Brighten Up Your Day With This Tie-Dye Cake Recipe
I’ve been making tie-dye cupcakes for years. The first batch of tie-dye cupcakes I ever made were for my friend Michael’s birthday. He was a Deadhead, so I made him Grateful Dead cupcakes in red, white, and blue tie-dye.
Tie-dye was one of our original cupcakes. Before we came up with anything else for Baked by Melissa, we knew the tie-dye cupcakes would represent everything we stand for—fun and colorful sweets that put a smile on your face! You don’t have to be a professional baker to make a tie-dye cake, and the most important thing to remember is: have a good time! That’s why I’ve put together oursignature tie-dye cake recipe for you to make your own.
When it comes to colors, I recommend adding no more than five. You risk overmixing, which might turn the whole cake a murky brown. That’s no fun.
Ingredients
For the Vanilla Cake:
2 sticks unsalted butter (plus more for greasing the cake pans)
2 cups sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 ¾ cups whole milk
For the Vanilla Icing:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 ¾ cups confectioner's sugar
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Butter your cake pans or line them with parchment. (I recommend buttering the parchment paper, too. It makes lift-off way easier.)
Make your vanilla cake batter. With your hand-mixer or electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip the butter on high speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add your sugar. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla extract. Mix at medium-low speed and add eggs one at a time. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl every so often.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, sea salt, and baking powder.
Use the lowest speed setting to combine ½ of the flour mixture. (Any faster and you’ll get flour all over yourself.) When that’s incorporated, add ½ of the milk and the rest of your wet & dry ingredients. Mix until you have a smooth batter.
Recipe Note
Before you begin, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature.
