Today I’m going to show you how to make a colorful tie dye cake! This technique is SO much fun and surprisingly simple to create with a crusting buttercream frosting recipe!
We’re still at the beach! I could SO easily pack up my things and move here! I just have to convince all of my family and friends to do the same. That’s a plan that I’ll have to work on later. For now, let’s talk some CAKE!
How to Make a Tie Dye Cake on the Inside!
Today, we finished our tie dye cake! I really enjoyed making it–and the many little girls in the beach house this week were all thrilled with the outcome! I thought the girls would be my assistants, but as it turns out, playing on the beach is much more fun than baking.
We had to do a little improvising with this one—there were a few things that we didn’t pack, like a MIXER! But as it turns out, BeBe can still work her magic with a big spoon!
After mixing up the batter, we divided it among the cute bowls we found in the cabinet, and tinted each a different cheerful shade! You can see that we spooned our colorful batter in bit by bit until the pans were full.
Colorful Batter Makes for Colorful Cake! Leveling the cakes reveals the rainbow fun that’s waiting on the inside!
How to Make a Buttercream Tie Dye Cake
Now for the fun part- Frosting! With some imagination, a crusting buttercream, and a Viva paper towel, you can pipe and smooth your way to one groovy cake!
You can simply load different colors of frosting into disposable piping bags and snip the tips away. I like to crumb coat the cake first, and then pipe on our swirls of color.
Pipe your colors in the basic arrangement that you’d like for your cake, and then use a Viva brand paper towel (or any paper towel that has little to no impressions) to smooth over your frosting after it crusts.
Crusting buttercreams like our Classic Vanilla Buttercream Recipe or Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Recipe will crust about 10-15 minutes after frosting.
If you can touch it lightly and no frosting comes off onto your finger, you know that it’s ready for smoothing!
I think that this colorful and whimsical design looks adorable just as it is, but would also look great with a peace sign or other groovy cake topper!
Are you ready for the grand reveal? Here’s the funky tie dye frosting after smoothing, and with a fun squiggle border!
I must admit, the grand reveal is sooo much more grand when you have an ocean for a backdrop! :o) I wish that I could just stay on vacation! Ahhhh….
That’s my niece coming up the walk—if you put a cake on a railing outside, kids start coming out of the woodwork!
Keep the tie dye inside a surprise–it’s definitely worth the reactions that you’ll get when you start slicing the cake! And no two pieces are just alike!
If you are a member of our site, we actually filmed the making of this cake! Woo hoo! Click on over if you’d like to see the video version! : Tie Dye Cake Video Tutorial!
Enjoy!
Awesome! The inside is a big surprise, didn’t expect that, what fun.
I love it! Can’t wait to try it. Great cake for a summer party!
Jill–Yes! I love the inside! And thanks Simplysweet! My feelings exactly- party time! The video is now posted! Woo hoo!
amazing!!! i just found you through cakespy… great site… thanks for sharing!!!
:)
Thanks Lyndsay! Glad that you found us!
Love the cake! The border really tied it all together delightfully….how fun to look at then eat!
Melissa, Did you not put the video to the tie dyed cake in the video tutorials? I remember watching it about a year ago but cannot find it now.
I love the fish dish (plate) :)
Hi! Do you have a tutorial for this cake? Would love to make one!
Hi–Yes we do! Here’s the link to the video:
https://www.mycakeschool.com/video-tutorials/tiedye/?page_id=1905
Thank you so much!!! Can’t wait to try it!
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe..like to learn more..
So cool! I can’t believe this is from 10 years ago!!! Do you remember the trip at all??? Did you plan this and bring suplies??
@ProfessorCupcake- I can’t believe it either!- Yes, I do remember the trip! After that we decided we wouldn’t try to make a cake video while on vacation again ;0) I think we brought just a few supplies with us and then figured out our plan.
You should check out our member video of this same tutorial sometime- it’s definitely a little wobbly (no tripod in those earliest videos) but I would still use the same technique. It’s a fun cake!
https://www.mycakeschool.com/video-tutorials/tiedye/
I saw that! It’s AMAZING! so fun! counting down the days till summer ;)