gel food coloring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line three cookie baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together white cake mix (just the dry mix), eggs, vegetable oil, all-purpose flour and vanilla extract until smooth (about two minutes with electric hand mixer).
Separate cookie batter equally into 6 small bowls. A food scale isn’t required for this step but is highly recommended! It works out to be 120 grams each in 4 bowls and 2 bowls of 90 grams each. The 120 gram bowls will end up with 4 cookies each and the 90 gram bowls will end up with 3 cookies each. Color one bowl red, one orange, one yellow, one green, one blue and one purple.
To fully combine the colors into each cookie batter bowl, you may need to get in there with your hands if a spoon isn’t fully combining the color into the batter. The cookie dough batter should be the consistency of play dough. Spray your hands very lightly with non-stick cooking spray then carefully squish and knead each bowl of dough to completely combine color into dough. Wash hands between each bowl so you don’t mix colors.
Scoop cookies onto baking sheets (place cookies at least two inches apart). Cookies should be 2-tablespoons in size (30 grams each). Each 120 gram bowl will give you 4 cookies and each 90 gram bowl will give you 3 cookies. Roll each cookie into a ball shape before baking.
Bake each cookie sheet separately to ensure even baking time for all cookies. Each cookie tray will need to bake for 12-13 minutes. Cookies should rise and the tops will look set and no longer like wet dough. When removing cookie sheets from the oven, let cookies cool completely before removing from cookie sheets. The cookies will finish baking on the hot tray outside of the oven so it’s important not to remove them from the hot baking sheet right away. The cookies will be slightly browned on the bottoms.
Store covered in a food storage container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Notes
Storage:
To store: Store cookies covered in a food storage container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
To Freeze: After the baked cookies have cooled completely they can be packaged in a food-safe storage bag and frozen for up to 2 months.
Tips:
A standard size white boxed cake mix ranges from around 432 grams to 461 grams. Either size will work for this recipe. I used a 461 grams size.
The type of food coloring used is important. For these bright colors, I used the brand Chefmaster Liqua-gel in the colors: super red, neon brite orange, lemon yellow, leaf green, neon brite blue and neon brite purple. I don’t recommend liquid food coloring because it will make the batter looser. Gel food coloring gives more intense color and is perfect for these rainbow cookies.