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Rainbow Vanilla Layer Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting
This Rainbow Vanilla Layer Cake is the ultimate showstopper for birthdays, celebrations, or any time you want a “wow” moment. While it looks like a work of art, the flavor is pure, nostalgic bliss. By using cake flour for a fine crumb and sour cream for incredible moisture, this vanilla cake is light, airy, and anything but basic.
The signature 6-inch, five-layer tower creates a stunning vertical rainbow when sliced, making it the perfect centerpiece for your dessert table.
Why is This the Perfect Vanilla Everything Cake?
This is a vanilla layer cake that I have made for countless birthdays and other celebrations. Cake flour helps create a tender, soft crumb. The sour cream helps keep this cake deliciously moist. It is a medium density cake that holds its shape well when sliced. Create two layers with 8 or 9 inch cake pans, three layers with 6 inch cake pans or five thinner layers with shallow 6 inch cake pans. Unlike fluffy cakes which are light and airy, this cake has a tighter crumb and has a more compact structure. It’s a wonderful balance of a melt-in-your-mouth experience without being heavy.
What is the best frosting for this vanilla cake?
More layers mean more frosting, and I can never get enough of pure whipped cream. I am not a fan of buttercream frosting because I find it heavy, greasy and so sweet my teeth hurts just thinking about it. I have used ermine frosting for many years to frost this cake and it’s so much better than buttercream; it’s lighter and not as sweet, is very stable, and able to hold multiple cake layers in place. I recommend ermine frosting if you plan to leave this cake out un-refrigerated for a few hours, as ermine frosting will still be able to hold its shape well.
My favorite frosting is simply heavy cream whipped into a light fluffy cream with some vanilla and minimal amounts of powdered sugar. The addition of Whip It, a whipped cream stabilizer allows the use of simple heavy cream whipped to make a cream frosting that is stable enough to hold the cake layers and to decorate with. If time allows, frost this cake a day before serving and store it in the fridge so the cake layers can absorb the moisture from the frosting and for the frosting to set. Keep in mind that even with the whipped cream stabilizer, this is still delicate. It holds up a 6 inch, 5 layer cake fine but I don’t recommend transporting the cake or leaving it out un-refrigerated for more than 2 or 3 hours.
For another cake with more of a sponge cake texture, check out my recipe for Whipped Cream Sponge Cake with Fruit.
Ingredients for this vanilla cake
- cake flour
- granulated sugar
- eggs
- butter
- sour cream
- baking powder
- baking soda
- milk
- vanilla
- heavy cream
- powdered sugar
- whipped cream stabilizer
Rainbow Vanilla Layer Cake
Move over, buttercream — there’s a new frosting in town, and it’s basically a cloud. This Rainbow Vanilla Layer Cake is stacked five layers high with light, moist, cake-flour vanilla cake and sandwiched between billows of stabilized whipped cream frosting. With a swipe of food coloring and a set of 6-inch cake pans, every slice is a full-on rainbow reveal. It’s the kind of cake that makes people gasp before they even take a bite.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 1/2 cups (285 grams) cake flour, sifted
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups (340 grams) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120 grams) sour cream
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk, room temperature
Frosting
- 1 quart of heavy whipping cream, very cold
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 4 packages of Whip It whipped cream stabilizer
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- sprinkles, cookies, vanilla chips, chopped candy bars or berries for decoration
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease your cake pans and line them with parchment paper and grease the parchment as well.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix on high speed for another 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula. Add the sour cream and mix on low speed for another minute. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until just barely combined. With the mixer on low, drizzle in the milk and stop the mixer once are done with all the milk. You can continue to fold the batter by hand with a silicone spatula to finish mixing and scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.
- Divide the batter evenly into cake pans. There will be approximately 1350 grams of batter. Use a food scale and divide 1350 by the number of cake pans you are using to help you get even layers.
Notes
- The amount of frosting from 4 cups of heavy cream yields approximately 1040 grams. For a six inch round, five layer cake, I used 1/2 cup (65 grams) of frosting between the layers.
❓ FAQ’s for Rainbow Vanilla Cake
Yes! Bake the cake layers up to 2 days ahead and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap at room temperature or refrigerate. Make the whipped cream frosting the day you assemble for the freshest, fluffiest results.
A stand mixer or hand mixer both work great. You’re whipping heavy cream, so you do need some mechanical muscle — whisking by hand would be quite the arm workout!
Whip It (by Oetker) is a powdered whipped cream stabilizer that keeps your whipped cream firm and slice-able for much longer than plain whipped cream. You can find it at many grocery stores, specialty baking shops, or online. It’s a total game-changer for whipped cream frosting on layered cakes.
You can in a pinch, but cake flour is strongly recommended here. It’s what gives this cake its signature light, airy, tender crumb. If you absolutely must substitute, use this swap: for every 1 cup of cake flour, use ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
A 6-inch cake typically yields about 10–12 servings depending on how you slice it. The tall, dramatic slices are perfect for showing off those rainbow layers!
Totally up to you! This recipe works beautifully as 2, 3, 4, or 5 layers. I used a set of 6-inch cake pans for the five-layer version pictured.
Absolutely! The recipe works in 8-inch pans for a shorter, wider cake. You’ll likely get 2–3 layers instead of 5 at that size. Adjust baking time accordingly and keep an eye on the toothpick test.
Because the frosting is made from real whipped cream, this cake must be refrigerated. Keep it covered in the fridge and bring it out shortly before serving. It’s best enjoyed within 2–3 days.
You can freeze the unfrosted cake layers — wrap each one individually in plastic wrap and then foil, and freeze for up to 2 months. The whipped cream frosting, however, does not freeze well and is best made fresh.
Absolutely! The food coloring is purely for that rainbow wow factor. Leave it out and you’ll have a classic, beautiful vanilla layer cake that tastes exactly the same.
A: 100%! You can skip coloring the cake layers and instead tint each layer of frosting a different color for a different kind of rainbow surprise. Or do both — chaos and color, no rules here.
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