Tired of seeing all those boring tie-dyed rainbow cakes? Take a rainbow cake to the next level and make a Rainbow Jello Poke Cake.
After I made my first JELLO Poke Cake my imagination ran wild with the possibilities. A rainbow themed cake is the perfect Easter Dessert recipe or St. Patrick's Day dessert.
You could literally customize a Jell-O Poke cake for just about any occasion, holiday or party theme by using different flavored jello to make a poke cake.
Jello Poke Cake Ideas for any occasion or Party Theme
- Valentines Day Poke Cake: Strawberry or Cherry Jello Poke Cake
- St Patrick's Day Poke Cake: Green Lime JellO Poke Cake
- Easter Jell-O Poke Cakes: a Lemon, Lime or Pink/Watermelon Jello Poke Cake
- Mother's Day Poke Cake: Strawberry Jello Poke Cake
- Fourth of July Poke Cake: Red, White and Blue Jello Poke Cake
- Thanksgiving Poke Cake: Caramel, Apple or Orange Jello Poke Cake
- Christmas Poke Cake: a Red & Green Jello Poke Cake
That is just a few ideas right off the top of my head. Birthday Party Poke cakes could be customized for any birthday party theme.
They are so pretty and make such a beautiful presentation with the jello colors running through a white cake base.
Rainbow themed cakes and cupcakes are also beautiful.
A few years ago I made Rainbow Cupcakes for one of my granddaughters rainbow themed birthday party. They were a big hit. Everyone loved them.
How to make a Poke Cake
Making a poke cake is pretty easy. Bake a cake, poke some holes and fill them with a condensed JELLO gelatin.
Anyone can make a poke cake. Let your imagination go and see what type of color cake and JELLO combination you can come up with.
For my Rainbow Poke Cake, I also made a rainbow frosting. It didn't turn out the exact way I envisioned it, but I still think it turned out gorgeous. What do you think?
Here is a close up picture of the Rainbow frosting so you can see how the rainbow colors blend together nicely on the cake.
JELLO Poke Cake Frosting
JELLO Poke cakes have been around forever. And back in the day they would be frosting with a COOL Whip frosting. I searched high and low until I finally found the classic old fashioned Cool Whip frosting recipe you can find in the recipe card below. It is my go to poke cake frosting.
Custom colored frosting is very easy to do and it really turns an average dessert into a show stopper like my 4th of July Cupcakes.
Email questions or recipe requests to flouronmyface@gmail.com. Follow me on Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
Rainbow Poke Cake
Equipment
- 1 Purple gel food coloring optional for rainbow frosting
- 1 Blue gel food coloring optional for rainbow frosting
- 1 Orange gel food coloring optional for rainbow frosting
- 1 Yellow gel food coloring optional for rainbow frosting
- 1 Green Gel Food Coloring optional for rainbow frosting
- 1 16 inch icing bag optional for rainbow frosting
- 1 large star decorator tip optional for rainbow frosting
Ingredients
Rainbow Poke Cake Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large egg whites or 3 whole eggs
- 3 oz, box grape JELL-O
- 3 oz. box blue JELL-O
- 3 oz. box lime JELL-O
- 3 oz. box lemon JELL-O
- 3 oz. box orange JELL-O
- 3 oz. box cherry JELL-O
- 7 ½ cups water
Rainbow Frosting Ingredients
- 16 oz. Cool Whip Topping (if making a 9x13 cake use half the amount of Cool Whip and 1 tub of frosting)
- 2 tubs Vanilla Frosting (16 oz. each)
Instructions
Bake the cake
- Line the cake pan with parchment paper to prevent the JELLO from pooling on the bottom of the cake.
- Mix and bake the cake in a 9 x 13 baking pan or two 8-inch round layer cake pans following the directions on the box.
- Cool the cake to room temperature.
- Using 6 small mixing bowls pour each of the 6 boxes of JELLO powder into its own bowl.
- Boil 6 cups of water. Pour 1 cup of boiling water into each bowl of the gelatin powder. Mix each flavor of JELLO until the powder dissolves completely.
- Once dissolved pour ¼ cup of cold water into each bowl of the dissolved JELLO. Stir to combine.
Filling the Poke Cake
- Use the handle of a wooden spoon or a thin wooden skewer to poke holes all over the top of the cake. For a round layer cake poke the holes in a circular pattern on both of the layer cakes.
- Starting with the dissolved grape JELLO pour it into the center holes on each cake. Follow with the other flavors in this order-Blue, Lime, Lemon, Orange and Cherry. Leave a gap between each JELLO flavor so there are parts of uncolored cake and the JELLO flavors do not run together.
- Cover the cake pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cakes so the JELLO sets up for about 3 hours before frosting the cake.
Frosting the 9 x 13 Sheet Cake
- Once the JELLO had set up frost the cake. Coloring the frosting is optional.
- Mix 8 oz. Cool Whip with one 16. oz. tub of vanilla or cream cheese frosting.
- Spread the frosting over the top of the sheet cake. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- The cake may be frosted using the white uncolored Cool Whip frosting or you can color the frosting rainbow colors. See directions below for rainbow frosting directions.
Optional Rainbow Frosting Layer Cake
- For the 2 layer round cake: In a large mixing bowl using a wooden spoon mix 16 oz Cool Whip and 2 tubs of frosting.
- First remove a small amount of the uncolored frosting to use as the filling for the layer cake.
- Turn one of the layer cakes out onto a plate or cake stand. Be sure to remove the parchment paper from the bottom of the cake. Spread the uncolored frosting over the top of the cake for the filling.
- Carefully turn out the second layer cake, remove the parchment paper and center the top layer cake over the cake layer on the plate or cake stand.
- Divide the remaining frosting into 6 small bowls and color each portion with gel food coloring using the same colors of food dye as the JELLO. Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red.
- To achieve a swirl like rainbow pattern you will need to fill a large 16 inch icing bag fitted with a large star tip with all of the 6 colors of frosting.
- Place the star tip down into the point of the icing bag. Using a large spoon or a silicone spatula hold the icing bag on an angle so the first frosting color does not fill the entire point of the bag. Spoon the first color in. Rotate the icing bag and drop the next color in. Repeat rotating and adding the next color until all colors are in the bag. Twist the top of the bag and secure it tightly with a rubber band.
- Use a scissor to cut off the tip of the plastic icing bag.
- Squeeze the frosting out in a swirl like circular pattern on the top and sides of the layer cakes. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve so the frosting doesn't get warm and start to run.
- Makes 12 to 16 servings.
Recipe Expert Tips
- 9x13 sheet cake will only need 8 oz. Cool Whip and one 16 oz tub of vanilla or cream cheese frosting.
- 2 layer cake will use 16 oz. Cool Whip and two 16. oz tubs of frosting.
- Coloring the frosting is optional.
- The layer cakes are fragile. Use care when turning them out of the baking pans. It is best to turn out cold cakes which are more stable then room temperature cakes.
janetfaye
I love this gorgeous cake!
Arlene Mobley
Thank you Janet Faye!
Norma
My daughter wants a pineapple layered birthday cake. I want to use the pineapple jello to get the flavor BUT, I want the cake layers to have different colors - pink, orange and yellow - 3 layers, 3 different colors (the frosting will match the cake color). My question is: the pineapple jello will turn my white box cake yellow, can I add gel color into the batter and get said gel color, or will the color turn weird because of the yellow in the jello mix?
Thanks!!
Arlene Mobley
Hi Norma
The pineapple jello will be yellow and when you poke it through the pink and orange cake layers it is going to change colors. You can use gel food coloring to change the color of the white cake mix to pink, orange and yellow.
The fun thing of a Jello Poke Cake is the streaks of color from the Jello. Since you are making a three layer cake you could make the cake white, poke with the yellow jello and instead of coloring the cake mix you could color the frosting instead and make the two inside layers different colors and then frost the outside of the cake another color or even white. If you are in the US Pillsbury has some very vibrant Funfetti frosting that comes in bright pink, orange, purple, green and blue.
Lisa kirkman
Wondering if the poked cake is stable enough to level? I was planning on two layers and have learned the hard way that I must level my cake. Maybe if I do the leveling right out of the fridge?
Thanks. This is a fun cake.
-L.
Arlene Mobley
Hi Lisa
It helps if you don't spread the center frosting all the way to the edge of the cake and use a stiffer frosting. You can also level the top of the bottom layer so it is flat. Also keep the cake well chilled so the frosting doesn't get soft.
minfy
Hi...
I want to make the rainbow poke cake for my daughter's 5th grade cake auction. I see the directions for the cake. But not for the rainbow frosting.
Did you ever post the blog on how to make it that you mentioned in the comments? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks ,
Minfy
Arlene Mobley
Hi Minfy.
The directions on how I made the rainbow frosting can be found here in my $th of July Cupcakes post
Gail
I have searched this site over and over to find the exact recipe for Rainbow Poke Cake, to no avail. I searched under #Sunday Supper post, and everywhere else. Even my granddaughter (who is 6) tried a search. The other day, she and I looked for an hour on the net for the perfect birthday cake for her birthday, which is next Monday, June 17, and when she saw the pic of the Rainbow Poke Cake, she said "That's the one I want!" I want to buy the ingredients but cannot for the life of me find the recipe. Would you mind directing me to the recipe? Thanks!!
Flour On My Face
Gail
I am so sorry but the recipe or directions have not been posted. If you see the comment to Susie I explain how I made the jello poke cake. For the icing I loaded a Wilton decorator bag with a large closed star tip with colored frosting, one color at a time for each color of the rainbow.
sarah
How did you get the frosting to be swirled in all those colors?
Flour On My Face
Hi Sara
If you read through the comments you will see where I explain how I loaded a pastry bag to decorate the cake.
Jolon
I want to surprise my wife and make this cake for her for her b-day. Ambitious project for me, and to start, I have scoured the comments and cannot find where you explain how to make the rainbow frosting like that. Not off to a good start I guess. Can you point me in the right direction?
Flour On My Face
Jolon
So sorry. I just remembered that I replied privately to a few commenters. When is your wifes birthday and how much experience do you have in cake decorating?
Jolon
Her birthday is in a week. I don't have any official experience, but I have some basic frosting/decorating tools, and I try something different ever year for her birthday! Any advice on how to make the frosting look like that with all of the colors would be awesome, she will love it!
Flour On My Face
Jolon
Okay glad to here you have some basic skills. I am planning on writing a blog post with instructions on this technique.
CindyS
Hi, another person who bakes on occasion. I'm glad someone asked how you kept the colours separate because I wasn't even thinking about that. My question is: does the cake now have jello parts? My family were chocolate pudding people so I'm unfamiliar with how the jello might change the texture of the cake.
Thank you!
Cindy
Flour On My Face
Cindy
The texture of the jello is not noticeable in the cake. The cake absorbs the jello so it like biting into a piece of moist cake not a piece of jello.
CindyS
Thank you! I`m looking forward to trying this for a summer BBQ - my family will think I bought it 😉
Cindy
Jessica
That cake looks fabulous! I'd love for you to link this up to Wonderful Food Wednesday this week.. or one or two other recipes if you'd like. We're always ready to go on All She Cooks at 7pm Central on Tuesday, if you'd like to join us.
Flour On My Face
Hi Jessica
Thank you so much!If you'd like to send me a reminder when your linky goes live that would be great!
Susie
I'm not a cook, but am trying to make at least three recipes every holiday for the family get together. This is going to be a truly stupid question for all those cooks out there, although here goes. I understand how you did the strawberry cake with one color Jello, but how do you pour the various colors onto the cake and keep them separate rather the having them all mix together and comping up with one ugly color?
Flour On My Face
Hi Susie
I may have to write a tutorial with step by step pictures on this but what I did was just like the strawberry poke cake I poked holes in the cake but for the Rainbow one I poked the first round of holes for the first color jello. I poured that color, put the cake in the fridge to let the jello set up then I poked the next round and did the same thing. I did that for each of the separate colors. I used a flexible cup that I could bend into a pouring spout so I had more control over how the liquid jello poured and very carefully poured each color. It's okay if some of each color runs on the cake top you just don't want each color soaking the other sections of the cake.
Susie
This will be on my Easter dessert table. Cute cute cute. Thank you. I have never subscribed to a blog, but subscribed to yours this motning
Flour On My Face
Susie
Thank you so much. I hope you and your family enjoy this cake as much as we did!
Angie @ Big Bear's Wife
oh my gosh how pretty!
Flour On My Face
Thanks so much Angie!
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Minnie@thelady8home
Wow!! That does look fabulous!!!
Flour On My Face
Thank you Minnie!
EvonK
Wow, the color combination is so striking. Love it. =)
The suggestion on the Jello Poke cake is also great.. Thanks for sharing, will definitely try to bake it ! =)
Mom of 5
My mom makes a very similar cake every year for my dad's birthday, except we call it "pop cake". She makes the jello with pop instead of water. Our favorite is an orange flavored cake, with orange jello made with Orange Crush. She tops it with a cool whip and vanilla pudding frosting. Heaven!