Rainbow Poke Cake

5 from 4 votes

Rainbow Poke Cake is fun, flavorful, and filled with vibrant colors. This quick and easy recipe is the best way to bake a beautifully bright dessert.

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Total Time50

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 453kcal

Author: Jennifer Fishkind

Ingredients

Rainbow Cake:

3 cups (420 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter slightly melted
1½ cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk (2% or whole milk)
gel food coloring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple*

Pudding:

1 box (4-serving box, around 100 grams or 3.4 ounces) vanilla dry instant pudding mix
2 cups milk (2%)

Whipped Cream Frosting:

2 cups heavy cream (35%)
¾ cup (90 grams) confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Rainbow Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray a 9” x 13” cake pan with non-stick cooking spray then line bottom with parchment paper and spray again with non-stick cooking spray. Set pan aside for now.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt until well mixed. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together butter, granulated sugar and vegetable oil until well creamed together (about 5 minutes of beating with electric mixer on high speed).
Beat in eggs and vanilla extract until well mixed (about 1 minute).
Beat half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Don’t overmix – just beat until most of the flour is combined.
Beat in all of the milk until combined (again, don’t overmix).
Beat in the remaining half of the dry mixture just until you no longer see dry flour in the batter. Don’t overmix or your cake will be dry.
Separate batter evenly between 6 bowls. This works out to be about 235 grams of batter per bowl.
Use gel food coloring to color each bowl of batter a different color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple). Stir just until color is mixed in well but try not to overmix the batter.
Lay the prepared cake pan vertically in front of you on the counter. Use a spoon to scoop a small amount of red batter (about 1/8 of the red batter) into the top left side of the cake pan. Then move onto a scoop of orange, then yellow, green, blue and purple. There should be 6 spoonfuls of batter in the top row of the vertical-facing cake pan.
Start on the second row of batter by starting with the orange batter, then yellow, green, blue, purple and finishing off on red. Again, 6 spoonfuls of batter across the second row. As you start each row, start with the next color in the rainbow. So for example, the first row was red first, the second row was orange first, the third row will be yellow first, and so on. Continue until you use up all the batter and fill the cake pan. You don’t want any space between the rows so give the pan a little counter tap to level it out or use a spoon to fill in any holes in the batter before baking.
Place cake in oven for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
While cake is still warm, add the vanilla pudding.

Vanilla Pudding:

In a large bowl, whisk together vanilla pudding mix and cold milk for two minutes until pudding thickens.
Using the round handle end of a wooden spoon, poke multiple holes ¾ of the way through the cake. You’ll want lots of holes here for the pudding to go into.
Use a spatula to spread pudding evenly over the cake and into each of the poke holes.
Let set in refrigerator for 1 hour before adding frosting.

Whipped Cream Frosting:

In a large bowl, beat together heavy cream and confectioners’ sugar until soft peaks form (about 5 minutes.
Spread frosting evenly over cake. Add sprinkles if desired.
Store in a sealed food storage container in fridge for up to 3 days.

Notes

Storage:

Store your cake in a sealed food storage container in fridge for up to 3 days.

Tips:

You can use a white or yellow boxed cake mix for this recipe.
You must let this cake chill in the refrigerator for the full hour before adding the frosting, otherwise you might end up with a soggy bottom. The pudding needs time to set up.
I like to use the back of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the cake but you can use a straw, toothpick, fork etc., but you might have smaller holes.

Nutrition