This easy to make Leprechaun Hat is the perfect St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Cake. This rainbow cake is 6 layer cake will look amazing when you cut it open to serve to your guests.
Need another St. Patrick’s Day recipe? Make these St. Patrick’s Day Leprechaun Pancakes for Breakfast
Leprechaun Hat Rainbow Cake
St. Patrick’s Day is such a fun day to celebrate. It has great tasting food and everyone is on the lookout for leprechauns. If your family loves to celebrate and bring a lot of whimsy to the day, this St. Patrick’s Day rainbow cake is exactly what you need. Rainbow layers and decorated like a leprechaun’s hat, your kids might be wondering where the leprecaun is hiding.
Ingredients You Will Need:
- French vanilla cake mix
- Whole milk
- Eggs
- Unsalted butter
- Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple food coloring
- Pam baking spray
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Heavy whipping cream
- Kelly Green Gel Food Coloring
- Black Gel Food Coloring
Gold Gel Food Coloring
How to Make a Leprechaun Hat Rainbow Cake
Spray the cake pans with baking spray and then preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the cake mix, milk, eggs and butter until combined.
Split the cake batter between 6 mixing bowls.
Split the batter evenly between the 6 mixing bowls.
Add in a few drops of food color into each bowl to make the colored layers of the cake.
Mix the batter and colors together until the colors are combined.
Pour the red batter into one cake pan, the orange into a pan, etc.
Bake the cakes in the preheated oven for 21-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Allow cakes to cool completely before removing the cake from the pans.
Once the cakes are cooled, remove the cakes from the pans and using the cake leveler, cut the domes off of the cakes to create even slices.
Make the Frosting and Assembling the Cake.
Using a mixer, beat together all of the frosting ingredients until smooth and the icing starts to form stiff peaks. This takes about 5-7 minutes.
Using a standing mixer, beat together all ingredients until smooth and stiff peaks form, about 5-7 minutes.
Place the purple cake on the cake board and scoop 1 cup of frosting onto the cake layer. Spread the frosting out evenly.
Place the blue cake layer on top of the frosting and scoop another 1 cup of frosting onto the cake layer. Spread the frosting out evenly.
Repeat with the green, yellow, orange and red layers.
Spoon 2 cups of the frosting into a medium bowl and mix in several drops of black food coloring.
Add the black frosting into the piping bag fitted with a medium star tip.
Scoop 1 cup of the frosting into another small bowl and mix until combined several drops of gold gel food coloring until it is well combined.
Spoon the gold frosting into a piping bag that is fitted with a small star tip
Using the remaining frosting in the mixing bowl, mix in a few drops of the kelly green food coloring.
Scoop the green frosting into the large piping bag fitted with the large star tip.
Now Decorate a Leprechaun Hat Cake
Place the cake onto the serving board and using the green frosting, pipe an edging around the bottom of the cake board to create the bottom part of the hat
Black frosting – pipe the belt buckle all around the hat.
Green frosting again – pipe dollops of green frosting all over the cake until completely covered.
Gold frosting – pipe the buckle in the front and center of the black belt on the cake.
Place the cake back into the fridge overnight so that you will get a clean cut when you are cutting the cake.
Enjoy!
How to Store This Rainbow Cake
This cake can be stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Once the cake has been frosted, store it in the refrigerator overnight so that the frosting hardens. This gives a prettier presentation because it gives a cleaner cut.
Tips for Icing Layered Cakes
When you are icing a cake there are a few things to do that make it a litter easier.
- Always use a cake leveler in order to cut the domes off the cakes. This helps the cakes to sit more evenly.
- Using an ice cream scooper, scoop about 1 cup of frosting onto each layer. This is enough frosting to cover the cake layer and have a little extra to go over the edges. This frosting is used to create the crumb coat on the cake.
- Use an angled spatula for frosting the cake. The angle makes it easier to frost the cake on the sides and the top.
Leprechaun Hat Rainbow Cake
Ingredients
- 3 boxes French vanilla cake mix
- 3 C cold whole milk
- 9 large eggs
- 1 1/2 C unsalted butter softened (3 sticks)
- Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple food coloring
- Pam baking spray
Vanilla Frosting
- 3 C unsalted butter softened
- 8 C powdered sugar
- 3 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 5 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- Kelly Green Gel Food Coloring
- Black Gel Food Coloring
- Gold Gel Food Coloring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray the cake pans with baking spray
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together cake mix, milk, eggs, and butter until combined and smooth
- Split the batter evenly between the 6 mixing bowls
- Add in a few drops of color into their own bowls
- Mix until colors are combined
- Pour the red batter into one cake pan
- Pour the orange batter into the second cake pan
- Pour the yellow batter into the third cake pan
- Repeat steps with remaining colored batter and cake pans
- Bake the pans in the preheated oven for 21-25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean
- Allow cakes to cool completely on the counters
- Using the cake leveler, cut the domes off of the cakes to create even slices
Frosting directions
- Using a standing mixer, beat together all ingredients until smooth and stiff peaks form, about 5-7 minutes
Directions on putting the cake together
- Place the purple cake layer onto the cake board
- Scoop about 1 C of frosting onto the cake layer and spread evenly
- Place the blue cake layer on top of the frosting
- Scoop 1 C of frosting onto the blue layer and spread evenly
- Place the green cake layer on top of the second layer or frosting
- Scoop 1 C of frosting onto the green layer and spread evenly
- Repeat steps with the Yellow, Orange and Red layer. Make sure you put
- the cake layers in the order of Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red
- Scoop 2 C of the frosting into a medium bowl and mix in until combined several drops of black food coloring
- Scoop the black frosting into the piping bag fitted with a medium star tip
- Scoop 1 C of the frosting into a small bowl and mix until combined several drops of gold gel food coloring until combined
- Scoop the gold frosting into the piping bag fitting with a small star tip
- Using the remaining frosting in the mixing bowl, mix in a few drops of the kelly green food coloring
- Scoop all that frosting into the large piping bag fitted with the large star tip
Decorating directions
- Place the cake onto the serving board
- Using the green frosting, pipe an edging around the bottom of the cake board to create the bottom part of the hat
- Using the black frosting, pipe the belt buckle all around the hat
- Using the Green frosting again, pipe dollops of green frosting all over the cake until completely covered
- Using the Gold frosting, pipe the buckle in the front and center of the black belt on the cake
- Place back into the fridge overnight to get a clean cut
- Enjoy