This vegan and gluten-free vanilla sheet cake has a vibrant rainbow swirl frosting that makes it extra festive.  The cake is light, fluffy and perfectly sweet.  Best of all, this easy recipe contains nutritious ingredients that you can feel really good about.

Vegan Gluten-Free Vanilla Sheet Cake with Rainbow Frosting

This festive vegan and gluten-free vanilla sheet cake has a vibrant rainbow frosting that is a show stopper for kids and adults.  I used natural food coloring paired with my vegan vanilla frosting and layered it onto the cake.  Then, I simply used a chop stick (so fancy!) to create the fun design.  The rainbow frosting pairs wonderfully with the light and fluffy vanilla cake.  It is any easy dessert yet super impressive and delicious.  The cake is made with simple nutritious pantry ingredients and is refined sugar-free.

The story behind this vanilla sheet pan cake with rainbow frosting

My 7-year-old daughter, Riley, was invited to a friend’s birthday Zoom call over the weekend.  Everyone had to come prepared with a joke, art supplies for a group craft and a dessert to enjoy when the birthday girl blew out the candles.  Cute, right?  I asked Riley what kind of dessert she wanted to bake and she asked for vanilla cake with “rainbow tie-dye frosting” – right!  On it!  I searched the internet and Pinterest and couldn’t find anything.  I didn’t know quite what to do or how to make it work but we started with seven bowls and stirred the natural food coloring into each until the colors were just right.

We then “painted” on the frosting in vertical layers and swirled it horizontally with a chop stick.  Riley was absolutely thrilled with the result and said I had to add this one to the blog.  When I shared pictures of the cake on Instagram stories you all agreed.  So here it is.  While not tie-dye at all I think we can all agree it is definitely a rainbow cake – and totally kid-approved.  She was the envy of all her Zoomer friends when everyone showed off their desserts.

So, for your next virtual (or hopefully soon real life!) celebration, I hope you consider this fun, vibrant, festive rainbow cake.  The best part about this cake is you can really use this recipe to decorate it however you want.  You can do all one color or just a couple.  You can swirl, or not.  Whatever you want.  This is a super easy cake recipe (hello sheet pan cake!) and can be totally customized to your color preferences.

More Festive Dessert Recipes

More celebrations ahead? These festive dessert recipes are all vegan, refined sugar-free and gluten-free:

Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Skillet Vanilla Cake

No-Bake Birthday Cake Energy Bites

Healthy Birthday Cake Smoothie Bowl

Vegan Chocolate Sweet Potato Cupcakes

Now, Let’s Make Vegan Gluten-Free Vanilla Sheet Cake with Rainbow Frosting!

This easy vanilla sheet cake recipe will be your new go-to dessert for festive occasions.  It is naturally vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free, legume-free and refined sugar-free (without the frosting) so it works well for many types of diets.

I cannot wait for you to give this recipe a try!  Let’s get baking!

Vegan Gluten-Free Vanilla Sheet Cake with Rainbow Frosting

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2 from 1 reviews

• Author: Elaine Gordon
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 16 1x
• Diet: Vegan

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Description

This vegan and gluten-free vanilla sheet cake has a vibrant rainbow swirl frosting that makes it extra festive.  The cake is light, fluffy and perfectly sweet.  Best of all, this easy recipe contains nutritious ingredients that you can feel really good about.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 3 cups gluten-free old fashioned oats
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 cup plain, unsweetened plant-based milk (I have tested with oat and almond milk)
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup avocado oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 batches of Vegan Vanilla Frosting (divided into seven tiny bowls for separate food coloring)

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 baking pan with avocado oil or coconut oil and set aside.
2. In a high speed blender, add the oats and blend on the highest speed until a super fine oat flour forms. There should be no oat chunks remaining. Place the homemade oat flour into a mixing bowl.
3. Add baking powder and salt and stir well to combine. Add milk, maple syrup, avocado oil and vanilla and stir again until well combined.
4. Pour the cake batter into the greased baking pan and bake for 30 minutes.
5. While the cake bakes, make a double batch of the vegan vanilla frosting.  Divide the frosting evenly into seven tiny bowls and add 8-10 drops of natural food coloring to each bowl.  Stir with a spoon to distribute the color evenly.  Store the frosting bowls in the refrigerator until ready to use.
6. When the cake is finished baking allow it to fully cool before frosting it. I like to stick the entire pan in the freezer to speed up the process.  Once fully cooled, gently spread the colored frosting onto the cake in an even layer.  It is okay if the colors overlap slightly.  For this particular design, I start with red and then do orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink vertical lines.  Then I use a chopstick to make horizontal lines in the opposite direction (this makes the pattern you see in the pictures but you can swirl however you want – just don’t over-swirl or the colors will combine to create brown).  Garnish your cake with dye-free sprinkles if desired. You can also garnish the cake with crushed freeze dried raspberries.
7. Slice into 16 slices and enjoy.  Store leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator.  Allow the cake to come back to room temperature before enjoying.

• Prep Time: 15
• Cook Time: 30
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Oven Baked

Keywords: Rainbow Vanilla Cake