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This Tie Dye Cake is the ultimate low-stress holiday dessert! By using a simple white cake mix “hack,” we create a festive, colorful sheet cake that tastes entirely homemade but takes half the effort. Whether you are looking for a show-stopping Easter cake or a fun birthday treat, this no-fail recipe delivers gorgeous pastel swirls every single time!
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This Easter cake recipe uses a really fun technique for making a tie dye cake. Different colored batters are swirled together, so when you take out a slice, you get a pretty piece of colorful cake!
Once you know how to make this easy cake recipe, there are so many directions you can go with it. I make it on repeat throughout the year for different events and just change up the colors and sprinkles.
Easy Tie Dye Cake with Cake Mix
What makes this pastel tie dye cake seriously easy is my favorite baking shortcut: a white cake mix. By doctoring the mix with sour cream and vanilla, we create a cake that tastes entirely homemade but requires half the effort. Using a white mix is essential because it provides the perfect blank canvas for your colorful pastel swirls.
Ingredients for Bright Pastel Cake
- White Cake Mix: Use any brand cake mix. White cake is important so the colors pop.
- The cake mix box will say to use whole eggs or egg whites. It’s important to use egg whites to keep the cake as white as possible so the colors stay bright. Otherwise the yellow in the egg yolks will change the colors you’re using and muddy the colors.
- Sour Cream: Adds some extra flavor to the cake – makes it not taste like it’s from a box.
- Vanilla: Be sure to buy pure extract – and adding it makes it less like box cake!
- Food Coloring: Use any colors, but for this cake you’ll want blue, pink, and yellow food coloring. You can use gel colors or regular grocery store kind.
Click to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions. See below the recipe card for even more information: process shots, variations, FAQ and more.
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Dorothy’s Expert Tips: How to get the perfect swirl
- The trick to a perfect tie-dye pattern is to avoid over-mixing. Once you’ve dropped your colorful batter on top of the white base, run a butter knife in a circular motion through the colors. You want to see distinct swirls; if you mix too much, the colors will blend together and lose that beautiful tie-dye effect.
- You can leave the buttercream frosting white or tint it a color you like. For this recipe, gel food coloring or liquid food coloring works great for the cake and frosting.
- See my list of color options below the recipe for different holidays!
Pastel Tie Dye Cake Recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients:
- 1 box white cake mix
- ¼ cup (59ml) water
- 4 large egg whites
- ½ cup (118 ml) vegetable oil
- 1 cup (245g) sour cream
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Blue, pink, and yellow food coloring (either gel or liquid)
Frosting ingredients:
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (226g) powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy cream or you can use milk
- Food coloring optional
- Sprinkles
Instructions
Cake Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 baking dish.
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat cake mix, water, egg whites, oil, sour cream, and vanilla extract. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds or until combined. Scrape the edges of the bowl. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes more, scraping the edges occasionally.
- Pour 2 cups of the batter into the prepared pan.
- Divide the remaining batter between 3 medium bowls (about ½ cup each). Add a few drops of blue, pink, and yellow food coloring (one color per bowl) to the batter, stirring well after each drop, until the batter reaches the desired color.
- Place spoonfuls of each colored batter in random places on top of the white batter. Run a butter knife back and forth through the batter to swirl the added color.
- Bake cake for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting directions:
- With an electric mixer, whip the butter for 1-2 minutes until it is lighter in color and a bit fluffy.
- Add the powdered sugar and salt. Beat on low to medium speed for about 1 minute until well combined, occasionally scraping the sides of the bowl.
- Add the vanilla and 2 tablespoons of cream and beat for one minute. (If adding food coloring to the frosting, incorporate that now.) Slowly add more cream, if necessary, to get the desired consistency. Whip for 1 more minute or until light and fluffy.
- Frost and decorate the cake with Easter sprinkles.
Recipe Notes
- I use egg whites to make the cake really white. Yolks discolor the batter, so the colors don’t stand out as much. So, for the best pastel cake, stick with the whites.
- When you swirl the tinted batters, don’t swirl too much. You want to do it enough to create a lovely tie-dye pattern but not too much because the colors will just mix together. I run the knife in a circle and move it down the pan as I’m swirling.
- You can leave the buttercream frosting white or tint it a color you like. For this recipe, gel food coloring or liquid food coloring works great for the cake and frosting.
- Feel free to substitute a can of icing instead of making it homemade but the homemade one is so good – your guests will never know the cake is from a box.
- Have fun with this tie dye cake and change the colors for any holiday!
Recipe Nutrition
How to Make a Tie Dye Cake Step-by-Step
- Mix the cake mix, water, egg whites, oil, sour cream, and vanilla at low speed until combined. Scrape down the bowl and beat the batter for two minutes longer.
- Spread two cups of the batter in a prepared 9×13” pan.
- Divide the remaining batter equally among three bowls. Tint each bowl one color and stir well to combine.
- Place spoonfuls of the tinted batters on top of the batter in the pan.
- Use a knife to swirl the batters back and forth to create a tie dye effect.
- Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes at 350°F and then allow the cake to cool before frosting it.
How to Make Buttercream Frosting
- Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer.
- Whip the butter with an electric mixer until it’s light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar salt.
- Beat at low speed until the mixture is well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the vanilla and cream and beat the frosting for one minute. If you are using food coloring, add it at this point and mix well to combine.
- Frost the Easter cake and decorate the top with sprinkles!
FAQs
Using only whites ensures the batter stays bright white. Egg yolks add a yellow tint that can muddy your pastel food colors.
Yes, both gel and liquid food colors from the grocery store work great for this recipe, however for colors like black or red, gel food coloring is suggested as you don’t need as much to get the rich deep color.
Store this cake covered at room temperature for up to 3 days, or refrigerate for up to 5 days to keep the buttercream fresh.
Use a butter knife to run small circles through the colored drops, moving down the pan as you go.
Growing up, each Easter, we made a cake with the pretty colors. It was a layer cake, then after frosting, we colored coconut with green food coloring put on top of cake, then added jelly beans. Sometimes we’d make a handle out of cardboard that we colored and my mom would add as Easter basket handle, by placing toothpicks thru ends into cake. Everyone was always fascinated when we cut the cake and they saw all the pretty colors. I continued the tradition with my own kids. So much fun
In your butter cream frosting picture you have flour…..and in the directions it says powdered sugar. I am pretty sure that is just a mix up?!
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