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Rainbow Cake & Vanilla Frosting Ingredients

Ingredients for cake

• 5 large organic egg whites at room temperature
• 3/4 cup whole organic milk at room temperature
• 2 and 1/4 teaspoons pure Fair Trade, certified organic vanilla extract
• 2 and 3/4 cups organic white flour, sifted
• 1 and 3/4 cups organic granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted organic butter, softened and cut into cubes
• 7 to 9 homemade natural food dyes

Ingredients for frosting

• 3 sticks + 2 tablespoons of organic, unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons pure organic Fair Trade vanilla extract
• 3 cups organic powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons organic milk
• Pinch of salt
• 1 organic vanilla bean – scraped – optional

Step 1: Learn About Natural Food Dyes

Fake chemical food dyes have been linked to a number of health risks, but it’s not that hard to learn to make homemade food dyes. Once you’ve got natural dyes down, you can use them to make a number of colored baked goods, play clay, homemade sidewalk paint, other crafts and even dye your Easter eggs with them. There are a number of items you can use to naturally color your homemade organic baked goods, such as…

• Produce: fresh or frozen berries and other fruits and fresh veggies.
• Green tea powder: This fine tea powder, also called Matcha, results in light green baked goods.
• Egg yolk mixed with milk: Results in yellow batter.
• Edible flowers: Some edible flowers can be used to dye baked goods, but may result in odd flavors.
• Herbs & spices: Many herbs and spices can be used to color food, but due to strong flavors, I don’t suggest them in cakes.
• Natural store-bought colors: It’s fine to buy food coloring, so long as they’re natural. I like Chocolate Craft colors. Cost is a downside. Homemade colors are far less expensive.

Step 2: Make Natural Food Coloring

When making natural food dyes with organic produce, the idea is to extract the juice from an item (say berries or spinach), then use a few tablespoons of the juice to color your cake batter. You can use a juicer for produce such as spinach, carrots and beets to extract juice or you can *boil veggies, puree them and strain them with a mesh cloth. Berries are easy to extract juice from. Simply choose your berries, heat them up a bit to soften them, then place them in a strainer set over a bowl. Mash the berries down to get your juice. You can also use produce purees to color food, for example, beet puree, berry puree or carrot puree. To make a puree, simply puree fresh produce in your blender with 1-3 tablespoons of water. *NOTE – spinach is a special case and should never be heated before extracting the juice. Cooked spinach gives off a horrid color, whereas fresh results in a beautiful green. See the link below for a full tutorial about making your own homemade food dyes.

+ Make Natural Food Dyes for Organic Baked Goods Without a Juicer

Step 3: Whip Up the Cake Batter

This cake recipe is adapted from Sweetapolita and makes enough cake for one large six layer rainbow cake (use 8 or 9 inch pans) or two to three mini rainbow cakes, using 4 inch baking dishes. Oh, and if you like, you can use your own favorite cake recipe (such as vegan or gluten-free) in place of this one, just make sure it’s a white, not yellow cake recipe, so that the food dyes work better.

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Combine and stir the egg whites, 1/4 cup of milk and the vanilla.
• In another bowl, combine all your dry ingredients, using a handheld mixer or spoon.
• Add the butter and rest of milk to your dry mixture. Mix until just moistened. Mix for 2 more minutes.
• Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is mixed well.
• Add your egg mixture in THREE separate batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition.

Step 4: Color the Cake Batter

If making one six layer rainbow cake, divide your batter into six equal parts, into small bowls. If making mini cakes, scoop out 1/4 to 1/2 cup of batter per layer into small bowls. To color your batter, do the following:

• Coloring with fruit and berry juice or puree: Start by adding one tablespoon (TBS) of color per bowl of batter and mix well. If the color is not right, add another TBS. In general, don’t add more than 3 TBS of produce juice or puree per one cup of batter, because it’ll make your batter too watery.
• Coloring with green tea powder: Add up to three or four teaspoons of powder.
• Coloring with egg yolk: Mix 1/2 to one whole egg yolk with a wee bit of milk, then mix into one cup of batter.
• Coloring with natural store-bought food colors: Natural food dyes aren’t as bright as conventional, so you’ll need to use more than usual. I usually start with a full dropper of color and work my way up from there until I get the color I want.
• TIP: If you have leftover produce juice or puree, freeze it in ice cube trays and save them for homemade smoothies or ice pops.

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