How To Make a Buttercream Tie Dye Cake

Hi guys! I am so excited to be sharing this groovy pastel tie-dye cake with you all! I have to admit that making a tie-dye cake solely on a buttercream cake was a little bit intimidating. Still, after reading the original fondant Tie Dye cake tutorial by Erin Gardner, it was much less intimidating! It is so easy, even for a beginner. I’ve included a supplies list, instructions, and a short video. Want more colorful cake inspiration? Check out my rainbow cake inspiration!

Tie Dye Cake Tutorial

How to make a tie dye cake from scratch

I used Chelsweet’s vanilla recipe to make a 4-inch mini cake. I separated the batter into three bowls and used one drop of neon purple, neon blue, and neon pink chefmaster gel colors into their respective batter. After stirring to incorporate the color, I dropped spoonfuls of each batter, making sure each pan has the same grams to ensure level cake layers (I used a food scale). Bake the cake layers as the recipe indicates.

Which buttercream is the best for a tie dye cake?

In my personal experience, I find American Buttercream is the best for this type of painting due to its crusting properties. However, I don’t believe it will work as well on Swiss or Italian Meringue due to their butter base. Any standard American Buttercream recipe will work for this cake.

Supplies Needed To Create A Tie Dye Cake

Kitchen Aid mixer or hand mixer
Cake Pans
Food Scale
Cake Turntable Stand
Offset spatula
Piping bags
Food safe brushes
Gel Colors
Paper Towel
1M piping tip
Sprinkles (Use my Fancy Sprinkles discount code CAKEINSPO15 for a 15% off your order!)

Instructions on How to Make A Tie Dye Cake

Create batter as the recipe calls for.
Seperate the batter in three bowls.
Drop one gel color in each bowl (I used neon blue, neon purple, and neon pink).
Mix the batter.
Flour and grease the cake pans.
Put the cake pan on the food scale to ensure even amount of grams. It is approximately 150-200grams in each cake pan for a 4 inch cake recipe.
Drop spoonfuls of the each color in each pan.
Bake as directed.
Make American Buttercream.
Fill and Crumb coat as needed.
Apply the final coat.
Put it in the fridge until it is firm to the touch (Approximately 30 minutes to a hour)
Dilute one drop of each gel color with very little of water or vodka.
Start painting in loops (video below).
Press the brush as much as possible. You dont want too much gel colors on the brush or it’ll run down the cake.
Continue until you are happy with the look.
Take a paper towel and gently press on the cake to soak up the gel color.
Decorate the cake as desired.
Enjoy!

Let me know what you think of this tie-dye cake. Please drop a comment below or tag me on @findyourcakeinspiration if you create your unique buttercream tie-dye cake. I’d love to see your creations!