scraping the sides with a nylon or plastic spatula to ensure all the color is mixed. Repeat this procedure with each bowl. HINT: glass bowls are especially useful for visually checking thorough mixing.
- Use a large spoon in each color of batter. Drop spoonfuls of color randomly in the pans or just pour one 1/2 of each colored batter in the two pans. Remember its random so nothing is wrong even if you omit step 7.
- Starting at center of pan with end of spatula or wooden spoon, you will either make a spiral motion from center to outer edge, OR you may drag the spoon from center to edge in a straight line several times. I suggest at least eight, for a star-burst effect. In this example we dropped spoonfuls of color and poured one of the colors then did the swirl effect.
- Place the pans in oven and cook to box directions.
- While the cake is baking, place the frosting in a glass or metal bowl. Add some food color and start to mix. Continue to add a few drops at a time until the proper color is achieved. Color suggestions are usually on the sides of box.
