In a week of so much awful, we needed some happiness so we whipped up a little rainbow cake and made a homeschool schedule for our first week of “social-distancing” at home while we are all on lockdown. Hope everyone is healthy and safe this week!

Scroll down for the recipe!

Rainbow Vanilla Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened to room temp.)

½ cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs, room temp.

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups All-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup buttermilk, room temp.

Food Coloring/Gels

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and butter two 8" round cake pans or one large bundt cake pan by lining the bottoms with parchment paper and lightly greasing the sides. Set aside. ** I used half of the recipe and made a small version in the picture! You can also use one box of white cake mix instead!

2. In a large bowl using an electric hand mixer, cream together butter, vegetable oil, and sugar until well-combined.

3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well each time and mix in the vanilla extract.

4. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

5. Now slowly allternate adding the flour mixture and buttermilk to the creamed butter mixture, mixing until just combined each time. Do not overmix!

6. Evenly divide batter into 6 different bowls. Add your food coloring to each bowl until you reach your desired color. Pour each layer into your prepared cake pans. I started with the purple and layered in order of the rainbow. Do not stir it! Bake for 30-35 minutes.  When the cake is done, the surface should spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out mostly clean with few moist crumbs.

7. Allow cakes to cool on a cooling rack. Once cooled, add desired vanilla frosting.